Flathead Republicans attending the) Save America Rally heard Senate candidate Tim Sheehy ask, “How can anyone in his right mind vote for Donald Trump and Jon Tester at the same time?”
Sheehy was spot on to remind the crowd gathered at the fairgrounds that Montana voters have, for years, returned Jon Tester to the US Senate even as former president Trump won the state in both 2016 and 2020.
Sheehy’s frustration over his close race with Tester might explain his baseless claim that, “They (Democrats) are parachuting door knockers and voters into the state at an alarming rate.”
Sheehy knows about parachuting yarns. During a campaign event this summer he claimed he parachuted into Glacier National Park as part of his military training. He used the story to tell the crowd how he got to know the treasure state despite growing up in Minnesota.
The National Parks and the military dispute Sheehy’s claim.
In a different Glacier National Park incident Sheehy admitted to the Washington Post that he lied about illegally discharging a weapon in 2015. Because he feared a fall on the trail had dislodged an old unreported bullet in his arm he manufactured the “illegal discharge” story to dissuade any investigation into whether he had been shot by friendly fire while on duty overseas.
Sheey’s insistence that the campaign to reelect Tester is unfairly advantaged by “crap on the airways” and “any amount of lies” could be the accusations of a candidate who has a difficult time with the truth.
On the playgrounds of our childhoods we learned a bedrock truth. If your accuser is pointing one finger at you, three fingers of that hand are pointing back.
Jon Tester is, and always has been, the sensible choice of informed and savvy Montana voters.
Joseph Biby
Kalispel