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Greg Gianforte, Montana’s Pseudoscience Gubernatorial Candidate

In the remote eastern Montana town of Glendive, a stone’s throw from the Yellowstone River, sits the Glendive Dinosaur and Fossil Museum ― a seemingly scientific attraction for curious tourists. But inside this “museum” you won’t find factual descriptions of the reptiles and other creatures that roamed the planet millions of years ago.

Its exhibits are presented “in the context of Biblical history,” dedicated to discrediting Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and promoting the idea that the Earth is just 6,000 years old, that humans and dinosaurs roamed the planet at the same time and that dinosaurs were on Noah’s Ark. “The Biblical record of the beginning of the world is authentic history,” the museum’s website said.

One of the biggest bankrollers of this pseudoscience outfit is Greg Gianforte, the 2020 Republican nominee for governor. Through his family foundation, the millionaire technology entrepreneur donated at least $290,000 to the museum.

Gianforte is a first-term Republican congressman from Montana who infamously body-slammed a reporter on the eve of the state’s special election in 2017. Gianforte pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor assault charge, and a judge gave him a six-month deferred sentence and ordered him to pay a $385 fine, perform community service and attend anger management counseling.

Gianforte rejects evolution and dismisses the scientific consensus that humans are the primary drivers of global climate change. More recently, the supporter of President Donald Trump promoted the idea that so-called “herd immunity” — when enough of a population becomes immune to a disease that it can no longer spread effectively — is the solution to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Gianforte said in a July 1 webcast that he received “encouraging” news from Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former head of the Food and Drug Administration, that “by the end of this year, at current infection rates, if we do...

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