Karen Handel belatedly falls in line, Rich McCormick still silent
Today, Washington Republicans finally woke up to the reality that the Republican frontrunner in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District is a Klan-linked QAnon conspiracy theorist. House Republicans previously recruited Marjorie Taylor Greene into the 14th District, helping clear a primary for Karen Handel in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District.
Greene won the first round of the GA-14 primary with a commanding 41 percent of the vote in a district that Donald Trump won with 75 percent of the vote. Among the vile new details surfaced by today’s Politico report, Greene has claimed:
- The 2018 midterms – which elected the first two Muslim women to the House – were “an Islamic invasion of our government”
- Black people “are held slaves to the Democratic Party”
- “The most mistreated group of people in the United States today are white males”
- Black people should be “proud” to see a Confederate monument
- “George Soros is the piece of crap that turned in — he’s a Jew — he turned in his own people over to the Nazis.”
Last week, the DCCC called for Handel and GA-07 Republican nominee Rich McCormick to condemn Greene. On Tuesday, DCCC Chairwoman Cheri Bustos called out House Republican leaders for failing to denounce Greene.
Only after Greene’s comments were rebuked by the DCCC and House GOP leaders did Handel receive permission to say a negative word about her fellow Georgia Republican.
On the other hand, Dr. Rich McCormick — running in a toss-up 7th District that is only 53 percent white — has been more than happy to pop off to defend his support for prescribing the FDA-revoked quack drug hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 patients, but has remained shockingly silent on Greene’s racism.
“When special interests and Washington Republicans tell Karen Handel to jump, she asks how high — but when a QAnon conspiracist spouts anti-Semitism and says Black people should be proud of Confederate monuments, she needs a week to think about it,” DCCC Spokesman Avery Jaffe said. “When it comes to Rich McCormick, his silence, as a fellow Georgia Republican attacks the communities he hopes to represent, is calculated, disgusting and dangerous.”
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