Ossoff: ‘Kelly Loeffler is campaigning with a klansman.’

Jon Ossoff. Image by Facebook

By David Ian Klein December 31, 2020

Jewish Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff pointed out — several times — on Wednesday to Fox News that Sen. Kelly Loeffler has been keeping company with a former member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Loeffler is the incumbent Georgia senator locked in a tight race with Rev. Raphael Warnock; Ossoff is running against the other incumbent, Sen. David Perdue.

The man Ossoff was referring to was Charles Doles.

Doles is a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan who is currently affiliated with the Hammerskins, a white supremacist group who are “one of the oldest hardcore racist skinhead groups in the United States and have a history of violence,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Loeffler had taken a photo with Doles at a rally earlier this month, however, her campaign quickly repudiated him.

Ossoff had been responding to Loeffler’s remarks about a Washington Free Beacon report that cited alleged abuse at a Maryland church camp Warnock had run nearly 20 years ago.

Loeffler said the report should be considered “disqualifying.”

During his interview later in the week, when asked if he felt Warnock would be a drag on the ticket, Ossoff came to his fellow Democrat’s defense.

“Rev. Warnock addressed this issue a year ago, and here’s the bottom line: Kelly Loeffler has been campaigning with a Klansman,” Ossoff said. “She is stooping to these vicious personal attacks to distract from the fact that she’s been campaigning with a former member of the Ku Klux Klan.”

David Ian Klein covers breaking news and international Jewish communities for the Forward. You can reach him at Klein@forward.com and on Twitter @davidianklein.

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