Special: Montana Republican wins special election despite assault charge and Hillary Clinton addresses alma mater

ROBERT COSTA: Hello. I’m Robert Costa. And this is Washington Week Extra, where we pick up online where we left off on the broadcast.

This week, a special election for an open congressional seat in Montana made headlines when the Republican candidate body-slammed a reporter. Billionaire businessman Greg Gianforte was charged with assault for attacking a Guardian reporter, Ben Jacobs, who asked him about the GOP’s health care bill on the eve of the election. Gianforte, who has never held public office, won the seat, and in his acceptance speech he offered an apology.

REPRESENTATIVE-ELECT GREG GIANFORTE (R-MT): (From video.) Last night I made a mistake, and I took an action that I can’t take back, and I’m not proud of what happened. I should not have responded in the way that I did, and for that I’m sorry.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: (From video.) And you’re forgiven. (Cheers, applause.)

REP.-ELECT GIANFORTE: (From video.) I should not have treated that reporter that way. And for that I’m sorry, Mr. Ben Jacobs.

MR. COSTA: The Republican response to the incident was telling. Peter, this is a Republican Party that’s dealing with questions of character and conduct, not always about ideology.

PETER BAKER: Well, that’s true. And look, you know, this is one congressman in one state in one incident. You don’t want to draw too much into it. But that hasn’t stopped everybody from commenting on it, in part because we had a tape – an audio tape that Ben Jacobs, the reporter, had, and it was so clearly from that tape that, you know, there was a hostile incident that went out of control, and that the version first put out by the congressman – now-congressman’s staff did not comport with that tape. You know, there’s a hostility right now toward the media, and it’s something that we’re seeing in lots of different ways. It’s exhibited on social media. It’s exhibited through some of our president’s speeches, in the rallies that he has. And that’s troubling if you want to get past – you know, there’s always going to be some tension between a reporter and politicians of both parties, any party, but you know, when it escalates to violence that’s just taking it, obviously, to a different level and one that’s worrisome.

MR. COSTA: Erica, Republicans, in spite of all these things that happened on the eve of the election, they still won the seat.

ERICA WERNER: That’s right. And, in fact, it’s difficult, probably impossible to know what role – how the altercation, the assault charges impacted the final result, however – which ended up with a six-point victory for Gianforte. That was a larger victory than internal campaign tracking polls had been showing heading into Election Day. It was more like a two-point race, from what I had heard. And about 70 percent of voters had already voted prior to Election Day, so about 30 percent cast same-day ballots. Republicans had been expecting to get a boost, a cushion from same-day voting; they appear to have gotten a bigger one than they expected. Is that somehow a reaction to what occurred, which would suggest the public rallying behind Gianforte as opposed to condemning him? You can’t say that conclusively, but he’s now going to be a member of Congress and there’s no rule that prevents him from being seated in the House even if he is convicted.

MR. COSTA: Vivian, the president talked about the race while he was overseas. He said it was a great win to reporters, made sure to talk about it. What do you make of how the president has had an influencing effect, a real almost shadow over the way some of the Republican candidates across the country are acting?

VIVIAN SALAMA: I don’t know if he’s influencing the way they’re acting per se, but it’s apparent that he wasn’t going to condemn his actions, and that’s something we didn’t hear today. He said there was a great win in Montana, but he did not speak out against the actual action. And that is again, like Peter was saying, is it goes back to the days of the campaign where, you know, he almost endorsed and advocated for not violence against journalists, but just sort of skepticism against journalists. And that has gone very much deep into his presidency. It is part of this administration, the way that they behave with journalists. Just a week or two ago at the Coast Guard graduation, where we were celebrating the graduation of these new cadets, and he made sure to mention that the media treats him unfairly. This is something that is still very much on his mind, especially with the Russia probe against him, and I think that that is starting to trickle into sort of the way the party is operating because they feel that, you know, the skepticism against the president is skepticism against the party and is pushback against the party. And usually the media is seen as liberal anyway, and so that is already – there’s been that sort of tension between the media and the Republican Party to begin with, but we’ve seen it grow, definitely, since this administration took office.

MR. COSTA: When you look at the special elections in Kansas, Montana, the upcoming one in Georgia, we see Democrats doing better in some respects, but they’re not winning, Peter.

MR. BAKER: Right, exactly. And so they’re trying to fundraise off that. They’re trying to establish some sort of sense of momentum. They’re trying to say, look, the resistance is taking hold. But if they don’t actually get any wins, it’s hard to sort of keep that sense of excitement alive, and I think that they don’t have an obvious win coming up anyplace soon. Look to Virginia, though, this fall. That’s not a special election; that’s a regular governor’s election. That’s going to be fascinating. We have primaries coming up soon on both the Republican and Democratic side. Who wins those primaries will tell us a lot about where the parties are going, and the fall campaign may tell us at least a little bit about where the public is going.

MR. COSTA: There’s also a gubernatorial election in New Jersey.

Turning to another topic, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. She returned to her alma mater, Wellesley College, to address the graduating class on Friday, and used the opportunity to talk about the current president without using his name.

FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON: (From video.) Some are even denying things we see with our own eyes, like the size of crowds. (Laughter.) And then defending themselves by talking about, quote/unquote, “alternative facts.” (Laughter.)

But this is serious business. Look at the budget that was just proposed in Washington. It is an attack of unimaginable cruelty on the most vulnerable among us. It is shrouded in a trillion-dollar mathematical lie. Let’s call it what it is: It’s a con. They don’t even try to hide it.

MR. COSTA: It was also a hopeful speech that urged people to become politically active. Erica, is that what’s on her mind, to get people back into the political process?

MS. WERNER: Well, she clearly has an audience and a voice, and she seems pretty unfettered, willing to use her audience and use her voice to take shots and to try to get people engaged. How effective that is I’m not sure, but you know, the things that she’s saying about Trump are what you hear from Democrats on the Hill and on the campaign trail. It’s a message that they are frustrated that they can’t get out more widely. She becomes someone who is kind of a tool for them in some respects, who still has a large platform and people who hear what she – want to hear what she has to say.

MR. BAKER: The Democrats have no leader. I mean, that’s the thing. That’s why people are waiting to hear what she has to say, because nobody of her stature exists right now and they don’t have obvious people coming into the next election cycle. But for her, it’s a two-edged sword here. It’s a real danger for a losing candidate to come out and look bitter, to look like you’re relitigating last year’s campaign. And she has verged on that line, or maybe even crossed over it, on a couple of occasions so far, and that may or may not be good for her own personal, you know, reputation, you know, politically. But she is trying to galvanize the next generation, and in the absence of any actual leaders she’s the one person people –

MR. COSTA: I didn’t hear any – I didn’t hear someone in that speech who was retired from politics. Is there any chance she comes back in 2020?

MR. BAKER: (Laughs.) I don’t see it. But, you know, stranger things have happened, obviously. I think her time has come and gone. She had two chances at it, and you don’t usually get three. But, you know, until somebody else emerges, until the next generation of Democrats kind of take the stage, people are going to be looking to her, and she’s going to – she’s going to speak out. She made a Nixon and Watergate comparison today, and she’s not going to go hang out in the woods full-time.

MS. WERNER: Few if any Democrats, I think, would like to see her run for president again.

MR. BAKER: No, that’s right. No. Been there, done that.

MS. SALAMA: But remember, I mean, while they regroup before 2018 midterms and 2020, she won the popular vote, and so there is this responsibility that she could shoulder instead of going out into the sunset and, you know, kind of calling it a day.

MS. WERNER: Or the woods, right. (Laughs.)

MS. SALAMA: Or into the woods, for that matter. That she could really be a voice for the party until they figure out sort of the next generation of leaders and where the party goes from there. And I think a lot of people really feel empowered and they feel good about seeing her out there. It’s like someone who doesn’t give up, and it gives hope to a lot of people, and possibly a lot of women too. And so I think that that’s a positive message.

MR. COSTA: That’s it for this edition of the Washington Week Extra. While you’re online, take the Washington Week-ly News Quiz. It’s fun and educational.

I’m Robert Costa. See you next time.