Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) Uses Jews as a Political Tool to Smear Her Opponent
Almost immediately after advancing into a runoff for their Georgia senate race, Sen. Kelly Loeffler began employing racist and antisemitic attacks against her Democratic opponent, Rev. Raphael Warnock, who serves as the Senior Pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church — a position previously held by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Loeffler shared an article from the right-wing outlet The Washington Free Beacon, trying to smear Warnock for signing onto a 2019 statement from the National Council of Churches in support of Palestinian human rights and a two-state solution. The statement, signed by 18 Christian leaders in total, affirmed the signatories’ opposition to racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, and the occupation.
The Free Beacon article, and Loeffler herself, tried to spin the statement — which remains remarkably in line with positions held by the majority of American Jews — as antisemitic. Loeffler has a pattern of doing exactly this to target Black progressives, using fear and division to distract from the many accusations of corruption that she faces.
During the Black Lives Matter protests over the summer of 2020, Loeffler regularly attempted to use false accusations of antisemitism against the modern-day civil rights movement. Her attacks on Warnock appear to be a repetition of the cynical strategy of using Jews as cover to smear Black people. Not only are such attacks racist; they are also antisemitic, as they dehumanize Jews into nothing more than a political tool.
Loeffler’s attempt to use Jews against Black leaders and movements are simply part and parcel of her record as someone who uses antisemitism to generate fear and division in hopes of maintaining power. Not only has Loeffler repeatedly tried to use false accusations of antisemitism for political gain in the past, but she has also thrown her lot in with some of the most antisemitic figures in the Republican Party and in right-wing media.
On July 31, 2020, Loeffler sat down for a friendly interview with Jack Posobiec, a Nazi sympathizer with a years-long history of working with neo-fascists and white supremacists. Perhaps even more damning, Loeffler campaigned alongside and gladly accepted the endorsement of congressional candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene, a notorious far-right QAnon conspiracy theorist with a history of antisemitism, Islamophobia, and white supremacy.
Georgia Jews and Jewish organizations alike immediately responded to Loeffler’s smears with outrage, pointing out her hypocrisy: