Greg Gianforte wins Montana election, but Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell just got body slammed

| 1:46 am EDT May 26, 2017
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If Montana Republican candidate Greg Gianforte had body slammed that reporter a week earlier, he’d probably have lost the election. But with the incident taking place the night before election day, and so many early votes having already been cast, it turns out Gianforte won by a few points. Several major news outlets have now called the race in his favor. This is not the outcome the Democrats wanted. But it’s really not the outcome the Republican Party leadership wanted.

For those liberals and Democrats nationwide who are disappointed by Rob Quist’s defeat, stop and consider how remarkable it is that the Democratic candidate was in close contention in a state as red as Montana. And if that’s not enough of a consolation prize, chew on this: Republican House leader Paul Ryan, and by extension Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell, are now stuck with Greg Gianforte in Washington DC for the next two years. This might be the most unintentional gift the Democrats have ever been given.

In the short term, the Republican Party leadership is stuck with the specter of a new Republican Congressman arriving in Washington while he’s facing assault charges back home. If Gianforte had lost, his cartoonish story might have been forgotten in a week. But now he’s an albatross hanging around the necks of Ryan and McConnell. The story of the Republican body slammer will refuse to die. And he’s now the poster boy for everything that the Democrats want to point out is wrong with the Trump-era Republican Party.

Every day from now until the midterms, the Democrats in Congress can and will point to a violent thug like Greg Gianforte being the new face of the Republican Party. After all, he’ll be sitting right there in Congress. Sure, Donald Trump is unstable. But his new Republican sidekick Gianforte is so unstable, he tries to kill people.

Not only will the Democrats use Gianforte’s embarrassing presence in the House as a way of pushing back against Trump, they’ll also use it as a battering ram against the Republican Party in the midterms. It’s a safe bet Paul Ryan is waking up today wishing Greg Gianforte had lost. Follow Palmer Report on Facebook and Twitter.