More than 100 black pastors signed a letter urging Georgia Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler to curb her campaign’s attacks on Democratic opponent, Rev. Raphael Warnock.
In the letter, the group argued that Warnock’s previous statements are not “radical” or “socialist” when considered in context – and accused the senator of an “attack on the black church”.
“We witnessed your naked hypocrisy when you supported 59 attempts to delegitimize black voters with meaningless lawsuits by the Trump campaign operatives,” says the letter, a reference to failed attempts to challenge the 2020 election results in court. “What can be more radical, more seditious than supporting 59 attempts to overthrow the will of the people by casting black votes?”
Warnock, who is black, is the senior pastor of Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, where civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached.
MORE THAN 25 BLACK MINISTERS SIGN LETTER FOR ABORTION NOTICE
“We ask that you cease and give up your false characterizations of Reverend Warnock as ‘radical’ or ‘socialist’, when there is nothing in your background, writings or sermons that suggest that these characterizations are true, especially when considered in the full context,” argues the letter.
Senator Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., Speaks during a campaign rally outside the Adventure Outdoors gun store December 18 in Smyrna, Georgia (AP Photo / John Bazemore)
Warnock, on occasions during the campaign, has backed down on previous public comments, including comparing the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians to “apartheid South Africa”.
Several times in the past month, Warnock said he did not believe Israel to be an apartheid state. It was also endorsed by progressive Jewish groups.
None of the campaigns responded to Fox News’s requests for comment.
But in a tweet on Sunday, Loeffler replied Warnock.
“No one attacked the Black Church. We simply explained its history in its own words,” she wrote. “Instead of playing the victim, start answering simple questions about what you said and who you partnered with.”
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In this November 15 photo, Raphael Warnock, a Democratic candidate for the US Senate, speaks during a campaign rally in Marietta, Georgia. (AP Photo / Brynn Anderson, Archives)
Warnock is running against Loeffler in one of two second-round Georgia Senate elections that will determine control of the House next year. They are facing a special election to see who will serve in the last two years of former senator Johnny Isakson’s term. Loeffler was appointed to the post after his resignation last year.
The other dispute is between current Republican Senator David Perdue and challenger Democrat Jon Ossoff for a six-year term. The second round of elections will take place in less than two weeks on January 5.