In a private conversation with Georgia Republicans and Trump supporters, Sen. Perdue sounded the alarm on his re-election prospects
His comments come after Perdue was exposed buying medical PPE and vaccine stocks in January and February
Atlanta, Ga. — This week, during a private briefing for Republican donors and activists, Senator David Perdue (R-Ga.) was caught on tape issuing a stark warning: his re-election prospects are now in grave danger.
In the off-the-record call with “Women for Trump,” Perdue issued what CNN referred to as a “grim assessment” and a “wake-up call,” warning that his Georgia Senate seat is now at risk.
Perdue’s comments come mere weeks after the Senate stock trading scandal rocked the race. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution uncovered that Perdue traded heavily before and during the Coronavirus pandemic.
In January and February, Perdue bought medical stocks while selling casino shares. Then, in March, Perdue’s stock trading tempo increased by nearly 300% while he helped write the largest bailout package in American history.
“These are facts which Senator Perdue cannot refute: in January and February, while downplaying the threat posed by COVID-19, he purchased medical equipment and pharmaceutical stocks. He then traded stocks at three times his normal pace while writing the largest economic bailout in history. His assets are not, in fact, held in blind trust. He sells quarterly meetings and access to his home for $7,500 PAC checks,” said Ossoff. “Perdue is right to fear losing his seat.”
4/29: GOP senator gives activists grim 2020 assessment amid fears over holding Senate
CNN // Manu Raju and Alex Rogers
- “Here’s the reality: The state of Georgia is in play,” Perdue said Monday, according to an audio recording of a call with “Women for Trump” obtained by CNN. “The Democrats have made it that way.”
- Sen. David Perdue, a Georgia Republican up for reelection and a close Trump confidant, issued a blunt warning to GOP activists during an off-the-record conference call this week: Democrats are in position to turn his state blue and take the Senate.
- “We have had our wake-up call in Georgia,” Perdue said, detailing the state’s recent electoral history of increasingly tight races. Perdue said he needs to win “twice the number of votes” than he did in his 2014 campaign to keep his seat due to the influx of new Democrats in Georgia.
- Already facing the prospect of defending the Senate with an unpopular Republican president in an election cycle with more seats to defend than to target, Republicans are up against a bevy of well-funded Democratic challengers and are now navigating a public health and economic crisis that has injected deep uncertainty into the national political landscape.
- Republicans are particularly concerned that the intraparty battles in Kansas and Georgia, two states Trump carried in 2016, could make it easier for Democrats to gain the three seats they need to take back the Senate if former Vice President Joe Biden wins the presidency since the vice president breaks a 50-50 tie.
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Ossoff owns and runs a 28-year-old investigative media company. In the last three years alone, Ossoff’s company has produced internationally broadcast investigations of ISIS war crimes, high-level corruption in international sports, war crimes committed by international peacekeepers, and death squads that target children.
Ossoff’s campaign has been endorsed by scores of Georgia leaders and grassroots activists, including Congressman John Lewis, Congressman Hank Johnson, and State Legislative Black Caucus Chair Rep. Karen Bennett. Two weeks after launching his campaign, Ossoff’s kickoff rally at the MLK Rec Center in Atlanta drew hundreds of volunteers committed to registering voters.
For Immediate Release
Thursday, April 30, 2020
Contact: Jake Best, (770) 342-9339
[email protected]
