islander wrote:
Article I, Section 5: "Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each shall constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner, and under such penalties as each House may provide."

Subsequently limited by Supreme court decisions to refusing to seat an elected representative only if s/he doesn't meet the legal qualifications for office. So no, Gianforte has been charged with misdemeanor assault and won't have a hearing until after the election, but even if convicted that wouldn't disqualify him from office.

He still has supporters, but a friend of mine who was working on his campaign first shared then deleted a Facebook post promoting his version (the mean old reporter was in my face). She has since gone very quiet. I haven't heard much from those still in his camp and what I have heard has been lukewarm let's-not-rush-to-judgement stuff.

It's not playing well. A Fox TV crew witnessed the whole thing and their account squares with the Guardian reporter's. The online chatter has gone almost entirely against him. The three major newspapers that had endorsed him have all withdrawn their endorsements.

It may not cost him the election, but it will hurt his legitimacy if he wins.

And he's not a monster. My youngest went to school with his kids, they're decent people and he has accomplished great things in the area. I don't know him personally but I know a lot of people who do and I have never heard anyone here say he had a temper like this. Maybe the stress of two political campaigns in a row (he just ran for governor and lost to the incumbent) got to him. Since nobody running has any political experience to talk up it has almost entirely been negative; petty stuff but ugly for our politics. Maybe he just snapped. But if he loses this race he's done. I can't see him bouncing back from this, might be tough to run again even if he wins.

I sense they're starting to separate from him. I only hope they are willing to buddy up to the US once he's out. I think that might be the case. Folks seem to know it's him that's the issue.

And his series of photos with the Pope, and Melania, and the Japan PM, and the German Chancellor... he's not doing the country proud by any means.

Trump, Macron engage in a little handshake diplomacy

Each man gripped each other's right hand so firmly that their knuckles turned white and their jaws seemed to clench.

Images from the photo session at the U.S. ambassador's residence in Brussels showed Trump finally giving up, his fingers loosened while Macron is still holding on tightly.

 

 islander wrote: 
There's always the potential of recall in Montana. Note the uncertainty regarding how federal courts would view an attempt to recall a US congressional candidate, though.

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
What are the criteria for impeachment? Assault is a fairly serious crime in most places (maybe not so much in Montana if it's against a 'liberal media reporter'). 

 Red_Dragon wrote: 
NO NO NO. You can't be selective on ideas when the outcome goes weird. It's always good to have more people have access to vote in a more convenient manner. Even if this guy gets in, it is not an indictment of letting more people have time to contemplate, study and vote their conscience at their leisure.

 Red_Dragon wrote: 
lock him up
lock him up
lock him up 

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
Seems like early balloting might not be the best of ideas...

 Proclivities wrote: 
Yeah, something like 2/3 of ballots were mailed in already, and Montana doesn't have a do-over rule for situations like this.

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
Wasn't there a lot of early voting (which Republicans usually dislike) in that race?  The winning votes for that pinhead may already have been cast.

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
...and after assaulting a reporter, he should probably just resign from the campaign.

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
Thanks for the backgrounder! The bodyslamming is playing big here in the East: the New York Times treated it as Breaking News. Montana apparently is big Trump country although it doesn't like the AHCA. Gianforte hasn't exactly been coherent on health care reform: he doesn't like the AHCA but was secretly recorded saying he likes the process of the repeal and replace of Obamacare. 

Would Montanans be OK with the bodyslamming, given that the state is rural and conservative? I know that Gianforte's spokesman is trying to claim that the reporter was liberal, aggressive and obnoxious. 

Apparently Montana was one of the richest states in the union around 1900 but by 2000 it was one of the poorest. I believe Jared Diamond's book "Collapse" talks about this in its preface. 

 FourFortyEight wrote: 

Yeah, that look wasn't an accident. I think Ivanka and Melania are desperately wishing that the Pope could whisk them away from Trumpland. 

Oh Donnie, you truly are the Ugliest American. 



https://www.vox.com/world/2017/5/24/15684774/donald-trump-pope-meeting-vatican-photo


It almost looks like a farce: Trump cheerily oblivious, Pope Francis looking for all the world like he’d rather be literally anywhere else but in that room with that man, and Melania and Ivanka standing stiff and oddly morose, as if they’re part of a historical reenactment of a Victorian-era funeral.
...

Trump and Pope Francis have made no effort to hide their shared enmity over the past few years. During the presidential campaign, the Pope — who is revered for his deep humility and sincere affinity for the poor and downtrodden — was cutting about Trump’s plan to build a border wall with Mexico. “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not the gospel,” Francis said in February 2016.

Trump fired back via Facebook:

If and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS’s ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the Pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been President because this would not have happened. ISIS would have been eradicated unlike what is happening now with our all talk, no action politicians.

Just to get you up to speed on Hinterland politics: Montana's US Rep Ryan Zinke left that job to join Donald Trump's cabinet as Secretary of the Interior. The election to replace him is tomorrow, and it was featured on NPR again this morning, as Greg Gianforte and Rob Quist run for the open seat. Gianforte is a software billionaire who's friends with a Senator from Montana who is apparently encouraging him to run for office (lost the race for Governor in November). He was supportive of Trump and just this morning NPR played audio of him speaking some boilerplate about Make America Great Again. Quist is a well-known musician who's been broke more often than not, ran on a lark and was trailing by 20 points this week. Quist might have just been handed the seat as Gianforte just grabbed a reporter by the neck, threw him down and punched him... :popcorn:

 R_P wrote: 
Wow. What a dystopian reaction. Trump is pretty much the antichrist as far as I'm concerned after seeing that look.

not that he wasn't before.

 Steely_D wrote:

 kcar wrote:
 
Crazy Russians. They should just have created some stealth-NGOs or, like everybody else who tries to influence U.S. policy, paid lobbyi$t$...

 Top Russian Officials Discussed How to Influence Trump Aides Last Summer

WASHINGTON — American spies collected information last summer revealing that senior Russian intelligence and political officials were discussing how to exert influence over Donald J. Trump through his advisers, according to three current and former American officials familiar with the intelligence.

The conversations focused on Paul Manafort, the Trump campaign chairman at the time, and Michael T. Flynn, a retired general who was advising Mr. Trump, the officials said. Both men had indirect ties to Russian officials, who appeared confident that each could be used to help shape Mr. Trump’s opinions on Russia.

...

 Red_Dragon wrote: 
And as long as he is bumbling around and you have people in power fawning over him or trying to curry favor with him, that's 2 years to store up ammo against those people.
 

Speaking of which, I just heard Gianforte on NPR doing just that. He'll win tomorrow, but him saying Oct. 2016 Trumpian talking points should make him easy to beat in a real election.

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
Agreed.

I also agree concerning impeachment verses leaving the moron in place. Pence and Ryan are seasoned politicians who know how to use the system to implement their horror show of an agenda. Donnie is a wrench in the works.

 Red_Dragon wrote: 
Yes. If they smell victory, they won't bother trying to improve the structure of the party, or do any of the many things they should to re-create the party to serve the 21st century America.