Local reporters in Tennessee were turned away by staff for Rep. Andy Ogles — then their reason for doing so was exposed as a lie.
The incident went down at an event Ogles was holding at a local Head Start day care facility in Nashville.
In a video of the incident, posted to X by NewsChannel 5’s Phil Williams, Ogles’ communications director, Giancarlo Mandato, told reporters, “U.S. Marshals basically told us we can’t have any more people inside the gaggle room, so unfortunately you guys are going to have to leave.” The clear implication was that the number of reporters already in the room was so large that any more people would be a safety risk.
Less than a minute later, however, reporters got a chance to walk up to the door, and as Mandato again told the reporters to go away, the camera focused on the interior of the room, which only had about a dozen people in it.
“It looks like there’s plenty of room in here,” said one reporter, leaving Mandato to awkwardly cast around for an explanation.
“Unfortunately, the teams didn’t coordinate on who — frankly, sir — sorry,” he said.
In reality, as the reporter swiftly noted, the campaign had put NewsChannel 5 on a “ban list.”
Ogles is one of the most scandal-plagued lawmakers running for re-election this year.
NewsChannel 5 found Ogles had exaggerated or fabricated parts of his professional background, including claims of being a trained economist, a former police officer, and an expert in international sex crimes. Records showed his actual college degree was in general liberal studies, not international relations as he’d claimed. He has also faced an Ethics Committee investigation into his campaign finance, and an FBI criminal probe that was later shut down by the Trump administration.