When it comes to contemporary politicians who’ve wildly exaggerated their personal and professional backgrounds, there’s no denying the fact that Republican Rep. George Santos offers a uniquely cringeworthy case study. Others have embellished, but the New York Republican is in a league of his own.
Republican Rep. Andy Ogles, however, is at least in contention in this ignominious race. The Washington Post today uncovered some previously unknown instances of the Tennessean making claims about his history that have failed to withstand scrutiny.
Ogles’s résumé suggests that he was a savvy business consultant and investor with a number of board memberships. But even as he was supposedly saving Merrill Lynch millions of dollars through his consulting work, he was also briefly a stockbroker there and co-owned a doughnut shop. He also exaggerates or invents his service on various boards.
For those who might benefit from a refresher, let’s revisit our earlier coverage and review how we arrived at this point.
It was nearly a month ago when the freshman congressman first faced allegations that he’d wildly inflated his résumé. WTVF, the CBS affiliate in Nashville, uncovered quite a few instances in which the Tennessee Republican falsely described himself as an economist, falsely boasted about his law enforcement career, and even exaggerated his work at a non-profit organization.
After ignoring the controversy for a brief while, Ogles’ spokesperson eventually told Fox News Digital that he’d simply “condensed” his résumé “for the sake of brevity,” which was an odd response to evidence that the GOP lawmaker made brazenly untrue claims.
When WTVF returned to the subject, it uncovered additional details that made matters a bit worse: Ogles also failed to tell the truth about his academic background — including what his degree is in — and he falsely claimed to be a graduate of Vanderbilt’s business school.
But the Post also appears to have uncovered an old résumé the congressman submitted in which he claimed to have run a consulting firm that “cannot be found in Tennessee corporate records.” Similarly, Ogles said his firm represented “Fortune 500 companies,” but there doesn’t appear to be any evidence to support this, either.
As part of the same claims, he said his company did lucrative consulting work for Merrill Lynch, but that’s also suspect: The Post found that Ogles worked for less than a year as a stockbroker in a Merrill office in Nashville, but that’s not in line with the claims from his résumé.
The same article, which has not been independently confirmed by MSNBC or NBC News, noted that Ogles also claimed to have served on the boards of directors of the YMCA of Franklin, Nurses for Newborns in Tennessee, and the city of Franklin. None of these claims appears to be true — and the city of Franklin doesn’t even have a board. As we discussed last month, in isolation, these individual falsehoods might not seem especially scandalous. 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. GOP leaders still 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 to get ahead. This post updates for related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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