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

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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 guttman@forward.com 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.

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