Vice President Mike Pence won’t be opining on the Republican candidate Greg Gianforte, who has been cited for misdemeanor assault after a reporter’s accusation Wednesday that he was “body-slammed” by Gianforte.
Pence, the former governor of Indiana, had recorded a robocall urging voters to support Gianforte in the special election to fill Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s former congressional seat.
But when asked to comment on the incident, in which Ben Jacobs, a reporter for the Guardian, contended that Gianforte “body-slammed me and broke my glasses,” Pence’s office declined to comment.
“We aren’t going to comment,” Pence’s press secretary Marc Lotter said, according to Politico.
Many Democrats have called for Gianforte to resign in the aftermath of the incident. Even some Republicans, including House Speaker Paul Ryan and Montana Sen. Steve Daines, have pushed Gianforte to apologize, and Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, scolded him for going to far.
