Georgia's Loeffler, Warnock face off in contentious Senate runoff debate

Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) and her Democratic challenger, the Rev. Raphael Warnock, faced off in a debate Sunday night, during which she would not say that President Trump's baseless claims of voter fraud are false and Warnock defended previous remarks about abortion.

Loeffler called Warnock a "radical liberal" more than a dozen times, while Warnock brought up Loeffler's stock trades at the beginning of the pandemic. Loeffler is one of the wealthiest members of Congress, and when asked if lawmakers should be "barred from trading stocks," she didn't answer, instead claiming that allegations against her are conspiracies.

Loeffler was asked about comments she made about the Black Lives Matter movement, when she referred to it as "fascist." Loeffler responded that the "life of every African American is important and there is no place for racism in this country, but there are organizations whose No. 1 goal is to defund the police. And we know that that hurts minority communities more than anyone."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Warnock said that the demonstrators who took to the streets over the summer to protest the deaths of unarmed Black people like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor were from all races and backgrounds, and Loeffler didn't take the time to understand this "multiracial coalition of conscience." Instead, Warnock said, Loeffler used her "enormous privilege and power as a United States senator to pick a fight with the Black women on her team." Loeffler is a co-owner of the WNBA's Atlanta Dream, and in response to her Black Lives Matter remarks, the players wore Warnock shirts during games.

Regarding abortion, Warnock — a senior pastor at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church — explained why he is pro-choice, saying he thinks that "the patient's room is too small a place for a woman, her doctor, and the U.S. government." He added that he's "concerned about life," and believes everyone who is should "be focused on the incredibly high rates of infant mortality and maternal mortality in our country when compared to other developed nations. That's something the government could work on. And I've been working on it my entire career."

Georgia's Senate seats are both up for grabs in the Jan. 5 runoff election, which will determine control of the Senate, and Warnock reminded voters that "health care is on the ballot, workers are on the ballot, voting rights is on the ballot, criminal justice reform is on the ballot."