Montana PBS Debate: ‘You’re a big guy. Just apologize.’
When U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy was asked publicly for the first time about comments he made about the Crow Indians being drunk and throwing beer cans at him — things he had said during late 2023 at campaign stops — the Republican challenger told Fox News that the tapes had been chopped up in order to make him look “evil.”
However, an investigation by the Daily Montanan, reviewing those full recordings, show no evidence of the tapes being manipulated, and the quotes were accurately first reported by Char-Koosta News, the official newspaper of the Flathead Indian Reservation. Moreover, Char Koosta on September 28 released two previously unknown tapes of other events that demonstrates that Sheehy, who is challenging incumbent Democrat U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, made similar disparaging comments about Crow people.
Furthermore, a full review of all the recordings also demonstrates Sheehy repeating a debunked claim that doctors are allowed to kill infants after they’re born; that he wants to defund and eliminate several federal departments, and repeatedly calling into question Tester’s record helping veterans, referring to Tester as “Jabba the Hut.”
The Sheehy campaign did not respond to requests for interview or clarification about the comments.
The recordings of several Sheehy events were released by Char Koosta News after Sheehy told Fox News on September 20 that the original tapes that were published by the outlet were “chopped up” and edited. The publication then released full recordings of the event, and included two others where Sheehy made similar comments about getting Coors Light beer cans thrown at his head while working on the southern Montana reservation, where Sheehy and business partner Turk Stovall have part of their ranching operation.
One of those recordings that was previously released shows Sheehy saying:
“My ranching partner and really good friend, Turk Stovall, he’s a Crow Indian and we ranch together on the Crow Reservation. So I’m pretty involved down there, going to the Crow Reservation and their annual Crow parade this year. I rope and brand with them every year. So, it’s a great way to bond with all the Indians being out there while they’re drunk at 8 a.m., and you’re roping together. Every one that you miss, you get a Coors Light on the side of your head.”
While Sheehy has largely been on the defensive after commenting on Native Americans, which has included a coalition of tribal organizations calling for his apology, the four recordings show a pattern of not only repeating that Crow tribal members pelt him with beer cans, but also demonstrate a pattern of repeating questionable or dubious claims about abortion, education and Tester, his opponent.
The tapes, published by Char Koosta, were from four public speaking events — Big Sky Motel in Superior on September 18, 2023; Clark’s Family Restaurant in Shelby on November 6, 2023; the Tri-County Republican Women’s Club Meeting in Helena on November 9, 2023; and the Rodeo for State Sport fundraiser in Hamilton on November 10, 2023.
Yet in the newly released tapes from an event in Superior, Sheehy appears to tell a similar story about getting beer cans thrown at him that hasn’t been reported:
“You want a tough crowd when you’re roping, go up to the Crow Reservation. You miss that double heel shoot and you get a Coors Light up side the head and a ‘Ha, white boy.’”
During another speech in Helena, Sheehy told the Republican Women’s Club:
“I rode on my horse through the Crow Reservation festival with Tim Sheehy signs strapped to me. One of our ranching operations are on the Crow Reservation, and I’m down there. I rope and brand my own cows, and I cut and bale my own hay. I’ll tell you if you don’t make that double heel shot on the Rez, the Coors Light cans hit you on the side of the head.”
As much as Sheehy told that story — twice as previously reported, and now on two other recordings — the GOP Senate candidate also said that more Native Americans should be voting Republican because the Democrats have failed tribal communities by letting drug cartels operate there. He characterized most Native Americans as conservative, pro-life, pro-guns and anti-crime.
“I’m on your reservation, and I care about your issues,” he said.
U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy, left, meets with young Republicans in Bozeman, Montana, on September 28, 2024. Photo: Tim Sheehy for Montana
Several times in the recordings, Sheehy calls for defunding large portions of the federal government, including the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration as well as the federal Department of Education.
Sheehy said that he and his wife home-school their four children with an agriculture and faith-based curriculum.
“The Department of Education is an indoctrination factory to push out curriculum that parents don’t want,” he said.
He claimed during those speeches that part of public education was to confuse children about gender.
“Boys are girls and girls are boys in the legislature, thanks to our friend up there,” Sheehy said, making a likely reference to Montana Rep. Zooey Zephyr, the first openly transgender woman to serve in the Montana Legislature. “It’s like Dr. Seuss.”
That was a message Sheehy repeated at a rodeo event in Hamilton where he said that children need to go to school “knowing boys are boys and girls are girls.”
Sheehy during the speeches also outlines a broad, different vision for the federal government, starting with a civil service reform that echoed some of the points emphasized by the conservative and controversial “Project 2025,” authored by many former Trump administration officials.
Sheehy called for cuts to the federal government modeled after Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, who he reportedly said cut 30% of the state government.
However, Sheehy said that the federal government was being destroyed by Democrats who are career bureaucrats and “hunker down” during Republican administrations. Sheehy supports a maximum of eight years for any federal government employee, and then suggests they return to the private sector.
“You can’t fire federal employees. You can’t dock their pay. The way you used to get rid of them was by saying, ‘Hey guess what? Your new duty station just got moved to Fairbanks, Alaska,’” he said. “And by definition, if you can’t fire someone, they don’t work for you, you work for them.”
At a speech in Helena, he said the problem with the federal government is “permanent bureaucrats.”
“They need to retire and go away,” Sheehy said. “They need to be replaced by real Americans who understand what Americans do every day.”
Sheehy said much of the problem with the federal government stems from its location in Washington, D.C. He repeatedly called for moving federal agencies away from the Capitol, not unlike the failed plan to the move the U.S. Department of the Interior to Colorado during the Trump administration.
He suggested the United States Department of Agriculture be located to Iowa, near cornfields and that the United States Forest Service should be in some place like Missoula. He suggested the Federal Aviation Administration should move to Oklahoma City.
“We need to return competency to those industries they’re required to regulate,” he said. “Most have never seen a forest, never seen a cornstalk, driven a combine or flown an airplane, and they’re telling us how to run our government.”
Sheehy has also come under fire for his work with the Property and Environmental Research Center, a think tank on which he previously served as a board member. That organization has advocated for private management of public and federal lands. Sheehy has been accused of wanting to privatize public lands, much of which are in large western states like Montana. At his speech in Shelby, Sheehy seemed to advocate for a similar position.
“The federal government has managed government lands for far too long, and when the federal government manages lands, things just don’t go well,” Sheehy said, “that’s the simple truth.”
Sheehy was also asked a question about his company, Bridger Aerospace, taking a PPP loan during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sheehy defended taking the forgivable loan, saying that the U.S. Forest Service shut down his operations, and that during the pandemic, the company did not lay off any employee or dock pay.
Instead, Sheehy said he spent the pandemic hiding under a bed “with a diaper on my face.”
Sheehy admitted that Democrats are beating Republicans at the “ground game” on the subject of abortion. He repeated in several of the forums that it was legal to kill infants after an abortion, after they’re born, a claim that has been forwarded by presidential candidate Donald Trump, and repeatedly debunked.
He said that the Republican Party must do more to woo young, female voters. He characterized females less than the age of 25 as “indoctrinated” and “single-issue” voters.
“Murder is the official position of the American Democratic Party,” Sheehy said.
Sheehy has been urging voters to send ballots in early, and advocated for overhauling the election system, calling for paper ballots and Election Day voting.
During those speeches, he stopped short of saying the 2020 election was fraudulent or rigged, instead saying that Republicans must expand their party tent and get younger people involved, including welcoming those who may not agree on every point.
However, he did call repeatedly for voter identification laws, voting on paper ballots and voting on Election Day.
“The Democrats will use every trick possible,” he said.
Sheehy recounted how he helped Iraq conduct the first open, free elections and did it through paper ballots and a blue ink that stained fingers to show proof of voting.
“I do not believe in electronic voting machines,” he said. “A No. 2 pencil and a piece of paper sounds pretty good to me.”
He also characterized America’s voting infrastructure as “fancy Chinese machines.”
Tim Sheehy, left, and Jon Tester are seen side-by-side in a screenshot from their U.S. Senate debate on Montana PBS on September 30, 2024.
Repeatedly, Sheehy takes after Tester’s record, calling him a “dyed in the wool Socialist.” In the speeches, he reminds the crowd that he’s a decorated combat veteran and said his goal was to capture the veterans’ vote.
“(Tester)’s never signed the front of the paycheck. He’s hoodwinked the veterans of this state,” Sheehy said, then changing his voice, “I’m the head of the VA committee and I have this stupid flat-top.”
Tim Sheehy and U.S. Sen. Jon Tester participated in a debate on Sept. 30, 2024, hosted by Montana PBS. (Screenshot courtesy Montana PBS)
Several times when speaking about Tester, Sheehy took shots at the flat-top haircut Tester has had since his childhood.
He said that Tester, as the chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee, in Congress is responsible for the failures of the VA, while at the same time, accused Tester of plopping down VA clinics across Montana in an attempt to appease the veteran community.
“He puts on a jacket and waddles around like he cares,” Sheehy said of Tester.
He accused the three-term Senator of lying to veterans’ face, and said the only thing that has been successful while Tester has sat as the leader of the Senate’s VA committee is that more VA employees have unionized.
“He’s accountable for a record number of veteran suicides,” Sheehy said. “He’s accountable for the dysfunction of Veterans Affairs and let’s hold him accountable by sending him home.”
Tester has been a strong advocate for the veterans community, including his bipartisan effort to get the PACT Act which he co-sponsored with U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas. That extended benefits to veterans who were the victims of toxic chemical exposure and “burn pits” and the cancers and neurological diseases associated with handling the materials. In August, the federal government reported that more than 1 million veterans were getting benefits through that legislation.
“I’m a war hero, a job creator and a philanthropist,” Sheehy said. “Those are three things that Jon Tester can’t say.”
He also blamed the Democrats for “destroying our culture and violating the Constitution.”
However, he said that Democrats were also doing a better job courting young voters, and that the GOP must work to invigorate young voters.
“We all want a culturally pure warrior to take the field of battle, but we’re going to lose every time so we have to have a message and a message that most Americans can get behind,” Sheehy said. “We have to stop this grievance and talking about the past or else we’re going to lose young voters.”
This story originally appeared on Daily Montanan on October 3, 2024. It is published under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-ND 4.0).
Daily Montanan is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Daily Montanan maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Darrell Ehrlick for questions: info@dailymontanan.com. Follow Daily Montanan on Facebook and X.
