Ex-Navy SEAL Caught 'Lying' About Bullet Injury During US Senate Election Campaign

Montana Republican Tim Sheehy in his bid to get elected to the Senate was caught misrepresenting an event that happened during his time as a Navy SEAL. The 38-year-old candidate, as per a report, never told the voters about a court filing that stated that the veteran sustained a bullet injury after shooting himself using a Colt.45 revolver. Sheehy, who was discharged from a local facility in Montana’s Glacier National Park after the incident, reportedly told people that the bullet wound in his arm came from combat during his years serving in Afghanistan. The Senate aspirant was scathingly criticised online for 'overplaying' his SEALs past during the campaign.

According to a report by the Washington Post, Sheehy had to lie about the incident to what he described as an act to save and protect his ex-platoonmates serving with him in 2012 from an intense scrutiny that might had taken place after the injury. The GOP candidate for the US Senate also believed that the Navy SEALs were "overexposed," after a successful operation that was carried out to kill terrorist Osama Bin Laden in 2011.

He was further trolled on social media for further suggesting that the US' special defense unit became more popular after the assassination and that “SEALs were everywhere, you know — TV shows, books.”

“It was crazy, And to be honest, we got overexposed.” As a result, he said, “Sometimes I hate saying I was a Navy SEAL because I was like, ‘Oh great, I’m so sick of hearing about Navy SEALs,’” The Post quoted Sheehy saying during an old podcast. Notably, the Republican was not only part of the Senate but also the one who earned a Purple Heart and Bronze Star.

The Post's report highlighted that Sheehy's campaign was full of playing his SEALs past to the front, a move that contradicts the special units ethos that stated during the time it was formed in the 1970s, “I do not advertise the nature of my work, nor seek recognition for my actions.” However, he gloated about it not only in his 2023 memoir by mentioning it '70 times', but also he told a Republican women’s meeting in Montana last fall that, “I’m a war hero, a job creator, a philanthropist.”

In an effort to help veterans win elections, a liberal political action committee called VoteVets expressed its "deep trouble that a fellow veteran may have misrepresented aspects of their service." The committee members demanded that Sheehy provide the supporting medical documentation.

Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) was the first former Navy SEAL elected to Congress in 2014. Preceding Sheehy, there were four Republican retirees from Texas, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Montana in the ranks of the elite force.