Yes, he’s a Republican. You had to ask?
For ye have the poor always with you, Jesus said. Now, maybe COVID. And Trumpism? It won’t be going away anytime soon. Even if he does.
Jesus taught that we should love our neighbors. Trump taught disciples they could lie shamelessly and get away with it. The lesson took.
Freshman Rep. George Santos (R) of New York may have lied to voters about 95 percent of his resume. The hammer is yet to come down for that. Meantime, he holds a seat in Congress.
Freshman Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R) of Florida variously described herself as Middle Eastern, Jewish or Eastern European when she served at Whiteman Air Force Base in Warrensburg, Mo., per friends’ accounts to the Washington Post. She did not at that time identify as Hispanic, they say. Her last name then was Mayerhofer.
A Christian, Luna told Jewish Insider in November that she was “raised as a Messianic Jew by her father.” Also, “I am also a small fraction Ashkenazi.” Except three members of her extended family told the Post her father was Catholic. Her late grandfather, Heinrich Mayerhofer, relatives said, served in the Wehrmacht as a teenager.
The conservative congresswoman’s resume may not be so much fabricated as liberally padded.
Which brings us to freshman Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee. He’s now receiving scrutiny from a Nashville TV station:
If you believe Middle Tennessee’s newest congressman, he’s not only a businessman, he’s also an economist, a nationally recognized expert in tax policy and health care, a trained police officer, even an expert in international sex crimes.
But an exclusive NewsChannel 5 investigation discovered that Andy Ogles’ personal life story is filled with exaggerations, a story that’s often too good to be true.
Yes, he’s a Republican. You had to ask?
Ogles claims repeatedly that he is an economist. His congressional bio claims “he studied policy and economics” at Middle Tennessee State University. The school refuses to confirm that. A copy of his diploma shows he received a bachelor of science degree from Middle Tennessee State in 2007.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates checked and, back in 2002, Ogles’ website claimed he had “studied foreign policy and the constitution” at Western Kentucky University and Middle Tennessee State.
There was no mention of economics.
Western Kentucky says when he was there from fall of 1990 to fall of 1993, Ogles actually majored in English and Allied Language Arts.
A 2009 resume found online lists “a degree in international relations, with minors in psychology and English.” Those “executive certificates” from Vanderbilt and Dartmouth are online short courses.
His LinkedIn resume shows he once worked as “executive director” for the Laffer Center — not as an economist. That job appears to have been an administrative position. A search of the center’s website shows no economic reports authored by Ogles.
The congressman’s website also claims that “while working at the Laffer Center, Andy became a nationally recognized expert on tax policy and healthcare, having been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal and Investor’s Business Daily.”
But a search of those sites shows only three columns he wrote, in two cases with another person, when he was a lobbyist for the conservative Americans for Prosperity — nothing independently citing him as an expert.
All three were published before he worked for Laffer.
Ogles also claims, not unlike Herschel Walker, the former Georgia Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, a background “as a former member of law enforcement” with special experience in “international sex crimes, specifically child trafficking….”
NewsChannel 5 found that while he was sworn in as a reserve deputy with the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office in July 2009, “he lost that position two years later for not meeting minimum standards, making no progress in field training and failure to attend required meetings.”
“There is nothing in Mr. Ogles training or personnel file that indicates he had any involvement in ‘international sex trafficking’ in his capacity as a reserve deputy,” Williamson County sheriff’s spokesperson Sharon Puckett told NewsChannel 5.
There is more evidence that Ogles puffed up part time work for a nonprofit into being its Chief Operating Officer.
MTSU political science professor John Vile tells NewsChannel 5, “One of the downsides of political parties was the notion of people meeting in smoke-filled rooms and coming to decisions, but one of the advantages was some of these sort of old timers had a better idea of, you know, people’s reputation outside of the media.”
Ogles ignored requests for comment. So did Laffer.
Like students who attended Trump University, anyone who gave money to his phony charity, or who believed puffery that he is a successful businessman, Republican voters are lining up to be suckers.
Trump set the template other Republicans now follow. Trump taught his children well.