fbpx

An Opportunity to Prove Gianforte Wrong

Greg Gianforte never answered the question

By Ty Wycoff

In the swirling echoes bouncing off chamber walls, in the clamor of what was right and what was wrong, and in the wind tunnels of apologies and moralizing, both sides of the political landscape missed something: Greg Gianforte never answered the question.

Gianforte initially escaped answering the question in early May 2017. When asked for his thoughts on the U.S. House’s then-passed health bill, he refused to comment because he did not know how it would affect Montanans. On the same day, however, Gianforte told out-of-state donors that he was actually “thankful” for the bill – the bill that sought to drop over a thousand Montanan veterans from Medicaid coverage.

The day before the special election, we found out how the health bill would affect Montanans. Given the data he was initially looking for, Greg was asked his opinion once more. Instead of expressing his views he erupted in violence, assaulted a reporter, and again, avoided giving an answer. Gianforte then allowed the chaos surrounding the assault to take the spotlight, never addressing what he thought of the bill that would have cut 70,000 Montanans from health care until after he won the seat. Additionally, he let his spokesperson, Shane Scanlon, now the communications director for Matt Rosendale, lie to us about the attack.

Violence is unacceptable; we all know this. In blocking our access to know his view on our health care before we cast our votes, however, Greg Gianforte presented a doctrine far more disturbing: that violence is effective.

In November, we have the opportunity to prove him wrong.

Vote.

Ty Wycoff
Kalispell