I will agree with you on one thing, violence is not how to deal with a 'disagreement'.  I will however [and not to justify anything] observe that we only have a audio recording as evidence.  I have read reports ranging from punching, strangling, pushing, shoving, to 'body slamming'.  In reality Gianforte could have pushed the obtrusive reporter [I use the term 'reporter' loosely] towards the door in effort to forcibly remove violator of personal/private space, could have been blocking the microphone from being forced into his face, or even responding to an attempt of physical harm.  We do not know.  What we do know is that the reporter is a bias liberal snowflake attempting to make a mountain out of a mole hill.