Reporter: Only true thing in Gianforte’s assault statement is my name and employer

The reporter who says Montana GOP House candidate Greg Gianforte assaulted him Wednesday night is pushing back on Gianforte’s account of the altercation, saying he never touched the candidate.

“The only thing in Gianforte’s statement that is factually correct is my name and my place of employment,” Ben Jacobs said Thursday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Montana law enforcement officials charged Gianforte with misdemeanor assault after the incident with Jacobs.

{mosads}Gianforte allegedly slammed Jacobs to the floor at the candidate’s campaign headquarters in Bozeman as The Guardian reporter posed questions about the Republicans’ ObamaCare repeal plan.

Gianforte’s office offered a decidedly different account, saying Jacobs encroached on “a separate interview in a private office” and “aggressively shoved a recorder in Greg’s face.”

“Jacobs was asked to leave. After asking Jacobs to lower the recorder, Jacobs declined. Greg then attempted to grab the phone that was pushed in his face. Jacobs grabbed Greg’s wrist, and spun away from Greg, pushing them both to the ground,” said spokesman Shane Scanlon.

The Guardian released an audio recording of the incident, in which Gianforte initially brushes aside Jacobs’s question about the new Congressional Budget Office score of the Republicans’ healthcare legislation, which passed the House earlier in the month.

“We’ll talk to you about that later,” Gianforte says in the recording.

“Yeah, but there’s not going to be time,” Jacobs says. “I’m just curious about it right now.”

Gianforte then asks Jacobs to contact the candidate’s spokesman. Before Jacobs can respond, sounds of an altercation erupt.

“I’m sick and tired of you guys,” Gianforte screams. “The last guy who came in here you did the same thing. Get the hell out of here!”

“You just body slammed me and broke my glasses,” Jacobs says. He later posted pictures of the broken glasses from the back of an ambulance.

Jacobs said during the interview Thursday he never “touched or came close to Gianforte.”

He called the interaction “very disappointing” in terms of “what it means for the press.”

The alleged altercation came just hours before voters headed to the polls.

Thursday’s special election pits Gianforte against Democrat Rob Quist in a contest to replace former GOP Rep. Ryan Zinke, who is now heading President Trump’s Interior Department. Gianforte is seen as a slight favorite in the race.