‘You’re A Big Guy, Just Apologize’: Montana’s Democratic Senator Baits GOP Opponent During Testy Debate
The U.S. Senate race in Montana between incumbent Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) and his Republican challenger Tim Sheehy could very well tip the balance in the chamber and has grown testy as the two candidates continue to duke it out and publicly trade barbs – as they did during Monday night’s debate.
Tester attacked Sheehy for past comments he made about Native Americans, his stance on abortion, and his ties to the state. Sheehy went after the three-term incumbent for his long stay in office and accused him of being too closely tied to lobbyists and special interests.
During the debate, Tester called for Sheehy to apologize to Native Americans after remarks last year of him laughing with a group of supporters and saying that he made friends “with all the Indians … while they’re drunk at 8 a.m.” were caught on tape and made public.
“But let’s talk about our Native Americans here for a second. Tim, the statement you made degrades Native Americans across this country. And you can say, look, I’ll take responsibility. But, you know, apologies matter, and how you treat people matters. And if you treat them with disrespect, other people will disrespect them. So like I said, to begin with, you’re a big guy, just apologize,” Tester said.
Sheehy, a former Navy Seal, dodged the initial prod from Tester and replied saying, “Will you apologize for opening the border?”
“I didn’t open the border. I’ve been trying to get the border fixed from the get-go. And in fact, when we had an opportunity to fix the border, you were the one that said, hey, we want to play politics with this. And if you don’t believe me, turn the TV on and see what you said,” Tester hit back, referring to Sheehy joining former President Donald Trump’s call to kill a bipartisan bill earlier in the year that would have hired thousands of more border patrol agents.
Tester hit Sheehy again during the debate over his jab at Native Americans, who are a major voting bloc in Montana.
“Yeah, insensitive,” Sheehy eventually conceded about the remarks.
“I come from the military as many of our tribal members do. You know, we make insensitive jokes and probably off color-jokes sometimes,” he added.
While leaning on his military record to explain his comments about Native Americans, Sheehy also invoked his service to slam Tester’s long-run in office. “While I was fighting in Afghanistan, he was eating lobbyist steak in D.C.,” Sheehy said at one point in the debate.
Sheehy also hammered Tester repeatedly over immigration with the Democrat firmly distancing himself from his party on the issue. “Look, I’ll be the first person to tell you that President Biden has not done a good job on the southern border,” Tester said when attacked on the issue.
Republicans need to flip two seats this November to win the majority in the U.S. Senate and are all but guaranteed to win in West Virginia after Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV) announced he would not seek reelection. Democrats are defending several seats in GOP-leaning states, including Ohio and Arizona, but none are as deep-red as Montana.
Watch the clips above.
