The fact that it took Tennessee Republican Rep. Andy Ogles longer than the average student to get his degree, that he had a low GPA, and that he’d flunked several political science courses isn’t the issue. The issue is that he and other Republicans just can’t seem to stop themselves from lying.
According to reporting by the Nashville outlet NewsChannel 5 Investigates in mid-February, there’s a web of mistruths trapping the freshman congressman.
"Yeah, you know, I'm an economist," Ogles, 51, reportedly told a C-SPAN interviewer. And when asked what committees he’d like to be assigned to, he doubled down and said, "So, I'm an economist."
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It turns out that’s not exactly true. NewsChannel 5 Investigates has just uncovered Ogles’ college transcripts and found that he took just one economics class. His major was Liberal Studies, not economics or International Relations, from Middle State Tennessee University (MTSU), as he’d asserted on a curriculum vitae (CV) in 2009.
Ogles was even caught in the lie claiming to have done graduate work at highly respected business schools at Vanderbilt and Dartmouth universities. Not true.
According to MSNBC, Ogles’ spokesperson claimed to a Fox News.com writer that the congressman’s lies were just “a simple case of condensing a résumé for the sake of brevity on the campaign trail, and partisan hacks are trying to turn it into a headline for clicks.”
The congressman’s office even alleged that the whole thing was simply “an attempt by the liberal media to make something out of nothing.”
When several outlets tried to confirm his credentials but found it challenging, Ogles claimed he’d put a block on his records for fear that his identity could be stolen.
"I would encourage anyone to lock down your transcripts, lock down your credit, so you're not a victim of identity theft," Ogles told WWTN host Dan Mandis, NewsChannel 5 reports.
Ogles has also famously refused to acknowledge that President Joe Biden won the election in 2020, according to The Washington Post.
Randy Stamps, former political director for the Tennessee Republican Party and a former GOP legislator, told NewsChannel 5 Investigates, "What it shows is the level of deception that he is willing to participate in order to get elected to the United States Congress — and that's disturbing. [...] Taking one course when you are a freshman or sophomore in college does not make you an economist… and if he is willing to run around and say, 'hey, I'm an economist,' who knows what else he is going to tell you that is not true."
Stamps broke with his party last fall and supported Ogles' Democratic opponent, state Sen. Heidi Campbell, according to WZTV in Nashville.
Sunday, Ogles offered an apology for “misstatements” about his degree.
“I previously stated that my degree from MTSU was in International Relations. When I pulled my transcript to verify, I realized I was mistaken. My degree is in Liberal Studies. I apologize for my misstatement," Ogles said in a statement issued by his communications director, according to The Tennessean.
The list of lying Republican liars keeps growing.
The latest is New York Rep. George Santos, who has lied about everything—from his race and cultural background to his business acumen to committing out-and-out theft.
Before Santos, there was Senate candidate and ex-NFL star Herschel Walker, who lied about his racial background, his businesses, and even how many children he’d fathered.
Now, it’s Ogles: Just another Republican lawmaker with mediocre skills lashing out for getting caught telling the tall tale.