House Speaker Paul Ryan addressed the press this morning, speaking about the Congressional Budget Office’s recent report that 14 million more people will lose the healthcare they currently have under the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”), and 23 million more by 2026 if the current House GOP bill ends up becoming law.
But the first question Ryan took after finishing his statement was regarding last night’s incident between Montana GOP congressional candidate Greg Gianforte and The Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs, where the candidate body slammed the reporter and started throwing punches at him after he asked a question the candidate apparently didn’t like.
“Given what happened last night, should Greg Gianforte withdraw from the Montana House race?” a reporter asked.
Ryan’s response:
“Well, first, let me just say, physical altercations are — there’s never a call for physical altercations. There’s no time where a physical altercation should occur with the press or between human beings. It’s wrong, and it should not have happened. Should the gentleman apologize? Yeah, he should apologize. I know he has his own version, and I’m sure he’s going to have more to say, but there’s no call for this, no matter what, under any circumstance. The people of the state of Montana are going to decide today who they will send to congress.”
The reporter followed up by asking Ryan if he will take any action if Gianforte wins today’s special election. Speaker Ryan hinted that he would not.
“If he wins, he has been chosen by the people of Montana as to who their congressman is going to be. I’m going to let the people of Montana decide who they want as their representative. That’s not our choice, it’s the people of Montana who choose that.”