Georgia Veterans Push Back On False Attacks Saying: Warnock “Is Someone I Trust To Fight For Those Who Have Worn And Still Wear The Uniform.” 

Atlanta, GA — Kelly Loeffler ramped up her desperate attacks on Reverend Raphael Warnock this week in an effort to lie to Georgians and distract from her own record of failure, including voting against funding for Georgia law enforcement and attacking Georgians’ health care during a pandemic. The attacks are blatantly false, and Georgia veterans are speaking out against them.

“Each day we see just how desperate Kelly Loeffler is, and her latest attack is a new low in a runoff election that’s been marked by her repeated lies about Reverend Warnock,” said Terrence Clark, communications director for Reverend Raphael Warnock. “While Reverend Warnock will keep this race about standing up for Georgians and the dignity of all people, Kelly Loeffler seems dead set on falsely smearing Reverend Warnock for her own gain. It’s no surprise coming from an unelected Senator who will do anything to distract from her own record of voting against law enforcement funding, profiting off the pandemic, and trying to take health care coverage away.” 

Georgia veterans are pushing back against these false attacks: 

Georgia veteran Victor Ware: “I know Reverend Warnock. He has a deep respect for people like me and his father, who proudly served our country, and is someone I trust to fight for those who have worn and still wear the uniform. Attacks like this say more about his opponent than they do about Reverend Warnock, a man who has shown the values of sacrifice and service that we sorely need in the U.S. Senate.”

Georgia veteran Andre Mack: “At a time when our country is in crisis, we need leaders who are talking about the issues facing not only veterans but all Georgians: access to quality health care, jobs where people are treated with dignity and paid a wage they can live on, housing we can afford. I hear Reverend Warnock talking about these things, but all I’ve heard from his opponent are lies about who he is and what he stands for. In the Senate, Loeffler has shown us who she is: another politician just looking out for herself. Georgia veterans and service members struggling through this crisis deserve better.”

With nothing good to say about herself or her own short record in the Senate, Loeffler launched the runoff election with a series of misleading attacks on Reverend Warnock, described by Georgia press as a “smear campaign” and “mostly-false” with “no evidence” to back them up. It’s no surprise she is ramping up those attacks today. 

Here are the facts on Loeffler’s latest attacks: 

FACT: Warnock has honored veterans as Ebenezer Baptist Church, while Kelly Loeffler is taking a biblical verse completely out of context to mislead Georgians. 

• Ebenezer Baptist Church offers veterans’ referral services through its partnership with the Martin Luther King Sr. Community Resources Collaborative, and the church has held veterans-specific programming. 
• Reverend Warnock has frequently praised his father’s service in our military and as a pastor. 
• Reverend Warnock has explained the meaning of the verse that Loeffler takes out of context saying: “The gospel lesson says that you cannot serve God and mammon. That a person can not have two masters. It is a spiritual lesson that is basic and foundational for people of faith. What I was expressing was the fact that as a person of faith, my ultimate allegiance is to God and therefore, whatever else that I may commit myself to, it has to be built on a spiritual foundation.,,By the way, the text says you can’t serve God and mammon, which is a biblical word for money. I think Kelly Loeffler would do well to listen to the scripture because had she paid attention to the spiritual lesson, maybe she wouldn’t have put her own financial interests, mammon, above the interest of the people she was sent to the Senate to represent.”

FACT: Reverend Warnock has praised law enforcement. 

• Reverend Warnock said: “Thank God for our men and women in uniform. We need police officers and a lot of our members and our family members serve on the police department. This is not a broad stroke indictment or police officers, but those who are sworn to protect are to protect.’”
• In a sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Warnock said: “Finally in this moment in which we see every few days what’s been going on a long time. But now we have cameras as we deal with the justice issues and relations between communities of color, poor communities and the law enforcement community. And we don’t demonize either and we shouldn’t say either because people of color are in law enforcement and they’re members of our church and they serve in various ways on our staff. But we are concerned about this issue of justice, social justice and mass incarceration is a thing, as I’ve said, that’s really driving the issues we see around police brutality.”

FACT: Loeffler was one of only 10 Senators to vote against government funding legislation that extended millions in funding for the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Program. 

• On September 30, 2020, Loeffler voted against a bill to fund the government through Dec. 11, 2020 and extend funding for expiring programs. The bill passed by a vote of 84-10. (CQ, 9/30/20; Vote 197, H.R. 8337, 9/30/20])
• According to the bill’s text, it extended millions in funding for the COPS grant program.
• In 2020, Georgia received $6.8 million in COPS grant funding, benefitting 53 officers.  

FACT: Loeffler called the funding a “waste,” even though Senator David Perdue voted for it, and President Trump signed it into law. 

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Her office told us later that Loeffler has decided to take a stand against how the government is funded, saying she believes there is rampant fraud and waste.”

About Reverend Warnock

Reverend Raphael Warnock grew up in Kayton Homes public housing in Savannah. Fifteen years ago, he was chosen to serve as Senior Pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, the former pulpit of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He is only the fifth Senior Pastor in the history of the church and the youngest pastor ever selected to serve in that position. Reverend Warnock believes his service does not stop at the church door, and has been an advocate to expand health care coverage and to ensure hardworking Georgians can make a living wage. As Senator, Reverend Warnock will bring to Washington the concerns of struggling Georgia families who wonder why no one is looking out for them, and focus on fighting for quality, affordable health care, for the dignity of working people who are paid too little as our government works more for Wall Street, and to make sure every voice is heard.

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