“Do you know how many times I’ve wanted to body-slam a reporter?” more than one House member asked Thursday as they reacted to the news that Montana House candidate Greg Gianforte had allegedly done just that to The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs.
It was impossible to avoid the references — as lawmakers buzzed about their would-be colleague’s reported attack on a reporter. Responses invariably started with a laugh, at the absurdity of a politician actually attacking a reporter, followed by clearly serious caveats that they would never body-slam anyone.
“I don’t think there’s any ever excuse to throw down a reporter … as much as we’ve all thought about it,” said Sen. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, to laughs from assembled reporters Thursday.
Gianforte was charged with misdemeanor assault Wednesday night. In a statement, his campaign blamed the altercation on Jacobs’ “aggressive behavior.”
Reactions around the House of Representatives ranged from cautious among Republicans — House Speaker Paul Ryan called Gianforte’s alleged assault against Jacobs a “mistake” and called on him to apologize — to almost giddy among Democrats, who thought the incident could push the Montana special election in their favor.
Rep. Markwayne Mullin, a Republican from Oklahoma and former mixed martial arts fighter, said that most people probably have the wrong image of a body-slam — associating it more with a WWE move where someone is dramatically picked up in the air and tossed down, as opposed to a more typical takedown used in real wrestling.
“You know, the body-slam — being picked up in the air and thrown to the ground — it’s all in someone’s interpretation of what someone thinks a body-slam really is,” Mullin said.
Whatever Gianforte’s technique Wednesday, Mullin said it was clearly wrong for him to attack Jacobs.
“It doesn’t make any difference whether it’s a body-slam or not. The fact is it should never happen. I don’t care how upset you get. I know if you get mad, and in a world with all the competitors I’ve been around in my life, either from fighting or wrestling or other sports, you have to learn to breathe.”
By Thursday morning staff, reporters and politicians were openly joking about the incident in the halls of the Capitol. One staffer dryly noted President Donald Trump already beat Gianforte to the punch, a decade ago, when he clothes-lined Vince McMahon and, later, shaved his head in a WWE match.
Meanwhile, in private conversations, Republican lawmakers gamed out what impact Gianforte’s dramatic shove would have up and down the ticket.
One lawmaker said there was relief that a large number of Montanans had voted before the body-slam Wednesday night, but concern that other Republicans in tough races could bear the brunt of Gianforte’s outburst.
A different Republican looked for the silver lining, saying that if Gianforte lost, Republicans could point to his rambunctiousness as the cause and veer attention away from Trump’s performance.