LOEFFLER AND PERDUE IRRESPONSIBLY REFUSE TO ACKNOWLEDGE BIDEN AS PRESIDENT-ELECT. Despite three recounts, two certifications, the Electoral College, and top Senate Republicans including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and NRSC Chair Todd Young finally accepting reality, Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue are *STILL* refusing to acknowledge that Joe Biden won Georgia in November and is now the President-elect of the United States. Senator David Perdue is still telling his supporters “it’s not over yet” for Trump and the outgoing president “still has recourses,” while Loeffler is refusing to say whether she’d take the unprecedented step of objecting to certifying the Electoral College votes in Congress next month. When asked about Joe Biden’s win this weekend at a rare press availability, Loeffler refused to directly answer six different times in two minutes. Loeffler and Perdue’s deeply irresponsible refusal to affirm the results of this election is disqualifying and an insult to the millions of Georgians who voted in November’s election.
MCCONNELL & SENATE GOP HAVE DRAGGED THEIR FEET ON COVID RELIEF, NOW SCRAMBLING BECAUSE “KELLY AND DAVID ARE GETTING HAMMERED.” Majority Leader McConnell admitted this week that the only reason Republicans now feel urgency to take serious action on coronavirus relief is because “Kelly and David are getting hammered” over the issue. For months, Senate Republicans, including Perdue and Loeffler, have refused to negotiate on a serious effort that could pass Congress and repeatedly stood against extending emergency relief that so many Georgians have relied on to meet basic needs. Ultra-wealthy former corporate CEO Perdue called the emergency benefits “a hindrance,” while Loeffler – the richest member of Congress – said she didn’t see “a big need to extend the federal unemployment insurance.” But under increased pressure from Jon Ossoff and Reverend Warnock, the Republicans are now suddenly realizing that their months-long opposition to more direct economic relief for their constituents is a massive political liability.
REPUBLICANS’ “NASTY FEUD” CONTINUES TO DISTRACT FROM GEORGIA RUNOFF. Early in-person voting began this week, but Republicans are still caught up in a “nasty feud” that is siphoning campaign funds from the GOP’s efforts in Georgia and creating warring factions within the party. President Trump is fundraising off the competitive Georgia runoffs but “pocketing most of the dough,” a “ploy” that has Republicans in Washington “rankled.” Meanwhile, Trump still hasn’t forgiven Governor Brian Kemp for choosing to appoint Loeffler to the open Senate seat without consulting him and won’t let the feud die, openly attacking Kemp as a “hapless” “clown.” And Trump is threatening Perdue and Loeffler with “a bad day” on January 5th to pressure the senators to urge Kemp and his administration to try to overturn the presidential election.
GOP SENATORS FACING ONGOING SCRUTINY OVER CORRUPT STOCK TRADES. Senators Perdue and Loeffler have had so many stock trading scandals, it can be hard to keep track. The AJC compiled a comprehensive timeline of the extensive investigations into the corrupt senators’ stock trading and federal investigations from the past year. For months, Loeffler and Perdue––“two of the wealthiest individuals in Congress”––have been “a subject of scrutiny” as their conveniently timed stock trades and shady financial transactions have raised questions about self-dealing and insider trading and drawn the attention of federal investigators. And while both try to falsely claim “total exoneration,” the AJC and Daily Beast have already thoroughly debunked their misleading defense. AJC: Timeline of investigations into Perdue, Loeffler stock trades – Georgia Senate runoff
LOEFFLER’S LATEST CONFLICT OF INTEREST SCANDAL. A new Salon report reveals that Illinois “finance mogul” Ken Griffin donated “big chunks of cash” to a Super PAC supporting Loeffler and bankrolled by her husband, New York Stock Exchange Chairman Jeff Sprecher, including a massive $2 million contribution just days after news reports that Griffin’s company was poised to make a major buyout that required the NYSE’s approval. Further complicating the conflict of interest is the fact that “Loeffler herself sits on a Senate committee that oversees Wall Street and the financial markets.” According to one securities law expert, “it’s safe to assume that the donations are being made because Citadel stands to benefit by keeping her in office.”’ The circumstances and timing of Griffin’s donations to Loeffler “illustrate the haze of money, power and influence” surrounding the Senate’s wealthiest member. Salon: This hedge-fund billionaire is a huge fan of Sen. Kelly Loeffler — but why?
VALUE OF LOEFFLER’S ESTATE MYSTERIOUSLY PLUMMETED, CONVENIENTLY SAVING HER HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS IN PROPERTY TAXES. The Daily Beast uncovered a mysterious and unexplained depreciation in the value of Loeffler’s $10.5 million mansion, “Descante.” Conveniently for Loeffler, the whopping 60% decline resulted in “a dramatic cut” to her property tax bill. Strikingly, the devaluation of Loeffler’s estate came immediately after Loeffler “invested significantly in improvements to the property” and as “Atlanta was undergoing a real-estate boom” with home prices surging across the metro area, raising serious flags for property tax experts who called it “very unusual.” The Daily Beast: Value of Loeffler’s Mansion Dropped $6M Overnight—and Nobody Can Explain Why
A LOOK AT PERDUE’S RECORD OF “SMASH-AND-GRAB SELF-HELP.” A revealing Mother Jones deep dive into Senator Perdue’s corporate career uncovered a damning pattern of “profiteering” from the companies he ran. Perdue brags about being a “job creator,” but he won’t talk about how a business he ran “bottom[ed] out with executives getting paid and workers getting laid off.” Throughout his tenure as a wealthy corporate executive, Perdue made lining his own pockets his number one priority as his leadership repeatedly led to “everyone but him and the other bosses [getting] less money than they deserved.” It’s the latest case of “smash-and-grab self-help” that Perdue has continued in the Senate. Mother Jones: We Can’t Talk About Corruption in the Georgia Runoffs Without Talking About David Perdue and Dollar General
PERDUE CAUGHT SELECTIVELY EDITING HIS BUSINESS TIES TO CHINA OUT OF HIS BIOGRAPHY. Senator Perdue recently re-released a biographical campaign video from 2014––with one key difference: he cut references to living in Asia as a corporate executive. A HuffPost report found that Perdue’s updated video “removes a mention of the two years he spent in Hong Kong working for Sara Lee and takes out a picture of him and his wife at the Great Wall of China.” In a desperate attempt to distract from his own extensive experience outsourcing to China and Asia, Perdue has been using China as a “political football” in his re-election bid, “fearmongering” and lobbing false attacks at his opponent that independent fact checkers say he “should be ashamed” of. Now Perdue’s extensive ties to China are “under the microscope” as the AJC points out Perdue’s corporate career and the fact that “anyone who was doing business in mainland China in the early 1990s…was doing business with someone who had connections to the Chinese Communist Party.”
CNN INVESTIGATION EXPOSES PERDUE’S “ASTOUNDING” & SHADY STOCK TRADES. A brutal CNN investigation into Senator David Perdue’s stock portfolio exposed the ultra-wealthy former corporate insider’s extensive record of shady self-dealing and well-timed stock trades, highlighting multiple examples of Perdue trading in companies and industries that his Senate committees oversee. CNN found that Perdue is “far and away the most prolific stock trader in the Senate,” trading more stocks in the one term he’s been in office “than the next seven most prolific Senate stock traders combined.” But it’s not the sheer volume alone that makes Perdue’s stock trades significant, it’s his scores of conflicts of interest––Perdue is “trading, buying and selling stocks in the same businesses that he’s directly overseeing from his committee perches.” WATCH:
LOEFFLER KEEPS TAKING PHOTOS WITH WHITE SUPREMACISTS & EXTREMISTS. Kelly Loeffler was caught last weekend posing for a photo with Chester Doles, a well-known white supremacist with ties to the KKK, the neo-Nazi National Alliance, and the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. While her campaign has attempted to write off last weekend’s photo op as an aberration, Loeffler has “repeatedly aligned herself with racists and far-right supporters” and the reality is “photos of Loeffler smiling alongside far-right extremists are not hard to find.” The bottom line is that there’s “clearly a reason why extremists are excited to be photographed with Loeffler: The senator has repeatedly catered to or condoned those on the far-right.” Loeffler’s record also includes sitting down for an interview with a media personality with ties to white supremacy and celebrating the endorsement of a QAnon supporter. HuffPost: Kelly Loeffler Keeps Posing For Photos With White Supremacists And Other Extremists
PERDUE A “FREQUENT NO-SHOW.” David Perdue is facing local scrutiny for being “among the Senate’s most absent members” and “a frequent no-show” for his taxpayer-funded job representing Georgians. Perdue has skipped out on important hearings and missed votes in order to attend fundraisers with his wealthy campaign donors — and a nonpartisan fact check this week confirmed that Perdue “hasn’t been accessible to his constituents and has sold his time for donations.” Perdue has already been facing intense scrutiny about his prolific self-dealing and favors to his special interest donors, and this latest revelation further exposes the ultra-wealthy corporate insider’s out-of-touch priorities. WATCH:
DSCC & GEORGIA DEMS ANNOUNCE TWO LEGAL WINS OVER GOP’S EFFORTS TO RESTRICT VOTING RIGHTS. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Party of Georgia announced two legal victories in efforts to defend the voting rights of Georgians from Republican attacks in the Senate runoff elections. In two rulings on Thursday, federal judges rejected desperate, last-minute GOP lawsuits to restrict voting rights. The lawsuits filed by Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and the Georgia Republican Party sought to change procedures around absentee ballots and are part of the GOP’s “extraordinary” voter suppression efforts ahead of January’s runoff election. Read statements from the Executive Directors of the DSCC and the DPG here.
BIDEN VISITS GEORGIA, HOSTS RALLY WITH OSSOFF AND WARNOCK. President-elect Joe Biden joined Reverend Warnock and Jon Ossoff in Atlanta this week as part of GOTV efforts to encourage Georgians to make a plan to vote. Biden emphasized the importance of January’s runoffs, blasting Loeffler and Perdue for their attempts to overturn the will of Georgia voters and eviscerating the incumbents for standing in the way of urgently needed coronavirus relief for months.
EARLY IN-PERSON VOTING BEGINS WITH RECORD TURNOUT. Early voting started this week and it was a “record-shattering” first day of early in-person voting in Georgia yesterday. Over 168,000 Georgians voted in person –– 23% more than the first day of early voting in the November general election. For three days in a row, early in-person voting outpaced early voting during the general election. Georgians are fired up and excited to make their voices heard in January’s runoff elections.
GEORGIA AD WATCH
WHAT GEORGIANS ARE READING
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Biden’s new ad: ‘I need Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff’ in the Senate
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: A timeline of investigations into Perdue, Loeffler stock trading
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Kamala Harris to arrive in Georgia on Monday for Senate runoff rallies
Augusta Chronicle: Warnock at Augusta rally: Honored to be Georgian in defining moment for country
WJBF: Jon Ossoff encourages Augustans to vote
Project Q Atlanta: Georgia Democrats make push for LGBTQ voters in Senate runoffs
Georgia Recorder: Senate campaigns crisscross Georgia as in-person early voting starts
CBS 46: GA. Sen. David Perdue’s track record questioned ahead of runoff
The Red & Black: Rev. Raphael Warnock hosts student rally in Athens as part of Georgia tour
Connect Savannah: Georgia U.S. Senate hopeful Raphael Warnock visits his childhood home in Savannah before campaign rally
WRBL: Raphael Warnock comes to Columbus before early voting begins
WJCL: Rapper Common to join Raphael Warnock, Jon Ossoff at Savannah rally
TWEET OF THE WEEK
Lauren Passalacqua
@laurenvpass
Stewart Boss
@stew_boss
Helen Kalla
@helen_kalla
Shea Necheles
@sheanecheles
Regina Anderson
@reginasopinion
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