Column: “Tim Sheehy Must Earn the Public’s Trust”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, May 29, 2024
CONTACT
rehm@mtdems.org
Sheehy’s repeated lies about his upbringing and life story earn new scrutiny in a column in Daily Montanan
Helena, MT – Tim Sheehy’s repeated lies and inconsistencies about who he is are catching up to him, and Montanans deserve the truth.
A new Daily Montanan column called Sheehy out for his pattern of falsehoods surrounding his upbringing and life story. From lying about his “rural” upbringing to his inconsistent accounts about the day records show he shot himself in the arm in Glacier National Park, Sheehy “seems to be having trouble” with the truth.
Read more below:
Daily Montanan: Tim Sheehy must earn the public’s trust
May 29, 2024
Peter Fox
By asking to be hired as a Senate representative of Montana’s 1.1 million people, Sheehy is saying “trust me” to be your voice and act in your best interest.
As in any job interview, whoever is doing the hiring has questions to ask of the applicant. Inquiry into the applicant’s history and qualifications for the job can go anywhere, and the future employers have a huge stake in direct, complete and honest answers so they can determine the applicant’s qualifications.
“The press turned against my businesses and has been trying to harm us every single day,” [Sheehy] said in an NBC Montana interview on April 29 that can be viewed on YouTube.
To blame for his difficulties, he named The Washington Post, the Montana Free Press, national online tabloid newspaper The Daily Beast, saying the latter two were not news organizations – at least in his mind.
Clearly uncomfortable in portions of the interview and asked to explain the Glacier Park gunshot incident, Sheehy launched into excessive detail about why his personal judgment outweighed standard operating procedure he was bound as the unit commander to follow.
There are other trust issues.
His “denial” of his paternal grandparents, for example.
In a Nov. 7, 2023, podcast interview with Cascade County Sheriff Jesse Slaughter, he was asked to describe his growing up, the size of his family and what his parents did. Sheehy segued to describing a tight nuclear family of two parents and two children but then mentioned his grandparents:
“I really didn’t have … most of my grandparents had died before I was a kid or really young. Just didn’t have really grandparent involvement but my neighbor growing up was a Korean War Navy pilot.”
What Sheehy omitted was public record information that shows his father, Richard, was actively employed as a property management and financial services executive, handling much of his wealthy grandfather Cyril’s extensive real estate projects. Sheehy’s mother, Denise, had skills as an interior designer and even worked in modeling.
It is worth noting that grandfather Cyril Sheehy died in June 2010 when his grandson was 25. Cyril’s wife, grandmother Elvira, died in July of 2014 when her grandson was 29. Together the senior Sheehys had four sons and a daughter and 13 grandchildren, including Tim. A fairly extended family.
Earlier in the interview, Slaughter asked him where in Minnesota he grew up. Sheehy replied, “A place up near Anoka County, rural part of the state, grew up right across from an old, abandoned Army base.” Actually, it was the former Twin Cities Army Ammunition plant, now a Superfund site.
The reference to Anoka County appears to be untruthful. Again, public information shows that both of his boyhood homes were in Ramsey County, immediately to the east of Anoka County which by no means is rural as it is just north of Minneapolis and along a four-lane highway.
His first home was at 5280 Oxford Street on Turtle Lake in Shoreview, a community just 11 miles north of St. Paul. His second home, larger and more elaborate, was a short walk away, also on Turtle Lake at 5150 N. Lexington Avenue.
Immediately after Sheehy’s June 27, 2023, announcement to run for the Senate, it wasn’t clear to the public whether he was a Montanan or from somewhere else. Even some of his Republican backers and some early news reports erroneously indicated he was from the Bozeman-Belgrade area.
It took reporters researching his biography to determine his home state was Minnesota while he was promoting himself as a Montana businessman and cattle rancher.
And now it is up to the courts to determine the truth behind the breach of contract suit filed by two former employees in April against Sheehy and his brother Matthew.
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