The New York Times is relying on a registered Democrat with a long history of donating to Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and other leftwing politicians to justify recirculating a failed attack against surging Republican Montana Senate nominee Tim Sheehy.
The recycled attack coincides with Sheehy’s surge to a commanding eight-point lead over incumbent Sen. Jon Tester, who is at risk of losing his Senate seat and taking Sen. Chuck Schumer’s majority with him.
The Times – Schumer’s hometown paper – relies on an account from Dave Madden, a former Navy SEAL colleague of Sheehy’s with long histories of donating to Democrats and troubling social media posts, to cast doubts on Sheehy’s account of being struck by a bullet in Afghanistan.
Madden has donated almost 40 times to Democrat candidates beginning with then-Sen. Barack Obama’s first campaign for president, according to Federal Election Commission records.
The Times report acknowledges Madden is “a registered Democrat who has frequently criticized Mr. Sheehy’s politics and character online in recent months” but does not address the vociferousness of those attacks or other troubling posts from Madden, many revealed by Breitbart News for the first time.
Madden, who served in Afghanistan but admits he was not present during the 2012 firefight in question, disputes Sheehy’s account of being shot during the skirmish. Sheehy did not initially report his war wound, only revealing it after his service ended.
Sheehy and his team say he withheld reporting the incident because he suspected that it may have occurred as a result of friendly fire, which might have caused problems for his platoonmates. The Times reports:
That initial effort to protect his peers, the lawyers said, continued for years, after Mr. Sheehy left active duty. They said that when Mr. Sheehy suffered what they said was an injury on a hike in the national park and sought help at a hospital emergency room, the medical staff told him they needed to report the bullet in his arm to law enforcement. He decided to lie about it, the lawyers said, by telling both the medical staff and Mr. Peach that the bullet had come from an accidental shooting that day.
The Times continues:
Lawyers for Mr. Sheehy said in a letter to The Times this week that the bullet had actually came from an apparent ricochet during a firefight in Afghanistan, and that Mr. Sheehy had not wanted to spark an official investigation that could create problems for his fellow SEALs.
Three years later in Montana, they said, he slipped on a patch of ice and fell to the ground, re-aggravating the bullet injury. When he got to the hospital, they said, he informed medical workers of his past gunshot wound. He explained that the gunshot was not fresh, the lawyers said, but when hospital officials said they would still have to contact law enforcement, Mr. Sheehy changed his story to say that he accidentally shot himself in the national park, still fearing that revealing the ricochet bullet could result in problems for his former SEAL teammates.
The report also leans on an account from Kim Peach, the park ranger who spoke with Sheehy at the hospital in 2015 after Sheehy’s hike. Peach, who described himself to the Times as someone who generally votes for Democrats, said Sheehy personally told him that he had accidentally shot himself in the arm, and handed over a revolver with a spent round.
Peach told the Times “I am 100 percent sure he shot himself that day,” although the Times does not address whether Peach would face repercussions with his employer or law enforcement for failing to verify Sheehy’s wound that day.
Sheehy’s lawyers say Sheehy could not have accidentally shot himself by dropping his Colt .45 revolver out of his car, because the firing mechanism requires that someone pull the trigger.
Sheehy earned a Bronze Star for his efforts to rescue one wounded man in a firefight and in 2015 was awarded the Purple Heart, a military decoration for service members who have been injured or killed in the line of duty. He later attained success as a businessman before entering politics.
Madden’s post-SEAL story is far different. Business records reveal two tax liens against his company, Ripcord AI Inc. And his social media posts reveal a deep animosity towards not only Sheehy and others he served with but a deep disillusionment with the military itself.
His posts include his acknowledgement he may sometimes misremember “what ‘actually happened'” during the fog of war – an admission that undercuts his claims against Sheehy.
On November 17, 2021, Madden tweeted “‘the fog of war’ is a fucking real thing” and said two guys “can often have entirely different ideas about what ‘actually happened.’”
In the same thread, Madden tweeted “human memory is far more flawed than it feels” and says, “We tend to rewrite the past in a way that is flattering to us and unflattering to people we’ve put ourselves in opposition to.”
Madden makes numerous personal attacks against Sheehy. On September 6, 2024, Madden tweeted that he was “thinking about doing a @votevets thing talking about my old teammate running there,” in reference to Sheehy’s Senate run while questioning if “character matters in Montana. On April 6, 2024, Madden tweeted “he was my friend once” and that he “admired him.”
On April 16, 2024, in a reply to a tweet showing establishment favorite Jon Tester far outraising Sheehy, Madden tweeted “seeing Tim fumble warms my cockles, ngl” (“ngl” is an acronym for “not gonna lie”).
Madden’s Twitter posts also include numerous attacks on Donald Trump, calling him a “wannabe dictator,” “fascist“, and accusing him of staging a coup. In one troubling post, he baselessly accused Trump of raping children.
He also appears to have grown disillusioned by his time serving his country. His posts feature numerous attacks on the military, claiming joining the military was “a stupid thing to do” and belittling numerous other SEALS. He accuses one unnamed SEAL of pedophilia.
The Times report is unlikely to reverse the trajectory of the Montana Senate race. But the timing and contents reveal the lengths some outlets will go to manufacture a story – and perhaps the desperation of their sources to preserve their tenuous hold on power.
Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.
