Gianforte Wins Montana Election Despite 'Bodyslamming' Incident

In the video above, Republican Sen. Ben Sasse responds to reports that candidate Greg Gianforte had attacked a reporter.

On the eve of the special election for Montana's sole Congressional seat, Republican candidate Greg Gianforte was charged with misdemeanor assault, but he still won the election Thursday.

Gianforte was cited with grabbing a reporter by the throat and throwing him to the ground. The reporter, Ben Jacobs of The Guardian, was asking Gianforte for his reaction to the CBO score of the House health care bill.

The Guardian captured part of the incident on audio.

"I'm sick and tired of you guys," Gianforte said. "The last guy who came here did the same thing. Get the h*** out of here. Get the h*** out of here. The last guy did the same thing. Are you with The Guardian?"

"Yes! You just broke my glasses," Jacobs replied.

"The last guy did the same ---- thing," Gianforte said.

"You just body slammed me and broke my glasses," Jacobs said.

A Fox News crew also witnessed the alleged attack on Jacobs.

The Montana congressional candidate, had been favored to win before the incident and was not seen or heard from Thursday as voters went to the polls.

In Washington, Republican lawmakers had been quick to condemn the violence and call for an apology from Gianforte.

"We obviously need to condemn any and all violence against reporters and violence in the public square," Senator Ben Sasse, R-NE, told CBN News.

When asked what he thinks the appropriate response is to constituents or reporters in confrontational situations, Sasse responded, "We should start by affirming the glories of the First Amendment, what a gift we've been given that we can freely assemble, we can freely worship, we can freely speak our mind, and I've definitely had people at town halls that are angry with me, disruptive or giving me the finger and the first thing to say because one of my main jobs is to teach American civics, one of the first things to say is that we affirm the First Amendment."

"It's better to actually dialogue with someone and debate with them than just scream at them," continued Sasse. "But no matter what happens in those situations, we should affirm how glorious it is that we have and want a public square free from violence so we need to condemn all attacks against a reporter in any situation like that."

House Speaker Paul Ryan is calling for Gianforte to apologize, saying "that's wrong and should not happen."

Gianforte was running against Democrat Rob Quist to replace Ryan Zinke, who vacated the seat to become the Secretary of the Interior.