The newest unflattering story about Montana Republican Tim Sheehy, the Navy SEAL veteran and aerospace firm CEO whom nationwide Republicans recruited to tackle Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, is a report from Insider’s Bryan Metzger detailing Sheehy’s newly uncovered racist and misogynist posts he wrote on Fb from 2006 to 2008.
One included a photograph depicting Sheehy costumed in a gown and keffiyeh subsequent to mates who look like taking part in Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong Il. One other featured a photograph of a lady with an uncovered nipple; Sheehy, apparently referencing his now-wife, wrote, “I tagged it as carmen and he or she untagged it…bullshit.”
Extra footage uploaded by Sheehy throughout that interval confirmed the candidate, who was a pupil on the U.S. Naval Academy on the time, and his mates partying, together with a shot of one other man showing to drink from a bottle nestled between a lady’s breasts. Sheehy, who tagged one other of his mates in that photograph, included a remark saying that “I do not suppose her boobs are that huge….”
Sheehy’s marketing campaign responded to Metzger by dismissing the posts as “photographs of youngsters goofing round.” It additionally deployed some whataboutism by highlighting how Washington Publish reporter Ben Terris recounted that, when he was visiting Tester’s farm for a profile, the senator “abruptly began relieving himself in an natural pea subject subsequent to his tractor with out overlaying himself up.” Sheehy’s spokesperson argued, “Neither he nor his employees have but to elucidate why a grown man at 66 years previous would discover that habits applicable,” including, “So, spare us your hypocrisy and harassment of a battle hero over some goofing round as a child.”
Sheehy, although, is simply the most recent in a protracted string of Republican candidates in recent times who’ve drawn the improper sort of consideration for sexist social media posts, together with some from effectively earlier than they ran for workplace. Democrats final yr have been fast to behave after CNN reported that John Gibbs, who was the GOP’s nominee for Michigan’s third Congressional District, had loudly argued as a college student within the early 2000s that girls do not “posess [sic] the traits obligatory to manipulate.” Gibbs had additionally linked to and praised an anti-feminist web site arguing that women’s suffrage had turned America right into a “totalitarian state.”
Gibbs’ workforce, like Sheehy’s marketing campaign this week, additionally insisted that his rants have been merely the product of “a university child being excessive.” That excuse certainly not stopped his Democratic foe, Hillary Scholten, from airing ads attacking him over his remarks, which helped her run up a dominant 55-42 margin and flip the seat.
One other 2022 Republican hopeful, Oregon’s Alek Skarlatos, additionally confronted scrutiny final yr over his history of creepy and misogynistic behavior towards girls on social media. That included “liking” Instagram photographs of underage women as younger as 15 who have been sporting revealing clothes and “joking” about girls violently dying throughout intercourse. As with Gibbs, Home Democrats didn’t hesitate to run ads educating voters about Skarlatos’ nature, and he went on to lose the 4th District to Val Hoyle 51-43.
Typically, it is gotten so egregious that nationwide Republicans have outright deserted their candidates due to their offensive on-line writings, together with New Jersey’s Seth Grossman in 2018 and California’s Ted Howze in 2020. The GOP, although, has way more tolerance for candidates who nonetheless look like viable: Whereas reporters proceed to dig up past comments from North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson—together with a 2017 Fb submit declaring, “I’m so sick of seeing and listening to individuals STILL discuss Nazis and Hitler and the way evil and manipulative they have been”—distinguished Republicans stay dedicated to their probably nominee for governor.
Sheehy himself has needed to cope with loads of unwelcome press since information first broke about his Senate desires, although of a special nature. Final week, Bloomberg revealed a chunk stating that his aerospace agency gets most of its funding from the federal authorities, which might create a possible battle of curiosity if he have been to make it to the Senate.
Tales from earlier than Sheehy’s late June marketing campaign kickoff also documented how the self-described “cowboy” truly owns two mansions; ardently opposes abortion rights in a state the place an anti-abortion measure failed on the poll field final yr; is the defendant in a lawsuit over a aircraft crash that badly injured a 17-year-old on the bottom; solely moved to Montana in 2014—he is initially from Minnesota. (It additionally did not assist that Sheehy was just busted for using stock photos on his web site supposedly depicting agricultural scenes within the state he is searching for to characterize that have been actually taken in Kentucky and Ukraine.)
Republican leaders, although, are sticking by Sheehy, whom they view as a prize recruit. Certainly, only a day after the Insider story broke, Politico reported that NRSC chair Steve Daines, who’s Montana’s junior senator, will host a fundraiser for Sheehy later this month. The one probably different to Sheehy, against this, is Rep. Matt Rosendale, whose dropping 2018 effort in opposition to Tester left observers unimpressed. The congressman, who reportedly has been telling people he plans to strive once more, responded to Sheehy’s launch final month by tweeting, “Now Washington has two candidates – Tim Sheehy and Jon Tester – who will defend the DC cartel.”
