Republican Governor Greg Gianforte just pulled a Ted Cruz
As millions of Texans froze without power from a freak storm in February 2021, Sen. Ted Cruz deemed it the perfect time to escape with his family to the warmth of Cancún. By contrast, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte was already vacationing with his wife when historic flooding wreaked havoc in his state this week. Yet, Gianforte still figured out a way to prove himself to be a worthy competitor when it comes to leadership failure.
When disaster struck, rather than communicate with his constituents and take the next plane home, Gianforte stayed put and kept his whereabouts a state secret. He didn’t even participate in official briefings about the flood, according to a report from The Daily Beast. Gianforte’s cover was finally blown when reporters noticed Montana’s disaster declaration (which President Joe Biden promptly granted) was signed by Lieutenant Gov. Kristen Juras.
At that point, Gianforte’s office reluctantly acknowledged that he and his wife were out of the country on a “personal, private trip” since early Saturday morning, but they still refused to reveal where. Rather than admit they were enjoying a long stay in Tuscany, Gianforte’s staffers cited supposed “security reasons.”
Gianforte finally returned to his ravaged state on Friday, six days later, according to a report from NBC Montana. His office than announced that “security concerns are no longer an issue,” and so Gianforte is back and “looks forward” to surveying the damage and meeting with his constituents (if he can find any who don’t despise him).
Something has been seriously off with Gianforte for a long time. In May 2017, when Gianforte was running for reelection, he decided to body-slam a reporter for asking a simple policy question. The next month, Gianforte pled guilty to misdemeanor assault, later earning Donald Trump’s praise for being a “tough cookie,” insisting at a rally that “[a]ny guy that can do a body slam, he is my type!” Indeed, Gianforte, like Trump and Cruz, fits right in with today’s dangerous and deranged Republican Party.
Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month