In a recent impromptu interview with Fox News correspondent Peter Doocey, Georgia Senate candidate Jon Ossoff garnered applause from leftists by turning an inquiry about fellow Democrat Raphael Warnock's serious baggage into a scurrilous attack on Republican Kelly Loeffler. The GOP has been highlighting Warnock's arrest for interfering with a police investigation into alleged child abuse at a camp he ran, as well as video of tearful statements from his ex-wife to police officers who responded to a domestic incident call earlier this year. Rather than addressing the substance of these disturbing issues, Ossoff (Warnock's "running mate") chose to pivot to a wild assertion that "Kelly Loeffler has been campaigning with a Klansman," a claim he repeated for dramatic effect:
When asked Wednesday about recent remarks Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler made against her Democratic opponent, Rev. Raphael Warnock, Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff went on the offensive, claiming Loeffler was campaigning with a member of the Ku Klux Klan. "[H]ere's the bottom line, Kelly Loeffler has been campaigning with a klansman," Ossoff told Fox News Wednesday. "Kelly Loeffler has been campaigning with a klansman," he repeated, "and so she is stooping to these vicious personal attacks to distract from the fact that she's been campaigning with a former member of the Ku Klux Klan." Ossoff tweeted the video from Fox News, writing again that "Kelly Loeffler campaigned with a klansman."...This is false. A former member of the KKK took a photo with Loeffler while she was campaigning earlier this month. Loeffler's campaign said the senator did not know who the man was and would have removed him from the event had she known. This is not, at all, the same as "campaigning with a klansman," as Ossoff claimed. Politicians often take pictures with people they don't know.
Ossoff keeps repeating the lie, knowing that it's a lie, because it plays well with his base. Having recycled it again, the unaccomplished liberal was fact-checked directly by CNN anchor Jake Tapper:
.@jaketapper calls out Democrat Jon Ossoff for lying pic.twitter.com/aV0dG6T6nx
— Nathan Brand (@NathanBrandWA) January 3, 2021
As the CNN review noted, politicians frequently pose for photos with complete strangers. It's part of the job. Snapping a pic with someone you've never met is not even in the ballpark of "campaigning with" them. I'm not sure that's a standard any politician or political party wants to embrace – but Ossoff is desperate and the hour is late, so he's obviously willing to say absolutely anything, no matter how vile. There's a profound difference, alas, between taking a photograph with a random person at a rally...and being a pastor at a church that invites a Communist dictator for an anti-American hate rally. For her part, Loeffler isn't pulling any punches, calling Ossoff a "trust fund socialist" and a "pathological liar":
.@ossoff is a trust-fund socialist & pathological liar who’s never had a real job.
— Kelly Loeffler (@KLoeffler) January 1, 2021
His running mate, @ReverendWarnock, is involved in domestic & child abuse, celebrates anti-Semites Jeremiah Wright & Louis Farrakhan & has attacked our police & military.
Georgia deserves better. pic.twitter.com/CImnWVirua
Over the holiday weekend, the Wall Street Journal editorial board laid out the stakes in the Peach State – where Republicans are either poised to win or are in serious trouble, depending on who or what you believe:
What’s the difference in policy between a Senate run by Chuck Schumer with 50 Democrats and one run by Mitch McConnell with 51 or 52 Republicans? That’s the question that matters for the next two years, so it’s worth explaining the stakes with realistic specificity in Tuesday’s Georgia Senate runoffs. Start with control of committees, which would shift markedly leftward. Republicans would lose their ability to investigate issues like FBI abuse and Hunter Biden’s China dealings. A GOP Senate is likely to approve most of Mr. Biden’s cabinet picks, but Democrats would whisk through even controversial nominees like Neera Tanden at the White House budget office or Xavier Becerra at HHS. There would be no check on judicial nominees. Democratic chairmen would include Bernie Sanders, who would try to gut the Pentagon at the Budget Committee. Sherrod Brown at Banking and Elizabeth Warren on the financial institutions subcommittee would try to change rules to steer lending and capital to their priorities and punish lending to fossil-fuel companies...
A 50-vote Senate (with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking ties) also guarantees a huge tax increase since current rules allow a simple majority to pass a budget...Nancy Pelosi’s narrower majority in the House might constrain some of this. But she proved in 2010 with ObamaCare that she is willing to sacrifice swing-district Members to pass progressive priorities. She has also suggested this will be her last term as Speaker, which means she’ll care more about her legislative legacy than keeping the House in 2022.
Read the whole thing. It's sobering and really focuses the mind on why these elections are so important – specifically, not just in general. Here's South Carolina Senator Tim Scott – one of the army of prominent Republicans focused on winning these runoffs – explaining how turnout will be key:
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— Nathan Brand (@NathanBrandWA) January 3, 2021
"The only way we lose on Tuesday is if we don't show up... It is more consequential than anything we've ever seen in our lifetimes from a political perspective..."
- @votetimscott is absolutely right when talking with @dbongino about what is at stake in Georgia pic.twitter.com/gQU3KBPDud
I'll leave you with the most prominent Republican in the country urging Georgians to vote tomorrow, and to show up at a final rally later tonight:
Will be in Georgia on Monday night, 9:00 P.M. to RALLY for two GREAT people, @sendavidperdue & @KLoeffler. GET READY TO VOTE ON TUESDAY!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2021
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