Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Congressman Stalls On Sit-Down With Reporter He Body-Slammed

Ben Jacobs has still not gotten his on-the-record interview with Greg Gianforte, despite a promise from the Montana congressman to meet with the Guardian reporter after having body-slammed him in the run-up to a May special election.

“So far, the Congressman has yet to commit to this interview,” the Guardian said in a Wednesday statement. “However, in light of his promise to sit down for an interview with Ben… we fully expect the Congressman to be a man of his word.”

Gianforte was charged with assault, and was sentenced to community service and anger management classes. Gianforte wrote an apology letter, pledged to the Committee to Protect Journalists and said he would meet with Jacobs in exchange for Jacobs not taking civil action against him.

But the on-the-record meeting has still not occurred so far, despite the congressman’s office saying they’re working on arranging a meeting.

Jacobs was attacked by Gianforte after he asked the then-congressional hopeful about his stance on Medicaid. Captured on audio recording, the incident caused a national drama – though Gianforte still managed to win the congressional seat in the deeply red state.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.