Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., achieved a very rare feat Monday: He earned a “Geppetto checkmark” from the Washington Post’s official fact checker.
The Post’s fact checker usually awards “Pinocchios,” which are meant to classify the degree of falsehood in statements uttered by public figures.
A “Geppetto” checkmark, however, is used only when a public figure says something that’s undeniably rooted in fact.
For Rep. Coffman, a veteran of United States Marines, his claim to have been in combat zones with the U.S. military earns him a coveted Post “Geppetto” checkmark.
Coffman’s claim drew the Post’s scrutiny after he and Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald got into a heated exchange earlier this month during a budget hearing on the troubled federal agency.
When pressed for answers regarding how much progress the VA has made towards addressing its allegedly deep-rooted culture of incompetence and corruption, a testy McDonald asked Coffman: “I ran a large company, sir, what have you done?”
The Republican congressman and veteran of the Gulf War shot back: “Let me start by telling you something I haven’t done. I have never run a federal agency that tolerates corruption the way the VA has. I’ve never built a hospital that’s years behind schedule and hundreds of millions over budget.”
“And I’ve never been a shill for inept bureaucrats who allowed American heroes to die on a medical waiting list while waiting for medical care,” he said.
The congressman, who actually took a leave of absence from his seat in the Colorado legislature to serve in the Gulf War, followed up by releasing a statement underscoring his record as a combat veteran in the U.S. military. The Department of Defense and the VA both define a “combat veteran” as a person who served in an area designated as a combat zone and drew imminent danger pay.
After reviewing both his budget hearing remarks and his post-hearing statement, the Post fact checker deemed it all to be true, and graded Coffman accordingly.
“There are many uses of the term ‘combat veteran.’ The broadest sense of the word — that a member served in active duty in a geographical area designated as a combat zone — is used for tax exemption purposes,” the Post reported.
“A narrower definition is used for veterans to receive health benefits. It is a vague title that can be interpreted in different ways within the veteran community. But when it comes to Coffman’s record, he is a combat veteran in the most literal and widely understood use of the term. The criteria for the Combat Action Ribbon that Coffman received requires proof he was in actual combat operations. Without having been there with him, this is the best measure to confirm his experience,” the Post added.
The issue of public figures and their supposed experiences in combat zones has become a topic of interest recently following an attempt by the Huffington Post to portray Sen. Joni Ernst’s, R-Iowa, oft-repeated claim that she is a combat veteran as less-than-honest.
As an Iowa Guard lieutenant colonel, Ernst commanded the 1168th Transportation Company during an overseas tour that lasted from 2003 to 2004. She dealt mostly with transportation runs in Kuwait and Iraq and worked a protection detail in Kuwait.
The areas she served in were “combat zones” as designated by the DOD.
Ernst was never shot at, nor did she ever suffer the devastating effects of a roadside bomb, and for this the Huffington Post article suggested she may be embellishing her military record by claiming she is a “combat veteran.”
“[N]othing in the 1168th’s tour of duty stands up to the average citizen’s idea of combat duty. And when the Senator calls herself the first female combat veteran to serve in the Senate, or when she allows her own husband to say twice that she led her troops into combat she’s betraying the code of honor she lets people think she stands for,” the Huffington Post said.
The freshman senator pushed back against the article’s suggestion, saying in a statement: “I am very proud of my service and by law I am defined as a combat veteran. I have never once claimed that I have a Combat Action Badge. I have never claimed that I have a Purple Heart. What I have claimed is that I have served in a combat zone.”
The Huffington Post’s review or Ernst’s record came almost immediately after it was revealed by Stars and Stripes that NBC News anchor Brian Williams had spent years embellishing stories of his supposed wartime heroism when he covered the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. Williams is currently on probation as NBC News continues to investigate the embattled newsman’s decades of anecdotes and reports.