ICYMI: Greg Gianforte Goes Full MarcoBot
Violent Criminal Repeats Answer Nine Times in Response to Question About Falsely Blaming Reporter for Assault
WASHINGTON – The Associated Press published an interview today with admitted violent criminal and Congressman-elect Greg Gianforte. When asked about the statement Gianforte’s campaign released the night before the election casting blame on the assaulted reporter, the following unhinged exchange took place:
AP: Your campaign released a statement later that cast Ben Jacobs as the aggressor… I’m wondering where that came from. Was that something that you asked to be written?
Greg Gianforte: The statement I made, the apology I made to Ben Jacobs, I’ve taken full responsibility for my actions. I apologized, he accepted my apology, we need to move on.
AP: But the one thing about the accountability is that the initial statement that was made and the question for us is that is the official communication coming from your campaign. How that came to be and why isn’t that something you’re addressing.
Greg Gianforte: Well I have addressed the issue. I issued an apology to Ben Jacobs, I’ve done it on Election Night, I did it again, personally, one on one, and also through the letter. I think I’ve been very clear. I’ve taken full responsibility. I’m not proud of what happened that evening but I’ve accepted full responsibility. But I think Ben and I and the people of Montana want us to move on.
AP: But this is an official communication coming from your campaign, that essentially amounted to a false statement that cast Ben Jacobs as the aggressor. That completely contradicted the events that actually occurred, as witnesses recounted in your statement in your apology. Just trying to get a grasp of that, it comes into question how again the public and voters can trust the communications that come from your office, I think that’s the larger issue. Was there an attempt to obfuscate, an attempt to cover up what happened before it was known that there was audio of this.
Greg Gianforte: I think it’s completely reasonable to expect any public servant to take full responsibility for their actions, and I’ve done that.
AP: Did you sign off, or did you read your statement before it was released?
Greg Gianforte: I wrote the apology letter, I signed it, and I apologized personally to Ben Jacobs.
AP: But did you review the initial campaign statement that was released that night?
Greg Gianforte: Um, I wrote the apology letter, I signed it, and I delivered it to Ben Jacobs.
AP: Do you have any plans to retract or directly address that initial campaign statement
Greg Gianforte: I think the important thing is that I take responsibility for my actions, which I have done. I’ve apologized to Ben Jacobs, and we need to move forward.
Greg Gianforte goes full Marcobot and repeats himself nine times, leading the reporter to publish the audio of the exchange online.
“Let’s dispel with this notion once and for all that Greg Gianforte doesn’t know what he’s doing. He knows exactly what he’s doing – purposefully misleading the people of Montana,” said Drew Godinich, DCCC spokesperson. “All the spin doctor-approved lines in the world won’t change the fact that Greg Gianforte has refused to take responsibility for his actions and the actions of his campaign. He doesn’t deserve to represent the people of Montana in Washington, and should decline to take the oath of office.”
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