To the extent that Gov. Greg Gianforte is known to a national audience, it’s because of an incident from May 2017. The Montana Republican physically assaulted a journalist who asked a question about health care policy, throwing the reporter to the ground and breaking his glasses.
As longtime readers may recall, Gianforte and his team lied to the public about the unprovoked violence, and we later learned that the Montanan lied to the police, too.
Gianforte nevertheless won his election, and after the votes were counted, he pleaded guilty to assault. The Republican was sentenced to, among other things, anger management classes.
Five years later, the governor may soon be remembered for a very different kind of story. The Washington Post reported yesterday:
Montana National Guard soldiers are deployed around the Yellowstone region, where they say they have rescued dozens of people from this week’s severe floods and ushered travelers along ravaged roads. The FEMA administrator is now in the state, surveying the destruction. Montana Red Cross officials are operating evacuation centers across the area. But one key figure is not on the ground at this historic disaster: Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte (R).
A couple of days ago, as conditions in Montana worsened, the state formally requested federal disaster relief, which the White House was quick to approve. What stood out, however, was the fact that the request was signed by Lt. Gov. Kristen Juras, “on behalf of” Gianforte.
It was at that point that many Montanans started to realize that in the midst of a brutal disaster, they had no idea where their governor was.
The NBC affiliate in Helena reported that Gianforte was out of the country, but it was something of a mystery when he left, where he was, and when he’d return. It didn’t help matters that the Republican’s office seemed reluctant to shed light on the governor’s whereabouts, saying that Gianforte “left on a personal trip late last week,” but adding no details.
The same local outlet reported late yesterday that the governor was apparently on a Tuscan vacation in Italy.
When Republican Sen. Ted Cruz thought it’d be a good idea to head to Cancun last year after his constituents lost power during a winter storm, it didn’t take long for the Texan to realize he’d made a terrible mistake. The GOP senator hurried home and acknowledged his error, though Cruz faced calls for his resignation anyway. Perhaps Montana’s governor wasn’t paying close enough attention to the controversy. NBC News reported that Gianforte was expected to make it back to his home state by last night, though it’s not yet clear if that happened. Either way, the political fallout is likely to linger. “In a moment of unprecedented disaster and economic uncertainty, Gianforte purposefully kept Montanans in the dark about where he was, and who was actually in charge,” Sheila Hogan, executive director of the Montana Democratic Party, said in a statement.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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