MAGA Sen. Tim Sheehy froze after CNN’s Kaitlan Collins fact-checked his defense of the Trump administration’s decision to yank $1 billion in clean-energy funding from his own state.
The Montana Republican newcomer tried to blame Democrats for the fallout after the Energy Department scrapped funding for the Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub—a multi-state project that Montana’s Republican governor had hailed as creating “good-paying Montana jobs.”
Appearing on The Source, he was asked if the cut meant taking away jobs, and he attempted a diversion.
Sheehy attempted to blame the cancellation on Democrats amid the government shutdown. He took aim at Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, as the shutdown hit the two-week mark.
“Of course it is. As I said, we want the government to be open. You should be saying this is Chuck Schumer who’s closing the government down. I‘m agreeing we should have the government open right now. This is an unnecessary shutdown,” he told Collins.
Collins responded, “But you’re acknowledging that what the Trump administration just pulled in funding is hurting your state.”
Sheehy launched into a lengthy detour about the shutdown and its effect on air traffic controllers and cattle shipping. “That’s why we’ve voted eight times to reopen the government,” he said, again blaming Democrats.
Collins then asked, “On this hub specifically, the Trump administration didn’t have to make that decision. They decided to pull that billion dollars from your state. Do you disagree with that?”
“Well, I think the reality is we wouldn’t be here if the government was still open,” Sheehy replied.
Collins told the senator that when she asked Chris Wright, the energy secretary, about the project specifically, he said “they would have done that even if the government wasn’t shut down. That was months in the making, even before the government shut down.”
Sheehy was lost for words for several seconds, but said eventually: “Well, that’s unfortunate that we’re still shut down. We shouldn’t be.”
Clips of Sheehy’s deer-in-the-headlights moment drew mockery on X. “I’ve never seen someone made to look so patently foolish without the interviewer ever suggesting this was so,” one user wrote.
“Everyone’s afraid of saying anything bad about the king,” one commenter wrote. “Trump has effectively turned all Republicans into a bunch of p—ies.” Another said, “Mr Sheehy dare not say any bad words about the Dear Leader.”
In remarks to Axios, Chris Green, president of the Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Association, said the decision to yank the grant from the Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub marks “a major and significant setback.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Department of Energy for comment.
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