Clinton’s comments on assault by congressman Greg Gianforte, on the eve of his election, were part of wide-ranging discussion at a tech conference

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Hillary Clinton condemned the assault on a Guardian reporter by Montana congressman Greg Gianforte on the eve of the election earlier this month, and accused a local news station of initially refusing to cover the encounter.

Clinton, the former secretary of state and 2016 Democratic nominee, pointed to the incident as an example of conservative media conglomerates “beginning to call the shots” and intervening to influence a newsroom’s editorial coverage.

“In Montana, those of you who saw the now newly elected member of Congress literally beating up, body-slamming, pushing around a young reporter, you know what happened. You know that it had a really terrible look to it – the guy never should have been doing that,” Clinton said during an annual tech conference hosted by Recode in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

“I don’t know what enraged him so much, being asked about healthcare – which is sort of a strange trigger,” Clinton quipped, drawing laughs from the audience.

On the eve of a hotly contested special election, Gianforte, the Republican candidate, was charged with assaulting Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs after being pressed for his view on the Republican healthcare bill.

Gianforte won the election and apologized for his actions, despite issuing a statement that initially blamed Jacobs for the assault and labeled him a “liberal” journalist. Audio of the encounter confirmed the reporter’s version of events.

That evening, KECI, the Missoula, Montana-based NBC affiliate, initially refused to play audio of the encounter on air. KECI was among a handful of local news channels recently purchased by Sinclair Broadcast Group, a media conglomerate with a history of supporting conservative candidates.

“Now, I find that terrifying because local news – yeah, there is the internet and how important it is and everybody who gets their news off of the internet – but local TV is still incredibly powerful,” Clinton said.

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After the criticism over not running the audio, KECI later issued a statement apologizing for not airing the audio.

“We clearly made a mistake, it was unintentional and we apologize,” said Tamy Wagner, the general manager of KECI in a statement at the time.

Clinton’s comments on Montana were part of a wide-ranging discussion about the 2016 election, Russian interference and where Democrats can improve before the 2018 midterms.

The Democrats struggled to control the narrative and break through in a media environment oversaturated with news about her opponent, Donald Trump, and consumed by negative news stories about her emails.

“We [the Democratic party] are not good historically at building institutions and we’ve got to get a lot better, and that includes content,” Clinton said.

“We have a great story to tell. I found when I started the campaign that I had to say in practically every one of my speeches, ‘Barack Obama saved the economy and he doesn’t get the credit he deserves.’ I had to say that because people had been told differently.”

Play Video 2:47 Guardian reporter shares account of body-slam by candidate – video

She also said that she believes Russia’s interference in the presidential election was “guided by Americans” who helped them “weaponize” the stolen information. The FBI and at least three congressional committees are investigating Russian interference in the US election, including ties between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

Sean Spicer: White House is no longer taking question on Trump and Russia Read more

“I think it’s fair to ask, how did that actually influence the campaign? How did [the Russian hackers] know what messages to deliver? Who told them? Who were they coordinating with or colluding with?” Clinton said.

“The Russians, in my opinion, and based on the intel and counter-intel people I’ve talked to, could not have known how best to weaponize that information unless they had been guided.”

“Guided by Americans?” one of the moderators asked.

Clinton agreed. “Guided by Americans and guided by people who had polling and data and information.”

A moderator pressed, asking if she was “leaning” in a direction that suggests the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia.

“Yes, I’m leaning Trump,” Clinton replied. “I think it’s pretty hard not to.”