{"id":465,"date":"2017-05-26T09:10:11","date_gmt":"2017-05-26T13:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/?p=465"},"modified":"2021-04-19T16:01:05","modified_gmt":"2021-04-19T20:01:05","slug":"new-congressman-apologizes-for-assault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/2017\/05\/new-congressman-apologizes-for-assault\/","title":{"rendered":"New Congressman Apologizes for Assault"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greg Gianforte won a special election yesterday for Congressman from Montana. His acceptance speech last night included an apology<\/a> for assaulting a reporter the day before. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you make a mistake, you have to own up to it. That\u2019s the Montana way. Last night, I made a mistake and I took an action that I can\u2019t take back, and I\u2019m not proud of what happened. I should not have responded in the way that I did, and for that I am sorry. I should not have treated that reporter that way, and for that I am sorry, Mr. Ben Jacobs. That\u2019s not the person I am, and that\u2019s not the way I\u2019ll lead this state. Rest assured, our work is just beginning, but it does begin with me taking responsibility for my own actions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Jacobs allegedly questioned Gianforte Wednesday about his position on health care, and Gianforte responded angrily; the two got into a scuffle, during which Jacobs\u2019 glasses were broken. The Gallatin County sheriff issued a warrant to Gianforte on a charge of misdemeanor assault, for which he\u2019ll answer next week. Gianforte\u2019s campaign office originally blamed Jacobs for the incident, but last night, Gianforte took responsibility. Both House Speaker Paul Ryan and Reporter Ben Jacobs had said publicly that an apology would be appropriate. <\/span><\/p>\n

The apology itself is not bad. He calls it a \u201cmistake\u201d and says he\u2019s \u201cnot proud\u201d of it. He says he\u2019s sorry, and names the reporter he harmed. He sounds contrite. He doesn\u2019t specify exactly what his mistake was but, with criminal charges pending, perhaps he was advised by counsel not to admit guilt. A good apology offers plans for avoiding similar offenses in the future, and this one has none of that. (His \u201crest assured\u201d offers no assurance for rest.)<\/span><\/p>\n

What undermines this apology is the timing. He waited until after he\u2019d won the election. Would he have apologized had he lost? We would have admired him more had he apologized immediately, willing to accept the consequence of losing the election. But it takes courage to apologize publicly, perhaps even moreso in the midst of an otherwise happy event. He will not regret it. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Greg Gianforte won a special election yesterday for Congressman from Montana. His acceptance speech last night included an apology for assaulting a reporter the day before. \u201cWhen you make a mistake, you have to own up to it. That\u2019s the Montana way. Last night, I made a mistake and I took an action that I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apologies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":466,"href":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465\/revisions\/466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}