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EXCLUSIVE: The Washington Put up is dealing with a backlash after the media outlet quoted three consultants to forged doubt on the validity of a bullet wound sustained in Afghanistan by a high Republican Senate candidate, however omitted the trio’s ties to the Democratic Occasion.
Former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy, who’s operating to unseat Democrat Sen. Jon Tester, went to the emergency room after a reported fall in Montana’s Glacier Nationwide Park in 2015. Sheehy was requested a few bullet present in his arm through the go to and informed a Nationwide Park ranger that he had by chance shot himself with a Colt .45 revolver — however Sheehy not too long ago revealed that he truly suffered the harm whereas serving in Afghanistan in 2012.
Sheehy informed the Washington Put up that he by no means reported it to his superiors to keep away from an investigation, telling the outlet that he was uncertain the place the bullet got here from. He stated he didn’t report the incident in an effort to guard his former platoonmates.
The Put up, which started the report by claiming Sheehy left the bullet in his arm “as proof of his toughness,” spoke with a number of people who referred to as Sheehy’s story into query. Public data reviewed by Fox Information Digital reveal these identical people mixed have donated hundreds of {dollars} to the Democratic Occasion.
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Sheehy served in Iraq, Afghanistan, South America, and the Pacific area, receiving the Bronze Star with Valor for Heroism in Fight and the Purple Coronary heart Medal. (Tim Sheehy for Senate)
Upon taking a look at an X-ray of the wound, which was supplied to the Put up by Sheehy, Joseph V. Sakran, a Johns Hopkins trauma surgeon and longtime Democrat donor, raised questions concerning the Republican Senate candidate’s story. Sakran informed the Put up that Sheehy’s wound “most likely depicts a bullet, however it isn’t potential to inform what sort of weapon it got here from nor the age of the wound.”
Sakran beforehand labored as a Democrat staffer, serving as a well being coverage fellow for Democrat Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H. Filings with the Federal Election Fee (FEC) reveal the physician has a protracted historical past of contributing to the campaigns of Democrat candidates up and down the poll, together with giving at the very least $21,000 to teams such because the Hillary Clinton Victory Fund, Hillary for America, the Democratic Nationwide Committee (DNC), and Biden for President.
Sakran’s web site calls him a “nationally acknowledged activist coalition builder” and stated his “activism first achieved nationwide recognition when he based Medical doctors for Hillary.”
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Sakran has additionally made public feedback towards former President Donald Trump, who endorsed Sheehy for the Montana Senate in 2024. Sakran wrote on Jan. 6, 2021 that the previous GOP president “left an undeniably darkish Stain on U.S. Historical past.” Moreover, White Home customer logs reveal that Sakran has made at the very least 4 visits to the Biden White Home.
“We aren’t shocked the Washington Put up selected to quote recognized Democrats for his or her smear piece towards embellished fight veteran Tim Sheehy,” a Sheehy for Montana spokesperson informed Fox Information Digital in a press release. “These are the identical those who pushed the Democrats’ Russian hoax and fake each day that President Biden is mentally match and that our border isn’t in disaster. Tim Sheehy will defeat Jon Tester this November and can be a part of President Trump, so we will drain the swamp for good.”
Former President Donald Trump endorsed Tim Sheehy for the Montana Senate in 2024. (Sheehy for Senate)
The outlet spoke with one other skilled, former Air Pressure legal professional Rachel VanLandingham, who questioned Sheehy’s hesitancy to report the incident. She stated she believes it to be “impossible a years-old potential ricochet harm would compel naval investigators to open any type of investigation primarily based on a park ranger’s report.”
VanLandingham has made a number of donations to ActBlue and Hillary for America, data present. Moreover, she has referred to Trump as a “terrorist recruiting poster little one.”
VanLandingham, who stated she is presently a registered Democrat however finds “each events extraordinarily problematic,” informed Fox Information Digital in an e-mail that her political beliefs by no means got here up in dialog whereas contributing to the piece.
“My political beliefs didn’t, and have by no means, come up in dialog with this reporter throughout this specific interview, nor in any others; once more, my experience is seen is impartial, I hope, and I wish to preserve it that means,” VanLandingham stated. “I’ve publicly criticized President Biden and definitely Secretary of Protection Austin prior to now, and would doso [sic] once more if my skilled judgment deems it warranted.”
She additionally added that she was appointed by President Trump’s final Secretary of Protection to the Army Justice Assessment Panel as proof that she is called “an unbiased, straight-shooting navy legislation skilled unafraid to talk her thoughts.”
Regardless of claiming she is “impartial” and that her “analyses aren’t primarily based on politics, however on the legislation and details,” a Fox Information Digital evaluation discovered a number of examples of VanLandingham attacking Trump and his supporters.
“Trump is a terrorist recruiting poster little one. Tx for making America much less protected & w/ much less actual energy!” she wrote in 2017.
In 2020, VanLandingham additionally wrote that “Trump’s name to label Antifa ‘home terrorists’ is harmful.”
“Yeah welcome to the social gathering I felt that means when racist thuggish Trump and his home & overseas enablers received the electoral school in 2016 – and that means throughout glorification of our deeply racist nation at Charlottesville the subsequent yr. Yesterday was not a shock. Pathetic, sure” she wrote on January 7, 2021, the day after the January 6 Capitol riot.
After contributing to the Put up report, VanLandingham painted Sheehy as a “deeply flawed hero whose health for workplace is very questionable,” in an April 6 publish on X. The legal professional has been a vocal supporter of Biden, calling his resolution to pick out Vice President Kamala Harris as his operating mate an “glorious” resolution.
Vanlandingham shared a USA At present op-ed in 2021 from David Rothkopf, a vocal Biden supporter who has referred to as Trump a “better” risk to america than al-Qaeda. The op-ed was titled, “Trump and his supporters are harmful enemies of American democracy.”
The Put up additionally spoke with the director of the Army, Veterans & Society program on the Middle for New American Safety, Katherine Kuzminski, who stated she “believed it was extremely unlikely {that a} civilian hospital would report a years-old bullet wound to the Navy or that anybody would worry such a report would end in an investigation,” in keeping with the report.
Kuzminski, who received an image with Biden and the primary girl in 2023 and has made a number of visits to the Biden White Home, wrote in a 2016 publish on X that Trump “is not any Republican.”
She additionally stated it was “unfair” for Republicans to criticize the navy’s deal with range, telling the Hill in Could 2023 that “if what we’re afraid of is Vladimir Putin considering poorly of our navy readiness as a result of we allow pronouns, all we’ve got to do is take a look at the outcomes on the battlefield that the Russian military is dealing with proper now.”
The Washington Put up, Sakran, Kuzminski, Tester’s marketing campaign, Johns Hopkins Hospital, and the Navy didn’t reply to Fox Information Digital’s requests for remark.
The doorway to The Washington Put up company constructing in Washington D.C. (ERIC BARADAT/AFP through Getty Pictures)
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Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., blasted the article as a “politically motivated smear.”
“A ridiculous, politically motivated smear,” Cotton wrote in a publish on X. “Sheehy has a embellished document of service and he’ll struggle Biden’s disastrous insurance policies. That’s why the Washington Put up is attacking him—they know he can win.”
Aubrie Spady is a Manufacturing Assistant for Fox Information Digital.
WaPo ‘smear’ of highly-decorated Iraq battle veteran, Senate candidate omits important data
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