Former President Barack Obama criticized Georgia Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler ahead of two all-important races that will decide the balance of the Senate.
Speaking with former Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, Obama accused Loeffler and Perdue of placing their financial stability ahead of public safety and implored Georgians to vote for Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in the runoff election in January.
“Let’s face it, you’ve got two incumbent senators, who, in the midst of the worst public health crisis that any of us have seen in our lifetimes, we know, were first and foremost worried about their stock portfolio,” Obama said. “Goodness gracious, I mean, that alone should tell you something.”
President Obama rips Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler: “You’ve got two incumbent Senators who in the midst of the worst public health crisis that any of us have seen in our lifetimes, we know were first and foremost worried about their stock portfolio.” pic.twitter.com/IIreXz8Ngl
— The Hill (@thehill) December 4, 2020
Loeffler was accused of selling a large amount of her and her husband’s stock portfolio following a Jan. 24 classified meeting with Trump staff members during which she was briefed on the potential fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Rep. Doug Collins, Loeffler’s GOP primary challenger over the summer, said Loeffler had profited off the pain of people suffering during the coronavirus pandemic.
Loeffler has argued that 29 transactions made beginning on Jan. 24 and totaling $1,275,000 and $3,100,000 were done by a third-party investment firm representing herself and her husband.
“I want to set the record straight: This is a ridiculous & baseless attack. I don’t make investment decisions for my portfolio,” Loeffler wrote in a pair of tweets at the time. “Investment decisions are made by multiple third-party advisors without my or my husband’s knowledge or involvement. As confirmed in the periodic transaction report to Senate Ethics, I was informed of these purchases and sales on 02/16/2020 — three weeks after they were made.”
Perdue has also said that he did nothing wrong, although the Justice Department looked closely at his sale of more than $1 million in stock from an Atlanta financial company where he previously sat on the board.
Obama said Loeffler and Perdue downplayed the severity of the pandemic while “calling their brokers” behind closed doors.
“When you’ve got a couple senators who are downplaying a pandemic, toeing the line of a president who botches the response to the pandemic, despite the fact that my administration had given them an actual playbook on how to deal with a pandemic,” he said. “And then, as they’re downplaying it, as they’re ignoring the science and the epidemiologists and suggesting that this is something that is some partisan issue as opposed to something that Americans should rally around, at the same time, behind closed doors, they’re calling their brokers?”
