MT-Sen: Tim Sheehy (R) BUSTED AGAIN About Lying About His Military Record

It’s like this guy wants to get caught being a liar:U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy recently said he parachuted into Glacier National Park as part of his military training in Montana — an activity a national park spokesperson said is not permitted.Sheehy, a Republican and a former U.S. Navy SEAL, made the comment at a campaign event last month, according to a video posted on Facebook and shared multiple times. He used the story to tell the group about how he grew up in Minnesota, but got to know the Treasure State. Sheehy did not respond to questions sent this week to two campaign staff members asking for details about the claim.However, a Glacier National Park official said parachuting, hang gliding and base jumping are not allowed in the park.Public Information Officer Gina Icenoggle said the park does not grant special permission for the U.S. military, and if the activity is taking place, it is illegal.“There is no way to get permission,” Icenoggle said.This isn’t the only time he’s lied about something happening in Glacier National Park:Tim Sheehy, a charismatic former Navy SEAL who is the Republican candidate in a U.S. Senate race in Montana that could determine control of the chamber, has cited a gunshot wound he received in combat that he said left a bullet in his right arm as evidence of his toughness.“I got thick skin — though it’s not thick enough. I have a bullet stuck in this arm still from Afghanistan,” Sheehy said in a video of a December campaign event posted on social media, pointing to his right forearm.It was one of several inconsistent accounts Sheehy has shared about being shot while deployed. And in October 2015, more than a year after he left active duty, he told a different story.After a family visit to Montana’s Glacier National Park, he told a National Park Service ranger that he accidentally shot himself in the right arm that day when his Colt .45 revolver fell and discharged while he was loading his vehicle in the park, according to a record of the episode filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Montana.The self-inflicted gunshot left a bullet lodged in Sheehy’s right forearm, according to the written description accompanying the federal citation that the ranger, a federal law enforcement officer, gave Sheehy for illegally discharging his weapon in a national park. The citation said the description was based on Sheehy’s telling of events.Asked this week about the citation, which has not been previously reported, Sheehy told The Washington Post that the statement he gave the ranger was a lie. He said he made up the story about the gun going off to protect himself and his former platoonmates from facing a potential military investigation into an old bullet wound that he said he got in Afghanistan in 2012. He said he did not know for certain whether the wound was the result of friendly fire or from enemy ammunition, and said he never reported the incident to his superiors.Sheehy said he did not shoot himself in the park in 2015, but rather fell and hurt himself on a hike, necessitating a trip to an emergency room, where he said he told hospital staff he had a bullet in his arm, triggering his interview with the ranger.There’s also this:Tim Sheehy, the Navy SEAL running to unseat Democratic Montana Sen. Jon Tester, has repeatedly told voters he was “discharged” from the military for medical reasons, owing to wounds sustained in service.But the Republican’s own autobiography, published just last year, says otherwise; he wrote that he became disillusioned with military personnel policies and left of his own accord after being injured in a training accident.“This line of inquiry is disgusting,” Sheehy’s campaign said in a statement, claiming there was no inconsistency.But the discrepancy is the latest to dog Sheehy, 38, who has described himself as a “war hero” on the campaign trail.Audio obtained by The Daily Beast reveals that in February, at a Bozeman Public Library event to promote his autobiography, Sheehy said: “After I got wounded the final time, I got discharged.”In March, he told a podcast host he “proudly served multiple tours overseas,” including in Iraq and Afghanistan, and “got wounded and injured a handful of times, so eventually was medically discharged from the military.”And in a November episode of the First Class Fatherhood podcast, Sheehy said: “So finally, they said, ‘Hey, you’re at the end of the road, you know, you’ve got shrapnel in you, you’ve got a bullet in you, you’ve had a head injury, you know, you’re out of here.’”Here’s another big issue Sheehy’s been caught lying about:Democratic and conservation-focused political action committees have aired numerous public land-focused attack ads against Sheehy, most of which cite HuffPost’s reporting that first revealed Sheehy’s comments in support of transferring land and his failure to disclose his position on the board of a nonprofit with a history of advocating for privatizing America’s federal lands.Sheehy meanwhile has accused his opponent, incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, of politicizing public lands and lying about Sheehy’s agenda for America’s natural heritage. Sometime last month, Sheehy even added a section to his campaign website titled “Public Lands,” in which he declared his belief that “public lands belong in public hands” and vowed to “oppose any federal transfer or sale of our public lands.” The new section sits at the very top of his issues page.In Sheehy’s first public lands TV ad, released in early August, Stryker Anderson, an avid Montana hunter and hunting guide, says he’s “sick and tired of Jon Tester lying about Tim Sheehy.”“Here’s the truth: Tim Sheehy knows public lands are important to our way of life,” Anderson tells viewers. “That’s why Sheehy opposes the sale or transfer of our public lands.”But when reached via email this week, Anderson — one of two key people Sheehy turned to in hopes of restoring his image as a champion of public lands — effectively poured gasoline on the fire that Sheehy and his team have been trying to put out. Anderson plainly stated that he wants to see federal lands transferred to states, a view he understood Sheehy to share but later said the two did not discuss in detail. He condemned the federal government as a poor steward of the federal estate and said Sheehy’s past comment in favor of states taking control of federal lands shows his “understanding of proper management.”“The goal would be to turn them over to the states,” Anderson told HuffPost. “The state of Montana understands our public lands better than the federal government. Just like we don’t understand California, Wyoming, Washington, Arizona, etc. Let the people in their own state decide what is best for them. Our public lands suck almost everywhere because they have no management. Turning over ownership to the states will allow for much better management.”There’s also this:On a recent campaign stop, Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate Tim Sheehy criticized a ballot measure “trying to legalize abortion completely” after making a claim about the medical procedure earlier found to be false.Abortion is legal in Montana.This week, Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights announced the Secretary of State’s Office certified Constitutional Initiative 128 for the ballot. CI-128 aims to protect reproductive rights, including abortion, in the state constitution.Sheehy, a Bozeman businessman, describes himself as “strongly pro-life” and also “in strong support of IVF.” He’s trying to unseat incumbent Democrat U.S. Sen. Jon Tester.In a June 8 debate, Sheehy said Tester has voted for “elective abortions up to and including the moment of birth” — a claim repeated on his campaign website — and one Tester said was untrue, according to a story from KFF Health News.“To say we’re killing babies at 40 weeks is total BS,” Tester said.A factcheck from KFF Health News found Sheehy’s claim was false.In a campaign stop last month, Sheehy described the abortion measure for which petitioners had been gathering signatures as “trying to legalize abortion completely, 100 percent across the board,” according to a video of the talk shared on social media.“Those petitions are not good for Montana,” Sheehy said.The language of the initiative states that CI-128 would amend the Montana Constitution to “prohibit the government from denying or burdening the right to abortion before fetal viability.”A spokesperson for the Sheehy campaign did not respond to a question about his statements.In a social media post in June, Tester expressed support for CI-128.Tester though knows who he needs to turn out to vote and defeat this serial liar:The hotly contested Montana Senate race is shining a spotlight on the public safety concerns of the Native American communities in the state, who were a critical voting bloc in the 2018 reelection of Sen. Jon Tester (D).The Montana Democrat is no stranger to tight races. He won his first reelection in 2012 by around 18,700 votes and narrowly beat out now-Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) by just more than 17,900 votes in 2018. A surge in Native American voters helped deliver him that victory, according to the Char-Koosta News.These voters are again poised to play a pivotal role in the Montana Senate race between Tester and former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy, who won the Republican primary in June. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the contest a “toss up,” and former President Trump won the state by more than 16 points, or nearly 99,000 votes, in 2020.Crime has been a hot-button issue in the 2024 election, and public safety concerns including missing and murdered Indigenous people (MMIP), fentanyl and law enforcement shortages are top issues for tribal leaders.“We’ve got fentanyl, opiates, other things that are on the increase and so the increase in law enforcement’s even more critical,” William Snell Jr., executive director of the Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council, told The Hill.Tester, a longtime member and former chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, last week pressed the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review “unacceptable” public safety efforts by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in Montana.FYI, Montana Democrats jumpstarted Native American GOTV efforts back in March:Today, the Montana Democratic Party announced Big Sky Victory, the coordinated campaign that will re-elect Sen. Jon Tester and elect Democrats up and down the ballot in 2024.The announcement includes the most robust voter outreach program in Indian Country that Montana has ever seen. A historic seven figures will be invested in Native organizing efforts, including full-time Native organizers, organizing offices located on reservations, voter protection and ballot access efforts, and a specialized paid communications plan using tools like mail and digital to reach Native voters with unique, individualized programs for each tribe.Big Sky Victory will be a multi-million dollar program that will hire more than 50 full-time organizers and open more than 20 offices across the state.“Indian Country is facing tough battles in 2024, and the outcome of this election couldn’t be more important,” said Cinda Burd Ironmaker, Native Vote Political Director for the Montana Democratic Party and Blackfeet Tribe member. “From honoring tribal sovereignty, to improving health care delivery, to combating the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People crisis, we deserve elected officials who will fight for us and be our partner. Jon Tester is that fighter. With this historic organizing effort, Native voters will have a powerful voice in 2024 and elect Jon Tester and our other Democratic candidates this November.” Health, Democracy and Freedom are on the ballot and we need to get ready to keep Tester in the Senate and protect abortion rights in Montana. Click below to donate and get involved with Tester’s re-election campaign and the Montana Democratic Party:U.S. SenateJon TesterU.S. HouseMonica TranelMontana Supreme CourtErin Farris-OlsenState PartyMontana Democratic Party