Jon Tester Unloads On GOP Opponent Tim Sheehy In Montana Senate Debate

MISSOULA, Mont. ― Battling for his political survival, Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) spent a lot of Monday’s Senate debate towards Republican rival Tim Sheehy on offense, accusing the rich rancher of serving to gas the state’s housing disaster, posing a menace to reproductive rights and mendacity to voters about his plans for federal lands.

From the opening seconds of their face-off on the College of Montana, Tester handled his opponent like the true menace he poses to his marketing campaign for a fourth time period, in addition to Democrats’ powerful odds of retaining management of the Senate subsequent 12 months.

Criticizing Sheehy’s document on defending federal lands, an enormous subject in Montana, Tester warned, “Watch out what people say in back rooms, folks.”

“What they say in back rooms, when they don’t think the recorder is going or the camera is running, is usually what they think,” Tester stated. “And Tim said we need to turn our lands over to either his rich buddies or county government. That’s not protecting public lands.”

Tester knocked Sheehy repeatedly on land use, saying his opponent has “made an incredible transformation on this issue.” Tester cited HuffPost’s reporting, which first revealed that Sheehy had known as for federal lands to be “turned over” to states or counties; did not disclose his submit on the board of the Property and Surroundings Analysis Heart, a Bozeman-based property rights and environmental analysis nonprofit with a historical past of advocating for privatizing federal lands; and appeared to physician a current TV advert to take away PERC’s brand from the shirt he was sporting.

In defending himself, Sheehy falsely claimed that “no one, including myself, in that organization has ever advocated for selling our public lands ― never have, never will.”

In truth, in a 1999 coverage paper titled “How and Why to Privatize Federal Lands,” PERC’s then-director, Terry Anderson, and others laid out what they known as “a blueprint for auctioning off all public lands over 20 to 40 years.” (PERC beforehand informed HuffPost that that 1999 paper “is not representative of PERC’s current thinking.”)

When requested about making housing extra accessible to Montanans, Tester highlighted his laws that would offer tax credit to new owners after which shortly pivoted to slamming “hedge fund folks buying homes and kicking people out” of the state, a veiled reference to Sheehy transferring to Montana from Minnesota a decade in the past. The senator has railed concerning the ultra-wealthy driving up prices within the state and spending thousands and thousands to attempt to oust him from workplace.

Nevertheless it was on the subject of abortion rights that Tester took his most direct purpose at his GOP challenger, calling him out for opposing the state poll initiative that will shield reproductive rights and criticizing his statements calling abortion “terrible” and “murder.”

“Women should be able to make their own health care decisions,” Tester stated. “It shouldn’t be the federal government, a bureaucrat or a judge. Women should. That’s what Montanans like.”

Sheehy stated he supported exceptions for abortion, akin to in instances of rape, incest or when the lifetime of the mom is in danger, however he criticized Democrats for not supporting abortion restrictions.

“At some point when there’s another viable life included, that life also has the right to protection. … Commonsense life legislation is what I support,” Sheehy stated when requested if there ought to be a nationwide customary on abortion.

Tester additionally attacked Sheehy over his feedback final 12 months calling for privatization of the U.S. well being care system, warning that it might threaten Medicare, veterans care and the Indian Health Service.

Sheehy responded by calling well being care “a moral obligation” however stated that the personal sector can be “able to do it better, faster and cheaper.” He decried a single-payer well being care system, including that “we can’t hand our health care to the government, that’s a disaster.”

The candidates’ dialogue of the U.S.-Mexico border and the difficulty of immigration grew notably heated. Sheehy accused Tester of serving to create a migration disaster on the border, whereas Tester criticized Sheehy and different Republicans for blowing up a bipartisan Senate invoice that will have toughened border enforcement as a result of “party bosses,” together with former President Donald Trump, got here out towards it.

“It could have been passed, but Tim Sheehy was against it before it was even released to read,” Tester stated.

Tester backed Sheehy right into a nook on his disparaging feedback about Native Individuals in Montana. A recording unearthed final month confirmed Sheehy peddling a racist trope about members of the Crow Tribe, in southeast Montana, and alcoholism.

“It’s on tape, once again, and you didn’t think anybody was listening,” Tester stated. “But believe people when they say stuff in a back room.”

Sheehy acknowledged that the feedback have been “insensitive” and “off-color,” and stated he takes accountability for that, however he stopped in need of apologizing and accused Tester of making an attempt to distract from the problems that have an effect on Native communities.

“You’re a big guy; just apologize,” Tester stated.

“Will you apologize for opening the border?” Sheehy fired again.

Tester is dealing with a barrage of multimillion-dollar GOP advertisements attacking him over his ties to nationwide Democrats, together with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee. He has sought to distance himself from the Democratic Occasion as he trails Sheehy in polls of the hotly contested race. Trump beat Biden in Montana by 16 share factors within the 2020 presidential election, a margin Republicans are hoping will flip Tester’s seat to their column and acquire them management of the higher chamber together with it.

This has put Tester in a tough place of making an attempt to remind voters that he and Biden aren’t all the time on the identical web page regardless of his document of supporting Biden’s main laws in Congress.

“Biden has not done a good job on the southern border,” Tester stated at one level, earlier than including, “But Congress needs to do its job, too.”