‘Name the time and place’: SC’s Katie Arrington says she will take lie detector test
Republican congressional candidate Katie Arrington said Monday she will take a polygraph test to prove she is telling the truth about the allegations surrounding the loss of her security clearance at the Department of Defense.
Arrington’s promise marks another dramatic turn in an intensifying South Carolina GOP primary.
Arrington, a former state lawmaker who is challenging U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace for South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District seat, last week challenged Mace to take a drug test after Mace attended the two-day Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference in Florida. Mace has been a proponent of decriminalizing marijuana on a federal level.
Now, Arrington is not only offering to pay for Mace’s drug test but she has suggested that the two women take these tests together to set the record straight.
“All she needs to do is name the time and place,” Arrington said in a statement shared first with The State newspaper. “I will take a lie detector test to once and for all stop the slanderous lies Nancy is spewing about me, and so that the voters will finally get more clarity as to why marijuana is No Show Nancy’s priority.”
Mace’s campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“My calendar is open, and Nancy knows where to find me,” Arrington continued. “I’ll even pay for both of our tests!”
The comments came days after Arrington said that her opponent in the 1st District should not only take a drug test but make the results public. She also insinuated that Mace may have been “high” while representing the Lowcountry in Congress, citing Mace’s reluctance in a news interview with the Huffington Post to answer a question about her own marijuana use.
Hours after Arrington called for Mace to take a drug test, the Mace campaign issued a statement to The State newspaper Friday afternoon.
“This is a desperate PR stunt by a desperate campaign,” said Austin McCubbin, Mace’s campaign manager. “We’d love to see Nancy’s opponent take a lie detector test about losing her top secret security clearance for leaking classified information about our military.”
Questions surrounding Arrington’s final months at the Pentagon have come up repeatedly on the campaign trail ever since the former state lawmaker entered the race.
She recently filed a lawsuit against the Department of Defense, demanding the federal agency hand over all public records that discuss the suspension of her security clearance so that she can clear her name.
Arrington’s departure from the Pentagon has also become the subject of a website created and paid for by the Mace campaign that calls Arrington “crooked” and features an out-of-context, looped clip of former President Donald Trump at a Cincinnati campaign rally, where the crowd begins chanting, “Lock her up!”
Arrington is one of two Republicans challenging Mace for the Lowcountry’s seat in Congress. Lynz Piper-Loomis, an advocate for military veterans, is also running for the GOP nomination.
Arrington, however, has emerged as Mace’s toughest rival in the Republican primary contest for South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, after Trump endorsed Arrington in the race in February and sought to boost her candidacy at a rally in Florence last month.
Mace worked on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, but has now found herself at odds with her party’s former president after she became an outspoken Republican Trump critic in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Mace has since declared, “I’m gonna win without him.”
Trump has called Mace “an absolutely terrible candidate.”
The Republican primary election is set for June 14.
This story was originally published April 25, 2022 at 1:15 PM with the headline "‘Name the time and place’: SC’s Katie Arrington says she will take lie detector test."
