Mother Jones illustration; Ben Allan Smith/The Missoulian/AP; J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Last week, Megyn Kelly, a former Fox News anchor and Donald Trump supporter this year, wanted to give Montana Republican Senate candidate Tim Sheehy a chance to explain himself. For the past year, in a pivotal campaign to flip the Senate, Sheehy had been embroiled in a scandal involving potentially stolen valor.

Sheehy says he was shot in Afghanistan; there is a good deal of evidence that is a lie. As the Washington Post revealed in April, Sheehy told a park ranger in 2015 that the bullet in his arm came from accidentally shooting himself in Glacier National Park.

“So, just to be clear,” Kelly asked, “Did you shoot yourself in the arm?”

Sheehy told Kelly his opponent’s campaign was based on “character assassination.” But, mostly, he obfuscated. Kelly kept pressing on whether he was shot in Afghanistan or the state park: “Which is it?”

Sheehy insisted he hadn’t actually shot himself, despite having paid a $500 fine for illegally firing a gun in a national park and pleading for leniency in a handwritten note.

“Are there medical records where the ER can say, ‘We did not treat a gunshot wound?” Kelly........

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