Republican Montana congressional candidate Greg Gianforte, despite purportedly “body slamming” a reporter on Wednesday, just one day before the special election on Thursday in Montana, apologized for his behavior after easily winning the race for the lone House seat from the Treasure State.

Gianforte defeated Democrat Rob Quist by seven points, 50.6% to 43.6%, to replace former Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke, who was picked by President Donald Trump to be the 52nd United States Secretary of the Interior.

Initially, Gianforte’s campaign issued a statement claiming that the reporter, the UK Guardian’s Ben Jacobs, basically deserved the treatment, but after the election win, it was all mea culpa.

“Last night, I learned a lesson,” Gianforte confessed. “I need to share something from my heart here and I just ask you to bear with me. And when you make a mistake, you have to own up to it. That’s the Montana way.”

“Last night I made a mistake,” he admitted. “And I took an action that I can’t take back and I’m not proud of what happened. I should not have responded in the way that I did. And for that I’m sorry,” he confided.

“And you’re forgiven!” a lady from the audience shouted, which resulted in lengthy cheers.

“I should not have treated that reporter that way and for that, I’m sorry, Mr. Ben Jacobs,” he stated.

The next congressman from the Montana then apologized to the FOX News team who were present when he snapped and confirmed the reporter’s account of the attack.

It’s really great to see Gianforte come clean. It would have been nice to see him man up like this from the beginning. Obviously, the campaign was reeling after the unfortunate innocent and were in cover-up mode.

“That’s not the person that I am,” he said. “And it’s not the way I’ll lead in this state,” he promised.