A former Park Service officer said Friday that U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy of Montana had lied about a gunshot wound the candidate said came from combat in Afghanistan – going public with an allegation that has dogged the Republican campaign for months.
Claims from former ranger Kim Peach that Sheehy actually shot himself during a family trip in Montana were immediately dismissed by Sheehy and his allies as a smear campaign engineered by Democrats in a race that is expected to help determine control of the Senate.
But with the election less than three weeks away, this adds to the enormous pressure already facing the political newcomer as he challenges incumbent Democratic Senator Jon Tester, who has served three terms.
Sheehy is a former US Navy SEAL and his military record is central to his bid for the post. In his speeches and in a book published by Sheehy last year, he described several times he was wounded in combat, including in the arm in 2012.
Sheehy was awarded the Purple Heart for wounds he suffered in a separate combat incident and was also awarded the Bronze Star.
A Sheehy campaign spokesman said Peach was a Democratic partisan who pushed a “defamatory story.”
“Anyone who tries to ignore the fact that Tim Sheehy fought in war as a young man and spent much of his 20s in some of the most dangerous places on earth is either a partisan hack, a journalist with an agenda, or just plain disgusting. ” said spokesperson Katie Martin.
He has faced intense scrutiny over the wound on his arm since April, when The Washington Post quoted a Glacier National Park ranger as saying anonymously that Sheehy accidentally shot himself in 2015, when he was traveling with his family and the gun fell from his vehicle and fired when it hit the shore. land in the parking lot at Logan Pass. The ranger quoted in the story is Peach.
Sheehy was cited by Peach and paid a $525 fine for illegally using a firearm in Glacier, according to government records.
The Republican candidate responded to an April story that he lied to park rangers – not about his injury in Afghanistan.
Sheehy said he fell while hiking on Glacier and injured his arm, then made up a story about a gunshot wound to cover up the fact that the 2012 incident may have been friendly fire. He said he didn’t want members of his SEAL unit in Afghanistan to suffer any consequences.
With absentee voting underway in Montana and Sheehy poised for a potential victory, Peach, a Democrat, said Friday that she “can’t let him do something like that without telling the truth.”
Peach said he interviewed Sheehy at the hospital where he was being treated for a gunshot wound.
“At the time, he was clearly embarrassed by it. And what do you know, he acknowledged my purpose for being there – the gun going off in the park,” Peach told The Associated Press. “He knows the truth and the truth is not complicated. That’s when you start lying, things get complicated.”
His decision to go public was previously reported by the Post.
Peach worked as a park ranger for more than three decades and is now retired. He lives in a small town near Glacier. He posted a photo of himself on social media wearing a “Make America Wrong Again” hat and said he was voting Democrat.
He denied any connection to Tester’s campaign or any other Democratic organization.
Tester’s campaign has run ads in recent weeks criticizing Sheehy for lying about the gunshot wound. A campaign spokesman had no immediate comment Friday.
The Montana Democratic Party seized on Peach’s recent comments as providing a “straightforward explanation” of what happened to Sheehy.
But National Republican Senatorial Committee communications director Mike Berg rejected the latest repetition of the allegations against Sheehy. He argued that this was a sign of Democratic Party desperation because they feared Tester would lose.
“This was the last gasp of a career politician who saw his career coming to an end,” Berg said.
