NEW: Tim Sheehy is the “New George Santos”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, September 24, 2024
CONTACT
rehm@mtdems.org
“[Sheehy] touted a business ‘success’ that’s lost millions, incurred a mysterious gunshot wound, and crashed a plane into a house”
Helena, MT – Tim Sheehy’s lies are on full display, with Andy Borowitz dubbing him the “new George Santos.”
The reporting highlights the inconsistencies surrounding Sheehy’s explanation for his gunshot wound, his “smorgasbord of different reasons for his departure” from the Navy, his business failures, and how “[Sheehy] boasted about parachuting into Glacier” as part of his military training but “a park spokesman said that parachuting is forbidden in Glacier” (and a Navy spokesperson denied his claim).
Read more below.
The Borowitz Report: Meet the New George Santos
September 22, 2024
Andy Borowitz
Ever since the former NASA astronaut/Olympic gymnast/Beatles drummer George Santos left Congress in disgrace, one question has plagued Republicans: Could they ever find another liar prolific enough to fill his clown shoes?
Presenting Tim Sheehy, the Republican nominee for Senate in Montana. He’s touted a business “success” that’s lost millions, incurred a mysterious gunshot wound, and crashed a plane into a house. Throw in some racist remarks caught on tape, and voila!
Sheehy has bragged about two resume items throughout his campaign: His stint as a Navy SEAL and his prosperous business career. Both merit our scrutiny.
On the campaign trail, Sheehy boasted that he has a bullet lodged in his right forearm from his time in Afghanistan. But in April, The Washington Post's Liz Goodwin revealed that the bullet might have less exotic origins.
In 2015—a year after he left active duty—Sheehy turned up in a Kalispell, Montana emergency room with a wound in his, ahem, right forearm. At the hospital, he informed a park ranger that, while he was hiking in Glacier National Park, a Colt 45 handgun he kept in his truck in case of bear attacks slipped from the vehicle and discharged.
What actually happened, he told the Post, was that he hurt his arm hiking, and was afraid that the injury might have dislodged a bullet stuck there since his days in Afghanistan—a wound he'd never previously reported.
Confused? Well, hang on, because once Tim starts talking, it's tough to keep up.
Sheehy said the reason he'd kept the war wound a secret was because he suspected it had been caused by friendly fire, and he didn't want to get his platoonmates in trouble.
Telling the park ranger the truth, he feared, could have led to a Navy investigation.
"I guess the only thing I'm guilty of is admitting to doing something I never did," said Sheehy, unintentionally describing every lie George Santos ever told.
Okay, a few problems.
First, Sheehy's claimed that he was the one who reported the Glacier mishap to the ranger, but the National Park Service's official writeup of the incident indicates that a park visitor notified them of the gunshot. Second, when the ranger inspected Sheehy's handgun, it had one bullet missing. And third, a surgeon who examined an X-ray of Sheehy's arm at the Post's request said that the bullet wound was consistent with an injury from a handgun.
Last December, Sheehy released a thinly disguised campaign memoir called Mudslingers (current Amazon sales ranking: #326,444) in which he described being shot in Afghanistan. Once again, he demonstrated a stunning inability to keep his stories straight.
"[He] wrote in one passage that he received multiple bullet wounds in Afghanistan," the Post's Goodwin reported. "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."
It may not shock you to learn that since Sheehy left the Navy, he's offered a smorgasbord of different reasons for his departure. Depending on the day, he's said he either was discharged by the Navy or decided to leave on his own. When a straightforward answer is required, you can always count on Tim's response to be multiple-choice.
To my mind, though, Sheehy's most entertaining lie takes us back to the scene of that fishy gunshot: Glacier National Park. At a campaign event, he boasted about parachuting into Glacier as part of his badass military training. But a park spokesman said that parachuting is forbidden in Glacier, telling the Daily Montanan, "There is no way to get permission."
Do Sheehy's lies meet the high standard set by George Santos, who claimed that his mom died on 9/11 when she was actually living in Rio de Janeiro? Maybe not. But he shows promise.
Sheehy's fond of claiming he's a magnificent businessman. Much like his right forearm, this story's got a hole in it.
Hyping the aerial firefighting company he founded, Bridger Aerospace, Sheehy called it a "success story" in an interview in June. According to public filings, however, the success story lost $77.4 million in 2023 and $20.1 million so far this year, raising "substantial doubt about the Company's ability to continue."
###
