The troubles for Tim Sheehy are only increasing ahead of Election Day in Montana, where the Republican Senate candidate is hoping to defeat incumbent Democrat Jon Tester and flip a crucial seat in the upper chamber of Congress.
Sheehy sat down for an interview with conservative journalist Megyn Kelly on Saturday, where he struggled to explain the shifting story behind an injury he claims was a bullet wound suffered in Afghanistan in a possible friendly fire incident — one he says he covered up to avoid getting Afghan allied forces in trouble.
Kelly pressed the former SEAL to explain where the injury actually occurred, and whether he was hurt in 2015 when he went to Glacier National Park with his family. Sheehy, in response to reporting on his explanation for the bullet wound byThe Washington Post, claimed in a statement that he injured himself in a fall at the park in 2015, then used that injury as cover for the bullet wound.
“It looks like you spoke to the Washington Post, and you said that you lied when you told the park ranger when you told them [you shot yourself in the park],” Kelly said.
Sheehy then offered a convoluted answer in which he claimed that medical officials, treating him for a wound he suffered at the park, had informed him that they were required to report the wound to law enforcement because of the bullet which Sheehy claimed had been dislodged by his fall and subsequent re-injury.
But it wasn’t clear why Sheehy would need to lie at that point — a report Sheehy made to a Park Ranger in Montana about being shot in Afghanistan years earlier by a member of the Afghan security forces would not have caused recriminations thousands of miles away.
He told Kelly that hospital records were not available to verify his claims. It’s likely that, if he was treated in a hospital, doctors would have been able to tell the difference between a fresh gunshot wound and an injury suffered in a fall.
The Senate candidate also did not explain why the park ranger who came forward to discuss her side of the story, Kim Peach, told the Post that she’d verified Sheehy’s firearm had been discharged on the day of the accident in the park in 2015. Nor did he explain why a gunshot had been reported by other park guests.
A former Navy SEAL deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, Sheehy has been widely seen as the Republican Party’s best hope of unseating an incumbent this cycle.
His victory in Montana, coupled with the presumed loss of West Virginia’s seat due to Joe Manchin’s departure, would hand Republicans a majority in the Senate — assuming no GOP incumbents lose their seats this cycle.
But the Democratic Party’s focus on his unclear answers about his military service and the wound he either suffered in Afghanistan or Montana has thrown a wrench into the race and suddenly pushed the prospect of GOP Senate control into real danger.
Polls have shown Sheehy’s lead dropping in recent weeks; one, conducted by Montana State University – Billings had the race tied in early October.
If Tester wins re-election on Tuesday, Sheehy’s failure to provide a clear explanation to respond to questions about whether he lied about the origin of his bullet wound will likely play a large part in it.
The race is the third-most expensive congressional race of the 2024 cycle, behind only Texas and Ohio; Democrats have poured millions into attacking Sheehy in an attempt to narrow the polls, and may have found success with this issue.
Sheehy himself remains a decorated veteran; he was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star.