Fact Checker: Rand Pauls claim twice in one day that he has a biology degree

I have a biology degree, okay?

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), in remarks at the Lincoln Labs Reboot Congress conference, Feb. 12, 2015

This column has been updated with an additional explanation by Pauls spokesman.

We first spotted a version of this quote in a Bloomberg column by David Weigel, and then checked the quotes with our colleague Jose DelReal, who had attended the conference.

This is a bit of an odd one, given that Paul does not have a college undergraduate degree.

Paul mentioned his alleged degree at the conference not once, but twice. First, in an exchange with TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, Paul said:

Arrington: Lets talk about economics because maybe you can actually explain this to me. I have an econ degree which means I know just enough not to understand any of what our government is [inaudible]

Paul: Mines in biology and English so this is going to be a great conversation.

Then, later in the conversation, expounding on what he considered the virtues of Bitcoin, Paul said:

This is just me. I have a biology degree, okay? But with Bitcoin my concern always was whether or not something has real value. So I could imagine a kind of coin that was exchangeable. This gets back to the whole idea, does money have to be exchangeable for something to be of value?

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Fact Checker: Rand Pauls claim twice in one day that he has a biology degree