Busted: Rand Paul Lies Twice in One Day That He Has a Biology Degree
At the Washington Post, Glenn Kessler catches Rand Paul lying outright about his nonexistent biology degree.
The Facts
Paul mentioned his alleged degree at the conference not once, but twice. First, in an exchange with TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, Paul said:
Arrington: “Let’s talk about economics because maybe you can actually explain this to me. I have an econ degree which means I know just enough not to understand any of what our government is [inaudible]”
Paul: “Mine’s in biology and English so this is going to be a great conversation.”
Then, later in the conversation, expounding on what he considered the virtues of Bitcoin, Paul said:
“This is just me. I have a biology degree, okay? But with Bitcoin my concern always was whether or not something has real value. So I could imagine a kind of coin that was exchangeable. This gets back to the whole idea, does money have to be exchangeable for something to be of value?”
The interesting thing about these references is that previously Paul’s staff has blamed the media for misunderstanding his unusual educational background.
The right wing libertarian Senator actually has a medical degree from Duke University, but never graduated with any kind of degree from Baylor University. When asked about this falsehood, Sen. Paul’s office replied that a medical degree and a biology degree are the same thing.
“It is unfair to give Senator Paul 3 Pinocchios because a M.D. Degree is the study of biomedical sciences according to the Duke University School of Medicine. In other words, a M.D. is a biology degree. Merriam-Webster defines biology as ‘a branch of knowledge that deals with living organisms and vital processes.’ Dr. Paul never said he had an undergraduate degree in biology, and it is accurate for him to say that he has a biology degree. You are making inferences from his statement that are unwarranted. It is common knowledge that the study of medicine is the study of human biology, and a MD has a doctorate degree in one area of study of the science of biology.”
Would you be surprised to learn that this is simply not true?