Gianforte has previously distanced himself from Wilson, telling The Huffington Post through a campaign spokesman last fall that he was “unfamiliar with Mr. Wilson’s writings outside of their mutual involvement” in the Christian school organization that reports more than 200 members.
Asked twice Wednesday if he would have contributed to Rose’s campaign if he had known as much about his views as he does now, Gianforte would not say, but did denounce racism and discrimination generally.
“I will say clearly that hatred is wrong and it has no place in politics or government. I completely reject it," he said.
Gianforte said his contribution to Rose’s campaign was simply one of several such donations to Republican races across the state. Since 2000, he and his wife have made more than 500 contributions in Montana elections. Of those, 134 were made to support 114 Republicans on the November 2016 ballot.
A $170 contribution from Gianforte and a matching one from his wife are among about a dozen such personal donations from Republican leaders or state legislators to Rose’s failed legislative bid. State campaign finance records show most of that money came to the Rose campaign after the Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti-Defamation League reports gained traction on social media in Montana.
___________UPDATE___________
Missoulian, "A closer look at Gianforte jobs claims":
Nevertheless, Gianforte dumped his vaunted company to his competitors, world giant Oracle, for $1.5 billion. Oracle merely bought one of their small-time competitors out here in Montana and folded them into the corporate stew of over 187 affiliated companies in its portfolio. Gianforte was only happy to walk away with the cash.
Shortly thereafter, Oracle moved over 100 of Bozeman’s RightNow Technologies' “high-wage” jobs to Texas — for cheaper labor. One RightNow employee described the debacle to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle this way: “As soon as we walked in, they told us to shut off our cell phones. None of our management was there. There were these three gentlemen in suits we had never seen before who had flown up from San Antonio.” So much for caring about the working class folks in Montana, Gianforte. You sold them out.
It gets worse. Oracle, according to www.glassdoor.com, created a workforce climate in Bozeman that was a “corporate hell.” More interesting, from a campaign point of view, is the claim that Gianforte is against gun registry. With a full measure of hypocrisy and irony, Oracle designs gun registry profiles embedded in its software and sells them to government agencies. Gianforte, meanwhile, still receives money from Oracle and numerous Oracle executives have contributed to Gianforte’s campaign — more hypocrisy.
Wasn't it a Dylan song, "You Don't Need an Oracle to Tell Which Way the Wind Blows?"