Dem Lied, Said She Was ER Doc in Pulse Shooting

C. Elizabeth McCarthy wanted to win a Florida House seat, and she was willing to tell voters a whopper to do so. As the Orlando Sentinel reports, McCarthy said at various campaign events for House District 28 that she was a medical doctor working the Orlando Regional Medical Center ER when the Pulse nightclub shooting happened three years ago; she said she had removed 77 bullets from 32 victims in a frantic circumstances that felt "like an assembly line." She even added detail, saying the toughest part was "wheeling a body into the morgue and hearing the cell phones ring of the people that passed." The slight problem: McCarthy isn't a doctor, wasn't in the emergency room that night, ORMC has never heard of her, and she's never held a medical license in the state.

"It is a false statement. I just made it up," McCarthy told Department of Health investigators, adding that she'd been passing herself off as a physician since 2014 with an eye on winning public office that way. "I’m sorry that I gave any impersonation. I knew it was wrong, and I should have stopped. By no means did I ever mean to put anybody in jeopardy." The Democratic Party has yanked its support of McCarthy's candidacy, and the Sentinel notes that she plans to drop out. (More Florida stories.)