Republicans target ‘radical Raphael’ Warnock in Georgia runoff
Image via AP

Warnock AP
Attacks on Georgia Democrat will feel familiar in Florida.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee is laser-locked on Georgia’s Senate runoff, and launched a website attack on a “radical” Democratic candidate Friday.

The alliteratively-titled RadicalRaphael.com features full-throated condemnations of the Atlanta Reverend Raphael Warnock, a pastor currently in a runoff challenge to U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who was appointed to the seat.

The rhetorical flourishes and the stout-voiced condemnation of Warnock’s “anti-American values” on the NRSC microsite will feel familiar to those who have followed the last two election cycles in Florida, with the battle against “socialism” driving strong GOP performances in both 2018 and 2020.

“Radical Raphael Warnock was educated by Marxists, praised by socialists, and even welcomed Communist leader, Fidel Castro, to his church. He defended Jeremiah Wright’s “God Damn America” agenda, decried the right to life and the 2nd Amendment, and proudly touts his support of organizations that want to destroy the nuclear family and undermine our longstanding support of Israel,” claims the copy.

The site reminds Peach State voters of ties between a former church Warnock pastored and its decision to host former Cuban strongman Fidel Castro after he visited the United Nations in 1995.

Other attacks are substantiated on the website, including fiery words Warnock had criticizing the U.S. decision to move its Israeli embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

“The administration opened up the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem. Standing there the President’s family and the few mealy mouth evangelical preachers, who are responsible for the mess that we found ourselves in both there and here,” Warnock preached in 2018.

Elsewhere, the site takes liberties, including describing Warnock as a “domestic abuser,” spotlighting a newspaper account of a fight with his wife in which she alleged he drove his car over her foot.

Warnock attempted to preempt Republican attacks on him with an ad that warned Georgians to “get ready… the negative ads are coming.”

“Kelly Loeffler doesn’t want to talk about why she’s for getting rid of healthcare in the middle of a pandemic, so she’s going to try to scare you with lies about me,” Warnock said in the spot.

However, Republicans clearly have a number of lines of attack, and the ad war on Georgia and North Florida airwaves stands to reflect a lot of this oppo.

Republicans have presented Loeffler and Senate colleague David Perdue as a slate, and the new chairman of the NRSC, Florida Sen. Rick Scott, will be in Georgia Friday afternoon for a “Defend the Majority” rally.

A.G. Gancarski

A.G. Gancarski has been the Northeast Florida correspondent for Florida Politics since 2014. He writes for the New York Post and National Review also, with previous work in the American Conservative and Washington Times and a 15+ year run as a columnist in Folio Weekly. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter: @AGGancarski


6 comments

  • DisplacedCTYankee

    November 13, 2020 at 12:33 pm

    Rev Warnock advocates that all people be treated equally, as human beings. Yep, that’s “radical.”

  • James Robert Miles

    November 13, 2020 at 1:08 pm

    I am proud to have made a donation today to the Rev. Warnock’s campaign! Isn’t equality an American concept?

  • Brian F.

    November 13, 2020 at 3:06 pm

    We’ve learned a lot in 2020: Republicans will resort to absolutely anything to keep Trump in power, no matter how reckless and incompetent his actions are.

    These people are literally turning America into a diseased, deeply politically corrupt, and widely racist banana republic.

    If health care and fighting a deadly looming virus is socialist, then I subscribe.

    And by the way, whatever happened to this tax returns Trump promised to release–YEARS ago?

  • Sonja Fitch

    November 13, 2020 at 3:08 pm

    Georgia put the rich bitch and rich white man in a damn bunker! Vote Democrat to stop the goptrump death cult members! Both of them want you to do without HEALTH care! Both are crooks! Both used tax payer confidential information to make money … lots of money off the trumpvirus!

  • Jaime Fabara

    November 23, 2020 at 11:35 pm

    I am sorry to say this: but that senator candidate, Raphael Warnock, from Georgia is a Socialist and a Marxist. This is not a socialist country. I’ am totally against him.

  • Jaime Fabara

    November 23, 2020 at 11:39 pm

    The incumbent Kelly Loeffler is the best choice for the people of Georgia. I don’t trust the other candidate.

Comments are closed.


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