‘I Just Made it up’: Florida Dem Admits Lying About Treating Pulse Shooting Victims after Going on the Record as Saying ‘I Personally Removed 77 Bullets from 32 People. It Was Like an Assembly Line’

• Elizabeth McCarthy told the Florida Department of Health that she had fabricated claims that she was a cardiologist who had treated victims
• ‘I lied. It is a false statement. I just made it up,’ McCarthy said, according to an affidavit released Wednesday
• The department charged her with violating state law under the unlicensed activity statutes
• On Wednesday, she was served with a cease-and-desist order which would prohibit her from telling anyone else that she is a medical doctor

By Keith Griffith | 20 July 2019

DAILY MAIL — A queer Democratic politician who claimed to have treated Pulse nightclub shooting victims admitted to Florida officials that she lied about her service.

Elizabeth McCarthy told the Florida Department of Health that she had fabricated claims that she was a cardiologist who had treated victims of the mass shooting on the LGBT destination.

‘I lied. It is a false statement. I just made it up,’ McCarthy said, according to an affidavit released Wednesday by the Florida Department of Health and obtained by Florida Politics. …

McCarthy, 50, withdrew from the race for House District 28 in June, two weeks after her claims and credentials were called into question. …

McCarthy had claimed at a gun control panel earlier this year that she was working as a cardiologist at Orlando Regional Medical Center on the night of the attack.

She said: ‘I personally removed 77 bullets from 32 people … It was like an assembly line.’

The only problem: the hospital said it had no record of her employment there, and the state Department of Health has no record of McCarthy being a licensed doctor.

Yes, I am a doctor,’ McCarthy insisted when approached with the apparent contradictions. ‘Yes, I did work the night of Pulse.’

Florida Politics also contacted the University of Central Florida, where McCarthy said she received her medical degree in 2014 after years working as a nurse, and Florida State, where she said she received her bachelor’s degree.

Neither school had any record of her receiving a degree.

University of Florida and Florida State officials also contradicted her claims to have played basketball for both their teams as an undergraduate.

The report said that officials confirmed she was a registered nurse until 2005, and that she later started a medical company that was in business through 2014.

When the revelations emerged, McCarthy first said she would resign and then vowed to remain in the race to challenge incumbent Republican David Smith. …

Prior to running, McCarthy served as the legislative director for the Florida Democratic Party’s LGBTA Caucus. […]