WaPo: Andy Kim Stretched National Security Resume to ‘Elastic Extremes’

The Washington Post ruled in a fact check on Monday that Andy Kim, the Democratic challenger to Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-NJ), stretched his national security resume during the George W. Bush administration to “elastic extremes.”

MacArthur has attacked Kim for embellishing his national security experience during the George W. Bush administration. Kim claimed in a campaign ad in August to be a national security officer in the Bush administration; however, according to his own LinkedIn page, Kim worked as an entry-level staffer for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for less than a year when he was 22-years-old.

Congressman MacArthur’s re-election campaign in New Jersey’s third congressional district is rated one of this cycle’s toss-up races in the Cook Political Report. Breitbart News’s polling expert, Michael Patrick Leahy, labeled NJ-3 as one of the “must win” districts for the 2018 midterm elections. Leahy also rates this as “hanging in the balance” between the two-term MacArthur and Kim.

“Andy Kim is an outright fraud. He was never – under any circumstance – a ‘national security officer’ for President George W. Bush,” MacArthur told Breitbart News in August.

Chris Russell, a MacArthur strategist, said that Kim should take down the ad touting his national security experience.

“Andy Kim grossly embellished his résumé at USAID in a deliberate attempt to mislead voters about his background,” Russell said.

Zack Carroll, Kim’s campaign manager, said, that the ad was technically accurate despite Kim’s short time working for the Bush administration.

Carrol explained, “Andy wasn’t a political appointee, Andy was a public servant focused on getting the job done regardless of who was at the top, and that is what voters will take away from this ad.”

After analyzing Kim’s claim, the Post ruled that Kim gets “two Pinocchios” for significant exaggerations.

“We don’t question Kim’s expertise on national security, but his ad stretches his résumé to elastic extremes by claiming he was a national security officer for a Republican president,” the Post wrote.