Jon Ossoff calls opponent a “coward” after he refuses debate in special runoff election

Jon Ossoff
Georgia Sen. David Perdue, the Republican incumbent in a runoff against Democrat Jon Ossoff declined another debate before the Jan. 5 special election that will decide the winner — and will be represented at the event by an empty podium.
David “empty podium” Perdue https://t.co/bARdzKVQvm
— Jon Ossoff (@ossoff) November 16, 2020
Ossoff called Perdue a “coward” on Twitter.
Looks like Sen. David Perdue is too much of a coward to debate me again.
Perdue can’t defend his lies about COVID-19, self-dealing stock trades, his bigotry, or his votes to take away Georgians’ health care.
Senator, come on out and try to defend your record. I’m ready to go. https://t.co/OONfwSjylt
— Jon Ossoff (@ossoff) November 15, 2020
Neither Ossoff nor Perdue surpassed the 51% threshold to claim the seat outright in the Nov. 3 election, therefore, under Georgia’s electoral law, a runoff race was set for early January.
The race for Georgia’s other Senate seat is also a runoff and the Atlanta Press Club said that it sent out invitations to candidates Rev. Raphael Warnock and Sen. Kelly Loeffler, for a similar debate.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Ye debuts ‘Heil Hitler’ music video that includes a sample of a Hitler speech
- 2
Opinion It looks like Israel totally underestimated Trump
- 3
Culture Is Pope Leo Jewish? Ask his distant cousins — like me
- 4
Fast Forward Student suspended for ‘F— the Jews’ video defends himself on antisemitic podcast
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Russell Brand defends Ye’s ‘Heil Hitler’ music video
-
Opinion Though sworn enemies, Hamas and Donald Trump seem to share a common language
-
Culture The woman who saved stolen Jewish art — and the writer who is finally telling her story
-
Fast Forward Israel’s Eurovision contestant, Yuval Raphael, says she’s focused on the music, not the protests
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.