Ben Jacobs

Ben Jacobs reporter for The Guardian. Jacobs became the story when he was assaulted by Trump-backed republican congressional candidate for Montana’s house seat, Greg Gianforte. When Jacobs asked him about the CBO score given to Donald Trump’s health care plan which would kick 23 million people off of their health insurance Gianforte grabbed him by the neck and threw him to the ground according to witnesses at the scene. In an audio recording of the assault Giamforte can be heard saying to Jacobs, “I’m sick and tired of you guys! The last guy that came in here, you did the same thing! Get the hell out of here!” Jacobs reported the assault to authorities however Gianforte wasn't arrested at the scene. As it turns out the Gallatin County Sheriff, Brian Gootkin who was overseeing the assault is a supporter of Gianforte’s who gave $250 to his campaign. It was only later that Gianforte was finally charged with misdemeanor assault.

Gianforte  released a statement accusing Jacobs of assault and called him a “liberal journalist.” The narrative on the right is that it shouldn’t be illegal or wrong to assault a person if they are liberal. Tonight Gianforte won the election despite the assault charge. In normal times breaking the law would be disqualifying for any political candidate. But in the Trump-era America’s standards have sunk so low that this type of behavior has not only become normalized, it’s celebrated on the right.