- Thursday's nationally-watched election for Montana's sole congressional seat got a last-minute twist when the Republican candidate, Greg Gianforte, was charged with misdemeanour assault for grabbing a reporter by the neck and throwing him to the ground. Audio of the alteracation reveals Jacobs asking a question about health care and the recently released Congressional Budget Office score, which Gianforte refuses to answer, saying, "Speak with Shane, please," likely a reference to his spokesperson, Shane Scanlon. Democrats have accused Gianforte of being dishonest about how he really feels about the AHCA after The New York Times revealed that on a fundraising call, Gianforte said that "the votes in the House are going to determine whether we get tax reform done, sounds like we just passed a health care thing, which I'm thankful for, sounds like we're starting to repeal and replace." Gianforte yells, "The last guy who came here did the same thing," and a shaken-sounded Jacobs tells the candidate he just body-slammed him. Ben Jacobs, a political reporter for the Guardian, said he had been asking Gianforte about the Republican healthcare plan when the candidate "body slammed" him and began shouting, "Get the hell out of here." Voters are deciding in the special election whether Republican Greg Gianforte or Democrat Rob Quist will fill the U.S. House seat left vacant when Ryan Zinke resigned to join President Donald Trump's Cabinet as secretary of the Interior Department. Meanwhile, Gianforte won the county on election night in his race for governor, but only by roughly a point, a sign he was struggling to make up the margins he needed to beat incumbent Democrat Steve Bullock. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said in a statement following the incident that Gianforte should "immediately withdraw his candidacy after his alleged violent assault of an innocent journalist." A statement from National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Steve Stivers, who oversees the House GOP's campaign arm, didn't go as far as Ryan. It's unfortunate that this aggressive behavior from a liberal journalist created this scene at our campaign volunteer BBQ," the campaign spokesman said in a released statement. The Gianforte campaign released this statement on the incident:

"Tonight, as Greg (Gianforte) was giving a separate interview in a private office, The Guardian's Ben Jacobs entered the office without permission, aggressively shoved a recorder in Greg's face, and began asking badgering questions," Scanlon said in a statement. Gianforte asked Jacobs to lower a phone that was being used as an audio recorder, then tried to grab it, the campaign said in a statement. "

The tape backs up that account, but Gianforte's campaign claimed it was Jacobs who was the aggressor, pushing a tape recorder in Gianforte's face and then "grabbed Greg's wrist, and spun away from Greg, pushing them both to the ground."
Voters in Montana pick between Republican Greg Gianforte and Democrat Rob Quist in the special congressional election to replace Ryan Zinke, who is now President Trump's Secretary of the Interior.