BuzzFeed broke the story last week that Shady Katie McGinty lied about being the first in her family to go to college. Since then, McGinty has earned wall-to-wall coverage for her attempt to mislead voters.
On Sunday, WPVI’s Inside Story panel took McGinty to task for the college controversy, noting it was “a real misstep,” and calling her, “ethically challenged,” “as much a part of the establishment as any career politician,” and a “liar.”
You can watch the segment, here (transcript below):
[youtube url = "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oel4uTFFhjk&feature=youtu.be"]
Full account of coverage for McGinty’s lie:
BuzzFeed: “Democratic Senate candidate Katie McGinty has often claimed on the campaign trail to be the first member of her family to attend college. Records reviewed by BuzzFeed News, however, reveal that McGinty’s older brother graduated from college eight years before she entered.”
PolitiFact: “U.S. Senate candidate Katie McGinty’s campaign website claims she was first person in her family to go to a four-year college…We rate McGinty’s claim Pants On Fire.”
Associated Press: “The Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania was forced Thursday to explain her campaign trail statements that she was the first in her big family to go to college — even though an older brother graduated from college years before her.”
PoliticsPA: "It’s the little white lies that kill you in politics…McGinty has focused her efforts on being the embodiment of the quintessential political candidate instead of explaining why she should be Pennsylvania’s Senator. If that doesn’t change, November 8th will not be a happy night for the Democratic nominee."
PennLive: “Buzzfeed broke the news that McGinty had falsely claimed to be the first member of her family to attend college…The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative publication, reported that a Dept. of Energy Loan Director who doled out federal funds to an energy company on whose board McGinty once sat also hosted a Washington fund-raiser for her last week.”
The Butler Eagle: “It’s an inspiring story told repeatedly by Senate Democratic nominee Katie McGinty. There’s only one problem…McGinty has been lying about being the first in her family to go to college.”
Times Leader (opinion): “The Democratic nominee apparently embellished her personal story, often portraying herself as the ninth of 10 kids in an Irish Catholic family, and the first of the bunch to go to college. Turns out, Buzzfeed first reported this week, McGinty’s brother John received two college degrees.”
Philadelphia Inquirer: The story chips away at the blue-collar story McGinty has been telling as she runs for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania…This is at least the third time she has been forced to clean up after statements opened the door to attacks on her honesty.”
Newsworks: “McGinty is proud of her humble roots. She’s one of ten kids of a Philadelphia cop, and as she’s said quite a few times on the campaign trail, ‘the first of my family to go to college.’ Except, it turns out, she isn’t.”
Fox 43: Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Katie McGinty has often claimed to be the first in her family to attend college. However, according to Buzzfeed, McGinty’s brother, John McGinty, graduated from LaSalle Univeristy in 1973.
Philadelphia Magazine: “Democratic Senate candidate Katie McGinty has frequently claimed throughout her campaign that she was first in her family to attend college, but a BuzzFeed report released Wednesday shows otherwise.”
Morning Consult: “McGinty had said a number of times she was the first in her family to go to college, but the report found that her brother, John McGinty, had attended one well before she did.”
Philadelphia Inquirer (opinion): “Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Katie McGinty has repeatedly said she was one of 10 kids and the first in her family to go to college. Turns out, it’s not true.”
Roll Call: “The comments from McGinty came after media reports that her campaign trail story — a key to her attempt to connect with blue collar voters — wasn’t true.”
WTAE: “She’s accused of lying about her family’s past. Katie McGinty claims she’s the first in the family to go to college.”
The Morning Call: “Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Katie McGinty is under fire over a report disputing her description that she is the first in her family to go to a four-year college.”
WPVI Inside Story, Transcript:
HOST: “In fact, there have been some attacks on Katie McGinty, as we move to the senate race in Pennsylvania. At least on one angle as more of this becomes in the public eye. She has said that she was the first of the 10 kids in her family to go to college, and now because of the mudslinging, it’s come out that her older brother actually went to a community college, then finished at a regular college, and went on to get a master’s degree, as it turns out. So she’s reframing it to say "the first one to go to a four-year college." Do you find that disingenuous, Christine, and are you starting to have some doubts about her?”
CHRISTINE FLOWERS: “I started out having doubts. I think the problem is, when she was running for governor — and I was at this table, I said I liked her authenticity. I liked her freshness, I liked the way she spoke out of all of the other candidates. I have completely changed my mind from the way now that she’s running this campaign. I call her ‘Katie from the hood’ because she’s got this idea, this mystique of coming from a northeast Philly row home and being a girl who went to Little Flower. She is, as you were saying, Val, with respect to Hillary, she has been a lobbyist. She has made money in sort of, like, that revolving door when she was the secretary of the…”
VAL DIGIORGIO: “D.E.P.”
FLOWERS: “Yeah, D.E.P. when she was there, she actually dealt with organizations that later she helped, she joined, when she went back into the private sector.”
DIGIORGIO: “She enriched her husband’s…”
FLOWERS: “I mean, there’s nothing wrong with that, in the sense that there’s nothing illegal in that. However, to say, ‘I’m one of you,’ like Evita Perón used to say, ‘I’m one of you. I’m one of you, and now look how high I’ve come.’”
HOST: “And Pat Toomey, her rival, is also jumping on that bandwagon and saying that he is more in tune with the needs of police and that there would be less problems if he’s the one who wins re-election. He’s the incumbent. But she, in fact — her dad was a 35-year beat cop walking the streets. So they both have rights to claim something of that, but do you feel like the noise gets too loud for both of them and you can’t really decipher what’s the truth here?”
DIGIORGIO: “Well, I think if you’re Pat Toomey, you enjoy the way this race is shaping up right now. You have an ethically challenged Katie McGinty, on the one hand and when it came to sticking up for police, the only thing she was willing to say is, ‘my father was a cop,’ but she wasn’t willing to go the one step further to say, ‘we need to back up law enforcement in this country.’ Now, you see, in Chicago, murder rate’s up in double-digit, triple-digit numbers. Philadelphia’s got its own problems. And we need to back up law enforcement, because the people who are suffering the most are the people who, you know, the Black Lives Matter talk about caring about, which are people in the neighborhoods. We really have to back up police so they feel they can do their jobs, and Pat Toomey’s doing that.”
…
NIA MEEKS: “Now, to the point of the whole ‘first one to go to college’ thing, I mean, a lot of people didn’t necessarily look at a community college as ‘real college’ for a long time. and I know, in working in political campaigns, that people do shortcuts. It’s like, ‘oh, yeah, first four-year college becomes the first to go to college,’ et cetera, et cetera. So, yes, you can say that that was a real misstep with her and that’s a faux pas, and it also shows her greenness when it comes to running for office.”
HOST: “It’s the sound-bite phenomenon, where they’re trying to make it short.”
DIGIORGIO: “Her brother went to Temple. She’s a liar. And it stuns me that politicians don’t think somebody’s going to find this out. They just lie. Like, it comes out of their mouth like it’s nothing.”
FLOWERS: “I mean, for some reason, it makes her more legitimate to be able to say, ‘I’m the first of 8 or 9, 87 kids to go to college,’ and ‘my Dad was a police officer,’ and ‘I did this,’ and ‘I did that,’ when she is as much a part of the establishment as any career politician.”