Georgia Senate candidate Raphael Warnock called senators “gangsters and thugs” during a 2017 sermon that came after the vote to pass Republicans’ Tax Cuts and Jobs Act legislation.
“While others were sleeping, members of the United States Senate declared war, launched a vicious and evil attack on the most vulnerable people in America,” Warnock said. “Herod is on the loose. Herod is a cynical politician who’s willing to kill children and kill the children’s health program in order to preserve his own wealth and his own power.”
“On Friday night, the United States Senate decided by a slim majority to pick the pockets of the poor, the sick, the old, and the yet unborn in order to line the pockets of the ultrarich. Don’t tell me about gangsters and thugs on the streets. There are more gangsters and thugs in Washington, D.C., in the Capitol than there are — a bunch of them,” Warnock said as congregants cut him off with applause.
The legislation passed on partisan lines, with every Republican senator voting for the legislation and every Democratic senator voting against.
Warnock’s comments and sermons have surfaced frequently since the reverend made the jump to Senate candidate, often being used to paint him as a radical. One such sermon in 2011 paraphrased Bible verse Matthew 6:24, which he used to claim that “nobody can serve God and the military.”
“America, nobody can serve God and the military,” Warnock said. “You can’t serve God and money. You cannot serve God and mammon at the same time. America, choose ye this day who you will serve. Choose ye this day.”
Warnock is running to unseat incumbent Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler in next month’s special election runoff. Along with Republican Sen. David Perdue’s race against Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff, Georgia’s runoff elections will decide which party controls the Senate in the coming term. Republicans currently hold a 50-48 advantage in the upper chamber.
Warnock’s campaign did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
