The Republican primary fight between Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell and his conservative challenger in Kentucky has been reduced to a simple argument: You are a liar!
On Tuesday, McConnell’s re-election campaign released a television ad titled, “M.I.T,” accusing challenger Matt Bevin of being dishonest about his education background.
“Newspapers say Bevin was dishonest about his resume, claiming he graduated from prestigious MIT,” the ad states. “Not true again. Bevin never attended MIT, and MIT has no record of Bevin.”
The ad shows an image of Bevin’s LinkedIn profile in March of 2013 listing the “Massachusetts Institute of Technology” as his education.
Bevin has apparently since changed that part of his LinkedIn profile, saying under education that he graduated from the “School of Life.”
Bevin’s campaign responded to the ad on Tuesday by saying the candidate attended the EO/MIT Entrepreneurial Masters Program.
“The truth?” Bevin’s campaign wrote in a statement. “From 2006 to 2008, Matt Bevin attended the EO/MIT Entrepreneurial Masters Program. That is the official name of the program as printed on the certificate he received upon finishing the program. It is also the name on the program’s official Facebook page.” That page has 63 likes.
But The Hill, a free newspaper distributed on Capitol Hill, reported that the EO/MIT Entrepreneurial Masters Program takes place at the MIT Endicott campus, but is not a program run by the school.
Bevin, in a statement, blasted McConnell for making his LinkedIn page a campaign issue.
“With his latest attack ad, the only thing Mitch McConnell seems to be accomplishing these days is taking the childishness of campaign name-calling to a whole new level,” Bevin said. “Just when you think the lies can’t get any more ridiculous, Mitch McConnell proves that he’ll stoop to any level to hang on to his job.”
Here’s a screenshot of McConnell’s ad, showing Bevin’s LinkedIn page:
Here’s Bevin’s certificate from the program, released by his campaign:
