CUMMING, Georgia — Georgia Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler is attempting to draw parallels between Democratic rival Raphael Warnock and film producer Harvey Weinstein three days before their Senate special election runoff.
Loeffler seized on a report alleging Democratic lawyer David Boies, who represented convicted rapist Weinstein and his companies, donated almost $6,000 to the Georgia Federal Elections Committee in September. The organization is associated with the Democratic Party and is dedicated to electing Warnock and journalist Jon Ossoff in his race against Republican Sen. David Perdue.
“Now we’ve learned this morning that the lawyer from Harvey Weinstein has been contributing to his campaign. I don’t think that’s a coincidence,” Loeffler said Saturday in Cumming, Georgia.
A Warnock campaign spokesman told the Washington Examiner that Boies didn’t donate directly to the campaign.
Loeffler’s Weinstein attack on Warnock coincides with other personal swipes the businesswoman has taken at the senior pastor of Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church. On Saturday, she claimed Warnock’s reputation had been marred by child and domestic abuse allegations. Her remarks triggered a chant of, “Lock him up!”
Anthony Washington went on the record in December with his story of mistreatment as a 12-year-old in 2002 at a Maryland church-run camp overseen by Warnock. Washington, now 30, accused counselors of throwing urine at him.
Maryland’s state police, Department of Social Services, and Department of Health investigated Camp Farthest Out regarding child abuse allegations between 2002 and 2003. Charges brought against Warnock in 2002 for police obstruction were later dropped by the state prosecutor. The then-senior pastor of Maryland’s Douglas Memorial Community Church had wanted an adult present for interrogations conducted as part of the inquiry.
In December, police body camera footage emerged from officers who had responded to complaints made by Warnock’s ex-wife Ouleye Ndoye in March. Ndoye told police the preacher ran over her foot with his car after an argument concerning whether she could take their two children to Senegal. The police report stated medics weren’t able to find any evidence of “swelling, redness, or bruising or broken bones.”
Loeffler’s event, a joint rally with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, was one of her final opportunities to gin up Republican voters ahead of her Tuesday runoff against Warnock. The Loeffler-Warnock race, along with a twin Jan. 5 contest between Perdue and Ossoff, will determine which party will control the Senate for the next two years.
“We’ve got to hold the line. We’re the firewall to stopping socialism in America,” Loeffler said Saturday. “We’re also going to show America that Georgia is a red state. Last I checked, our clay was red.”
