Montana Dem candidate launches death threat-laced voicemail at GOP senator

Freshman Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., was the goal of dying threats and different excessive insults by a left-wing metropolis commissioner candidate from Helena, Montana’s capital, who referred to as his workplace a number of weeks in the past to depart her ideas concerning the Republican senator on a voicemail.

The voicemail got here in July, shortly after Sheehy voted together with his Republican colleagues to go the One Huge Stunning Invoice Act, a sweeping Republican tax and spending package deal that angered many Democrats, together with Helena metropolis commissioner candidate Haley McKnight, after the legislation handed.

“Hi there, that is Haley McKnight. I’m a voter in Helena, Montana,” McKnight started in her voicemail, a recording of which was obtained and verified by Fox Information Digital. “I simply needed to let you already know that you’re essentially the most unbearable coward and thief. You simply took away well being look after 17 million People, and I hope you’re very pleased with that. I hope someday you get pancreatic most cancers, and the illness spreads by your physique so rapidly that they can not even deal with you for it.”

However the anger did not cease there. Throughout the roughly one-minute voicemail, which in response to telephone logs arrived on the afternoon of July 1, McKnight begins with insults about Sheehy’s fertility and his kids earlier than warning the senator to not “meet me on the road.”

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U.S. Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., (left) and Helena Metropolis Commissioner-designate Haley McKnight (proper). (Pictures by Haley for Helena and Andrew Harnik through Getty Photos)

“I hope you die like a canine on the street,” McKnight continued. “Sooner or later you may remorse this. I hope your kids by no means forgive you. I hope you are barren. I hope you handle to by no means get a hard-on once more. You are the worst piece of… I’ve ever, ever, had the misfortune to have a look at… God forbid you ever meet me on the road, as a result of I am going to make you remorse it. I hope you die.”

McKnight added that Sheehy just isn’t “serving Montanans,” however quite solely his “personal non-public pursuits.”

“All you’ve got completed because you got here to energy is do issues for your self.”

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McKnight, initially from North Carolina however now dwelling and dealing in Montana, owns a small enterprise referred to as Sage & Oats Buying and selling Publish, which McKnight describes on her marketing campaign web site as “a profitable Native American reward store.” She additionally runs a consultancy and design firm referred to as Morningstar Design Ltd Co, and is president and board member of the Helena Younger Professionals group. She touts being the recipient of the Helena Chamber’s 20 below 40 award.

“I’m all the time keen to face up for what I imagine and problem the established order,” reads McKnight’s “About” webpage on her marketing campaign web site, which incorporates priorities resembling housing for all, higher authorities transparency, elevated funding for public artwork and music, and extra accessible streets and downtown dwelling.

Montana State Capitol Constructing, positioned in Helena, Montana. (Picture by: Training Photos/Common Photos Group through Getty Photos)

In an interview with a neighborhood information outlet, McKnight touted her previous volunteer work for the Obama marketing campaign and extra lately her work for Democratic candidate Steve Held’s marketing campaign for Congress. Held didn’t make it to the primaries.

In the meantime, public marketing campaign donation knowledge exhibits McKnight has donated to a number of Democratic candidates, in response to knowledge reviewed by Fox Information Digital.

Town commissioner race in Helena, which is historically nonpartisan, marks her first time working for political workplace. McKnight was initially certainly one of 5 declared nonpartisan candidates earlier than advancing to the November basic election after ending third in a nonpartisan main in September.

“I’m a voter and I responded with some righteous anger to a horrible coverage,” McKnight advised Fox Information Digital concerning the voicemail when reached for remark. “I hope that if Sheehy was that confused by my voicemail, he would have contacted me as a substitute of leaking my info to conservative information media the evening earlier than the election. It looks like an inexpensive shot. I am certainly one of his constituents, and you already know, this message is nothing I might say to my grandmother or in entrance of kids, it was only for Senator Sheehy.”

McKnight stated it was “laughable” that Sheehy would reply this strategy to voicemails from his constituents.

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“I might even have thought that somebody within the armed forces might use sturdy language,” McKnight added. Sheehy is a former Navy SEAL who was shot whereas deployed to Afghanistan.

Tim Sheehy, founding father of Bridger Aerospace, seen on the Bridger hangar in Bozeman, Montana, USA, on Thursday, January 18, 2024. Sheehy is a former Navy SEAL. (Photographer: Louise Johns/Bloomberg through Getty Photos)

In the meantime, McKnight went on to say that she was merely “attempting to convey the seriousness of the scenario” together with her voicemail. She added that she had no intention of threatening Sheehy together with her voicemail. McKnight additionally reportedly advised Nationwide Overview that she “clearly” did not intend to harm Sheehy, telling the newspaper, “I could not, I am a lady.”

“I needed to clarify the struggles that individuals I do know are going by due to his insurance policies. I feel individuals had been fairly shocked by my specificity, however these are issues which can be affecting individuals in my group,” McKnight advised Fox Information Digital, including that Sheehy spent an excessive amount of time blocking the discharge of “the Epstein recordsdata” as a substitute of understanding the struggles Montanans are going by.

However when requested through voicemail whether or not McKnight stood by her rhetoric, particularly after officers from either side of the aisle referred to as on individuals to show down the warmth in gentle of the wave of political violence the USA has seen recently, she merely replied, “No touch upon that.”

“I’ve acquired quite a few dying and rape threats since this story was revealed,” McKnight stated when pressed additional. “My enterprise is at present below risk due to the senator’s actions,” she added, referring to Sheehy publicly sharing her voicemail with the media.

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“It is fully politically motivated,” McKnight concluded. “It is an inexpensive shot the evening earlier than an election… all I’ve left to say is launch the Epstein recordsdata.”

Montana won’t have a serious statewide election this 12 months.

Tim Sheehy prepares for a debate with U.S. Senator Jon Tester on the campus of the College of Montana in Missoula, Mont. Sheehy finally defeated Tester within the subsequent election to take over his seat within the Montana Senate. (The Missoulian through AP)

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In feedback to the Nationwide Overview, McKnight added: “To see [Sheehy] throwing away what Montanans want and wish for his personal betterment is sufficient to make me, sure, need to battle him on the spot.

“I wish to say that as a result of I feel within the age of rising fascism we should not be afraid to say these items,” she added.

In the meantime, when requested by the outlet if she thought her voicemail went too far, McKnight stated she did not assume so, including that she’s had buddies die from pancreatic most cancers as a result of they could not entry the care they wanted. “This can be a man who’s so wealthy he won’t ever need to cope with that downside,” McKnight reportedly stated.

In her feedback to Fox Information Digital, McKnight additionally recalled {that a} good friend died of pancreatic most cancers “as a result of he could not afford to deal with it.”

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Montana Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy speaks throughout a rally for Donald Trump as he ran for president on the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse at Montana State College on August 9, 2024 in Bozeman, Montana. (Michael Ciaglo/Getty Photos)

McKnight, like Virginia’s Democratic legal professional basic nominee Jay Jones, who’s in sizzling water for feedback about desirous to kill his political rival and his household, is an instance of heightened political rhetoric about which members of Congress and different authorities officers have expressed concern.

“It would not matter whether or not it comes from one aspect or the opposite, in opposition to one get together or the opposite, or in opposition to one particular person or the opposite. It is all flawed — and it makes us all much less secure,” Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, stated of the September political violence following the killing of Charlie Kirk. Shapiro is joined by members of each events in calling on others to tone down the warmth amid a wave of political violence the nation has seen.

When reached for touch upon the voicemail, Sheehy spokesman Tate Mitchell stated, “We hope Ms. McKnight will get the assistance she clearly wants and need her the very best.”