Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell (R-DE) has issued a statement saying the wrong information on her LinkedIn profile was posted by someone else. She’s asked that LinkedIn remove the profile, which has false information about her educational background.
The profile, which you can view below, lists the University of Oxford and Claremont Graduate University under education.
As we’ve been reporting, both schools say she did not attend. In the case of Oxford, O’Donnell earned a certificate from an Oxford course which her campaign said is “overseen” by a summer seminar program called the Phoenix Institute.
A spokesman for Phoenix told Greg Sargent that the page was “misleading.” As for Claremont, O’Donnell actually was in a fellowship program at a conservative think tank with a similar name but not affiliated with the university.
In O’Donnell’s statement, she says she “completed” the Lincoln fellowship. However, O’Donnell’s bio page on her own campaign site calls that a “graduate fellowship.” Here’s the LinkedIn grab:
O’Donnell’s statement, sent from the DC-area Shirley & Banister Public Affairs firm:
“There have been reports that I have released false information on a LinkedIn profile under my name. This is categorically untrue. I never established a LinkedIn profile, or authorized anyone to do so on my behalf. I have always been clear about my educational background. I completed undergraduate work at Fairleigh Dickenson University. After my undergraduate work, I completed a summer program run by the Phoenix Institute, at the Institute’s Oxford University location. The Institute runs programs around the world at various universities, and participants study issues of human dignity. I also completed a Lincoln Fellowship at the Claremont Institute in Claremont, CA. We would encourage LinkedIn to remove this profile.
“Perhaps a more important educational issue for Americans is the government takeover of the student loan industry, passed as part of the Obamacare law. This ill-conceived, unconstitutional government monopoly has thrown into jeopardy thousands of jobs in the private student loan industry. Even worse, now college students have nowhere to go for their student loans except the same people who brought them TARP and the embarrassing federal BP oil spill response. Will my opponent condemn his party bosses for threatening private sector jobs and eliminating student loan choice and competition for Delaware college students?”
[TPM SLIDESHOW: Christine O’Donnell: Anti-Masturbation Crusader. Witchcraft Dabbler. Republican Senate Nominee.]
Full coverage of the Delaware Senate race here.
Late Update: TPM’s Evan McMorris-Santoro spoke with the O’Donnell campaign, which says they are still figuring out what to do. His report is here.
Later Update: LinkedIn spokesperson Shannon Stubo e-mailed Greg Sargent to confirm that they removed the profile. They would not confirm that the profile was fake.
“We have taken the profile down. That’s all we are confirming,” LinkedIn spokesperson Shannon Stubo emailed me. “It was taken down in response to Christine O’Donnell’s request. This is not an acknowledgment that the profile was fake.”
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