Marlton, N.J. — Rep. Tom MacArthur, R-N.J., bluntly labeled challenger Andy Kim a liar or used a derivative of the term to describe the Democrat and his allies seven times in the course of an 18-minute interview with the Washington Examiner.
Kim, a national security professional, has been caught embellishing the portion of his resume relating to a stint at the United States Agency for International Development under President George W. Bush. Some of the attacks the Democrats are using against MacArthur also are questionable, But the congressman’s unbridled counter-punching, a task incumbents often delegate to surrogate supporters, reveals the fight MacArthur has on his hands in New Jersey’s 3rd Congressional District.
“I expect to win it, and I’m working very hard at winning it,” MacArthur said late last week, after a constituent event with seniors in the Philadelphia suburbs. “I think my opponent realizes — he might talk like it’s some slam dunk, but if you look at the amount of lies coming out of his campaign, he obviously thinks he needs to make up stuff in order to win it.”
“He’s had a real job, he could run on a real record and instead he chooses to lie because he knows he needs to win Ocean County Republicans,” MacArthur added. “He’s telling people in South Jersey that he was a national security officer for George Bush? That’s a blatant lie.”
Kim’s service on the National Security Council under President Barack Obama isn’t disputed. At issue is his assertion that he was a national security adviser to both Democratic and Republican presidents.
MacArthur argues that an internship and five months in an entry-level position at the USAID under Bush is a deliberate fabrication that Kim deployed to make his candidacy more appealing to Republicans in the 3rd District, a swing seat in Southern New Jersey that supported Obama twice, and then voted for President Trump in 2016.
The Washington Post fact-checker docked Kim “Two Pinocchios” for the claim, deeming it an “exaggeration,” although the column said the MacArthur campaign’s use of the criticism to brand the Democrat a liar was also hyperbole. The Kim campaign stands by its central narrative that the candidate advised presidents of both parties on national security matters.
“Andy is proud of his resume and the work he’s done serving in Republican and Democratic administrations,” said Kim spokesman Forrest Rilling said in a statement emailed to the Washington Examiner. “His national security bona fides speak for themselves.”
Rilling also sent along prepared statements of praise for Kim from three former USAID officials.
Meanwhile, MacArthur expressed annoyance with direct-mail advertisements from House Majority PAC, the super PAC aligned with Democratic leadership that accuse him of supporting an “age tax” for Social Security recipients.
The charge might be penetrating. MacArthur fielded at least three questions about his position on Social Security during the constituent event for seniors in Marlton, a suburban community in Burlington County, near Philadelphia; and he spent a great deal of time trying to reassure the crowd that he favors protecting the program for Americans at or near retirement.
“These are real people, these are real people who live lives and they’re being made afraid by nonsense that the Democrats know is a lie. They’re sending out mailers that say we’ve imposed an age tax on them,” the congressman said. “C’mon, they know exactly what they’re saying and they know it’s a line of bull. But they’re sending it anyway because they want the seat and they don’t care if they’re upsetting people.”
New Jersey’s 3rd Congressional District has emerged as a key battleground in the midterm elections.
The seat is anchored by predominately Republican Ocean County to the east, and the Democratic-leaning, Philadelphia suburbs of Burlington County to the west. It’s hardly a sure thing for Kim. But his progress against MacArthur, a centrist campaigning on his bipartisan credentials, is among the reasons the Democrats are bullish on erasing the GOP’s 23-seat majority and capturing the House.
Republicans aren’t downplaying the danger to MacArthur. Congressional Leadership Fund, the super PAC aligned with House GOP leadership, opened a field office in the district several months ago, and is on television with an advertisement backed by $1.4 million that refers to Kim this way: “Carpetbagger. Tax Cheater. Fraud.”
This week, the National Republican Congressional Committee, the House GOP’s campaign arm, was scheduled to hit local airwaves with a $1 million advertising buy.
Kim and his Democratic allies are running almost exclusively on taxes and healthcare, convinced MacArthur is exceedingly vulnerable.
MacArthur was the only New Jersey Republican to support the $1.3 trillion tax overhaul, a law that eliminated some tax breaks popular with blue-state suburban homeowners. The congressman also was a key negotiator of legislation that would have repealed Obamacare. Kim, like most Democrats, is on the opposite side of both issues.
“MacArthur’s critique of Andy’s service is just a desperate attempt to distract from his record,” Rilling said.
