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Georgia: The Last Debate Weakened Democratic Candidate Warnock

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The last public debate between Georgia’s candidates for the Senate ended; a televised exchange that made clear that on January 5th, the legislative direction of the country will be at stake.

Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Raphael Warnock faced each other in a tense debate organized by the Atlanta Press Club (APC). This is the last time the two candidates will be on the same stage and where voters would be able to compare each other’s views.

Republican Senator David Perdue, who is running for re-election, has been very direct in stating that if he and Loeffler lose, the Democrats “will have the power of the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives. They will do whatever they want.”

The results of those elections will determine which party will control the U.S. Senate for the next two years. The Democrats must win Georgia to have a majority; however, the Republicans need only win one of the seats to secure a majority.

Loeffler performed well in the debate and made it clear why she should be elected. On the other hand, Warnock failed to explain why Georgians should risk their vote.

Although part of the debate focused on Donald Trump’s claims of electoral fraud, Republican candidate Kelly Loeffler knew how to handle the situation; she said that the president has the right to question the elections, did not focus on talking about the alleged fraud and instead called on voters to go to the polls on January 5th.

“It’s vitally important that Georgians trust our election process and the president has every right to every legal recourse,” Loeffler said in response to a question about whether or not she agrees with Trump’s claim that he won Georgia.

Another important topic during the debate was the police. The Democratic candidate Raphael Warnock preferred to avoid some questions and hid in his role as a pastor, despite the fact that he has harshly attacked police officers in his social media.

“I have worked my whole life to pull people together. I’ve been working on criminal justice reform. I’ve worked alongside law enforcement officers to do that work. Several years ago, I actually brought together the law enforcement officers here in this city, the chief of police, the Black Lives Matter activists, the sitting attorney general, families, parents all in my church (…) we need somebody who knows how to bring people together rather than using these issues as a political point to be made,” the Democrat said.

Loeffler responded: “My opponent, radical liberal Raphael Warnock has called police officers gangsters, thugs, bullies and a threat to our children. When I gave him the chance to apologize in our first debate, he declined.”

Another issue highlighted during the debate was abortion. Loeffler attacked Warnock as someone that has “used the Bible to justify these types of attacks and make other divisive statements,” while the Democratic candidate responded by saying that he believes abortion should be a woman’s choice.

Regarding the Supreme Court and the possibility that the Democrats will seek to pack the Supreme Court, Warnock preferred to avoid the issue. “I’m not really focused on it,” he said. “And I think that too often politics in Washington has been about the politicians,” he said.

Meanwhile, Loeffler flatly declared that his opponent would pack the Supreme Court. “Justice Ginsburg herself said, “Nine justices is the right number.” He would pack the court with radical justices that would legislate from the bench to fundamentally override the Constitution and our laws in this country” the Republican incumbent warned.

“I believe in the Constitution. This is the greatest system on the planet and our country is the only country where my story is even possible. I believe in our norms, I believe in the separation of powers, and I believe in the non-violent, unchaotic transition of power.” Warnock said.

One issue on which they both agreed is that both said they are willing to be vaccinated as soon as the specialists consider it.

Georgia, all or nothing?

The Democrats kept their majority in the House and the Republicans must win at least one of Georgia’s seats for a majority in the Senate.

The importance lies in the fact that the Democrats are pinning their hopes on Georgia to define the role they will play in the Senate. The race for that state is the Republicans’ chance to curb and control the initiatives of the radical left. In fact, if the Democrats succeed in winning Georgia’s Senate seats, regulations such as gun control could become a reality, especially if Kamala Harris were to break a tie in the Senate.

Republicans have controlled the Upper House for the past two cycles, limiting Barack Obama’s agenda first and pushing Donald Trump’s later. The Georgia Senatorial runoffs will determine much of the agenda of the next four years.

The Senate is made up of a total of 100 people: 50 seats already belong to the Republicans while 48 are in the hands of the Democrats (counting the two independents caucusing with them); Georgia will define, then, if the Republicans will indeed have a majority or if the Senate will remain 50-50, with VP Kamala Harris as the tiebreaker.

The U.S. Constitution states that the person who is the vice president of the country also serves as the president of the Senate, so he or she would have the vote that would end any tie in legislative votes. If Biden won, the most radical leftist Senator, Kamala Harris, would have the power to break any ties.

The candidates

One of the electoral battles faces David Perdue, who reached the Senate in 2015, against Democrat Jon Ossoff, who is a 33-years-old and has already lost a special election to the House of Representatives in 2017.

David Perdue led the first round with 2,460,635 votes while Democrat Jon Ossoff got 2,373,560.

Perdue is a former CEO of a Fortune 500 company and became a close ally of President Trump after he was elected in 2014.

According to The New Yorker in 2017, Ossoff has “progressive positions on women’s issues and health care” and “moderate stances on jobs and security.”

Ossoff supports abortion rights, as well as U.S. participation in the “Paris Agreement” and does not support the Green New Deal. He supports the “Affordable Care Act” (also known as Obamacare) and does not agree with Medicare for all.

Trump sent out a tweet the day before the April 19th primary calling Ossoff a “liberal super-Democrat” who wanted to “protect criminals, allow illegal immigration and raise taxes. For his part, Ossoff dismissed Trump’s claims and called him “uninformed.”

The other election battle is between Republican Kelly Loeffler, who replaced Johnny Isakson in the Senate in January 2019, and controversial African-American pastor Raphael Warnock. Warnock won the first round with 32.9% while Kelly Loeffler got 26%.

Loeffler owns 49% of the stocks of the “Atlanta Dream” in the women’s basketball league (WNBA) and was appointed to become a Republican senator from Georgia. She has accused her opponent Warnock of being a Marxist.

Finally, Raphael Warnock is the Democratic Party’s candidate facing Loeffler. Twenty-five years ago, he sang the international socialist anthem as a welcome to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders, for his part, has already publicly expressed his support for Warnock. Likewise, the senatorial hopeful supports the expansion of the Affordable Care Act.

Throughout his life, Democratic candidate Raphael Warnock has left behind evidence of his radical affinity for the left and Marxism. An article published by David Bossie, Trump’s legal counsel, reminds us that Warnock “beliefs are far outside mainstream Georgia values.”

“He’s defended and praised Marxism, signed a letter harshly critical of Israel in 2019, and has not answered questions about whether he attended a speech given by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro at the church he worked at in 1995. It comes as no surprise that Warnock refuses to release most of his graduate thesis from Union Theological Seminary,” Bossie says in the article.

Sabrina Martín Rondon is a Venezuelan journalist. Her source is politics and economics. She is a specialist in corporate communications and is committed to the task of dismantling the supposed benefits of socialism // Sabrina Martín Rondon es periodista venezolana. Su fuente es la política y economía. Es especialista en comunicaciones corporativas y se ha comprometido con la tarea de desmontar las supuestas bondades del socialismo

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