It was nearly two weeks ago when Rep. Andy Ogles first faced allegations that he’d wildly inflated his resume. 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.
Eventually, the freshman GOP congressman felt compelled to respond to the allegations. Ogles’ spokesperson told Fox News Digital, “It’s 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.”
Ogles’ office added that the revelations were “an attempt by the liberal media to make something out of nothing.”
His new position on the controversy is a little different — and by any fair measure, the change in posture was unavoidable.
WTVF returned to the subject this week, uncovering new details that made matters a bit worse for the Tennessean.
Among the findings: the freshman Republican is a self-proclaimed economist who, it turns out, only took one community college Economics course, which he barely passed. And it reveals that he still hasn’t been telling the truth about his college degree.
Did I mention that Ogles also falsely claimed to be a graduate of Vanderbilt’s business school? Because that’s another addition to the growing list.
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.
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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