JR Majewski Caught in Yet Another Lie about His Service
September 29, 2022
Columbus, OH — In case you missed it, the Associated Press late yesterday published yet another story that alleges J.R. Majewski once again lied about his service record. While Majewski has claimed he was punished and demoted for a ‘brawl,’ AP reports that he was told he could not reenlist because of a drunk driving charge. Yesterday’s AP report follows last week’s story about Majewski misrepresenting his service in Afghanistan.
Majewski often uses his military service as a campaign talking point and ads by Majewski supporters used the words “Afghanistan War Veteran” on screen. Following last week’s AP report, national Republicans pulled down ads they had scheduled for Majewski and now veterans across Ohio are demanding answers from Majewski.
“J.R. Majewski can’t seem to find the truth if he stepped in it, but here’s what we know for sure: J.R. can’t be trusted. Time after time, we’ve seen Majewski lie and then try to wiggle his way out of it. But voters in northwest Ohio ain’t buying what he’s selling, and they’ll show him the door come November,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Matt Keyes.
“‘The No. 1 trope that comes out of people when they are either fabricating a military record or, in this case, embellishing a record is they fall back to, ‘It’s classified.’ There’s no junior enlisted air transportation specialist who was doing something so secret that 20 years later it still needs to be classified,” said Ed Caffrey in the AP story, a former Air Force master sergeant who now investigates “stolen valor” cases.
Read more from AP HERE and below:
- Republican J.R. Majewski has centered his campaign for a competitive Ohio congressional seat around his biography as an Air Force veteran. But one of the big questions that has surfaced is why Majewski was told he could not reenlist in the Air Force after his initial four years were up.
- Majewski’s campaign said last week that he was punished and demoted after getting in a “brawl” in an Air Force dormitory in 2001. Military records obtained since then by The Associated Press, however, offer a different account of the circumstances, which military legal experts say would have played a significant role in the decision to bar him from reenlisting. They indicate Majewski’s punishment and demotion were the result of him being stopped for driving drunk on a U.S. air base in Japan in September 2001.
- The documents, which were provided to the AP and independently authenticated, present yet another instance where the recorded history of Majewski’s service diverges from what he has told voters as he campaigns while using his veteran status as a leading credential.
- In a statement, Majewski acknowledged that he was punished for drunken driving, though he didn’t address why his campaign previously said his demotion was the result of a fight.
- Since starting his campaign to unseat longtime Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, Majewski has repeatedly said he was a combat veteran who served a tour of duty under “tough” circumstances in Afghanistan. By his own account, he once went more than 40 days in the country without a shower due to a lack of running water.
- His story came under intense scrutiny last week when the AP, citing military documents obtained through public records requests, reported that he did not deploy to Afghanistan as he claimed, but instead spent six months based in Qatar, a longtime U.S. ally, where he helped load and unload aircraft.
- The latest revelation that Majewski was demoted for drunken driving adds another wrinkle. Last week, the AP asked Majewski’s campaign why his military service records showed that he was not allowed to reenlist in the Air Force and left the service after four years at a rank that was one notch above where he started.
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