Montana Republican Official Who ‘Would’ve Shot’ Jewish Reporter Resigns

Image by Twitter

By Nathan Guttman October 26, 2017

A Montana Republican officials has resigned after she said she “would’ve have shot” a reporter who asked pointed questions of Rep. Greg Gianforte last spring.

Karen Marshall, who serves as vice president of programs for Gallatin County Republican Women, said on a radio show that if Ben Jacobs would have approached her, “I would have shot him.”

Marshall argued that Jacobs, a reporter for the Guardian, “came on private property, came into a private building, and went into a very private room” and that his questions presented to Gianforte were “a setup. A complete setup. He just pushed a little too hard.”

In fact, Jacobs approached the lawmaker in a room set up for a TV interview.

On Monday, the Gallatin County Republican Women announced that Karen Marshall resigned from the organization’s board.

Gianforte, a Montana congressman, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault and donated $50,000 to the Committee to Protect Journalists, but the case, apparently, is not over.

Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

A message from our Publisher & CEO 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.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

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