You can understand why these people would believe they can get away with this level of lying. Look at Donald Trump? He has lied about virtually everything in his life and he’s beloved by most of the Republican party.
Freshman Republican Rep. Andy Ogles (TN) says he’s a trained economist, but in reality, he only took one community college course on the subject—and he got a C, a transcript obtained by NewsChannel 5 in Nashville revealed. Ogles’ congressional bio says he graduated from Middle Tennessee State University, “where he studied policy and economics.” However, a resume he used in 2009 said he got a degree in international relations, with no mention of economics.
But both claims were false, according to the transcript, which Ogles had tried to keep sealed. Ogles actually majored in liberal studies. The congressman also enrolled in classes titled U.S. Presidency, Problems in Government, Political Theory and National Security Policy—failing all of them twice, once in 1995 and again in 1998. It took Ogles 17 years to attain his degree, graduating in 2007 with a 2.4 GPA, NewsChannel 5 reported. And the Freedom Caucus member has already admitted to his false claims, too, telling a conservative local paper, “When I pulled my transcript to verify, I realized I was mistaken.” “I apologize for my misstatement,” he added.
After the local report was published, the congressman stopped talking about “condensed” résumés, “partisan hacks,” and “the liberal media,” and started acknowledging reality.
“I previously stated that my degree from [Middle Tennessee State University] was in International Relations,” Ogles said in a written statement. “When I pulled my transcript to verify, I realized I was mistaken. My degree is in Liberal Studies. I apologize for my misstatement.”
It’s worth emphasizing for context that Ogles is only 51. This isn’t a situation in which a politician is 103 years old and forgot about a collegiate career that was practically a lifetime ago. Ogles graduated from college in 2007.
His mea culpa yesterday was that he forgot his own major until he reviewed his transcript. I supposed anything is possible, but ask literally anyone you know with a college degree what they majored in, and I have a hunch they’ll know the correct answer without having to check any records.
To be sure, the fact that Ogles misstated the details of his degree, in isolation, may not seem especially noteworthy. But it’s the larger context that paints a rather brutal portrait: The Tennessee Republican appears to have lied about much of his academic and professional background, and to date, he’s offered literally nothing to challenge the accuracy of the revelations.
It also comes against a backdrop of Republican Rep. George Santos’ brazen lies about multiple aspects of his own life.
To date, GOP leaders haven’t commented or expressed any concerns about Ogles’ related dishonesty, though if recent history is any guide, they’ll wave it off as irrelevant. With a narrow majority in the House, Republican leaders apparently don’t believe they can afford to care too much about whether some of their members lied their way onto Capitol Hill.
Plenty of people pad their resumes. But this level goes way beyond “padding” and these are people who should know that the public or their political rivals will check. But I guess they assume they can get away with it regardless.
We are living in a shameless time.