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As a rule, when politicians tell a story with evolving details, it suggests that that something is amiss. In Montana, for example, Senate hopeful Tim Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL, has told voters that he has a bullet stuck in his right forearm “from Afghanistan.”
It’s the sort of thing that signals to the public that the Republican wants to be seen as tough, while simultaneously reminding people about his military service. There is, however, some question as to how, exactly, the candidate got shot. The Washington Post reported on “several inconsistent accounts Sheehy has shared.”
After a family visit to Montana’s Glacier National Park [in 2015], 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.
Soon after, a ranger cited Sheehy for illegally discharging his weapon in a national park, relying on the Republican’s version of events.
Sheehy told the Post, however, that he lied to the National Park Service ranger and that he was actually shot while serving in Afghanistan. The article added, “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.”
In case this weren’t quite enough, the Post went on to report, “Sheehy’s latest account of his arm wound is one of several differing descriptions he has given of being shot while deployed. In his 2023 memoir ‘Mudslingers,’ he wrote in one passage that he received multiple bullet wounds in Afghanistan. In another, he wrote that his body was hit by a bullet just once. In the book, he also offers varying accounts of how he was shot.”
By way of a defense, the candidate conceded, “I guess the only thing I’m guilty of is admitting to doing something I never did.”
It’s against this backdrop that Vote Vets, a progressive veterans group, unveiled a new digital ad this morning, shining a light on the GOP candidate’s story and its evolving details.
“It’s time he releases his military records and medical records to put this issue to bed,” said Jon Soltz, chairman of Vote Vets. “Montanans might not be able to trust Sheehy, but they can trust our military and medical professionals for the truth.”
Given that the Senate majority might very well rest on what happens in Montana in the fall, I don’t imagine we’ve heard the last of this one.