Oh no, John McGuire's odometer is broken!

Either that, or he's not being honest about how much he's driven around the district.

On the list of lousy things a congressman can do to his constituents—and John McGuire has checked a lot of boxes on that list—exaggerating how many miles you’ve driven in your district is not especially high.

But when you’re doing it in order to answer charges that you’re not showing up for your constituents, it ought to be called out.

In an interview with CBS19—headline “McGuire responds to town hall criticisms”—the congressman claims to have driven nearly a quarter of a million miles around the 5th district. “I put 245,000 miles on my truck, all in the district. So we’re all day every day, meeting people wherever we can.”

Let’s break that down.

Rep. McGuire was sworn in on January 3. Today is May 6. There are 2,976 hours between those dates.

To drive 245,000 miles in 2,976 hours, you’d have to average 82.3 miles per hour without stopping. All day every day, indeed!

Maybe he’s including miles covered during the 2024 campaign last year. Or maybe he’s holding constituent meetings in the bed of the truck while a staffer zooms down the highway. (Well above the speed limit, I would add. As the congressman likes to say, criminals are bad.)

Artist’s conception.

He’s also fibbing about how many churches he’s been to

In the same CBS19 interview, McGuire says, “I’ve been to 374 different churches.”

He’s been in office 124 days. That’s more than three churches every day.

And sounding a little like Matt Foley

Same interview: “I will determine—and have determined—when we’ll have a town hall and how we’ll have it.” In other words, all you nattering nabobs can just shut yer big yappers.

John McGuire: bringing trust, honesty, and transparency back to government.