Senator David Perdue (R- GA) spoke at Donald Trump’s rally Friday before the president and fired up the crowd talking about what would happen if his opponents win.
“The most insidious thing that Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden are trying to perpetrate, and Bernie and Elizabeth and Kamala — Kah-ma-la or Kah-mah-la or Kamalamalamala, I don’t know,” he said, mockingly pronouncing his Senate colleague Kamala Harris’ name.
Here is the video of Senator David Perdue mangling the pronunciation of Kamala Harris’s name. pic.twitter.com/aVJU451bDi
— Ryan Nobles (@ryanobles) October 16, 2020
Perdue was immediately blasted on social media, including from his opponent Jon Ossoff:
My opponent, GOP Sen. David Perdue of anti-Semitic attack ad infamy, just mocked Sen. Harris' name as "Kamala-mala-mala-whatever" at a Trump rally.
We are so much better than this. pic.twitter.com/9AvoQK4RdN
— Jon Ossoff (@ossoff) October 16, 2020
Yeahhh that says a lot more about Perdue than Harris https://t.co/bKoZCK7srq
— Kathryn Watson (@kathrynw5) October 16, 2020
This is absolutely disgusting. https://t.co/c5O2jvkBkr
— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) October 16, 2020
Perdue and Harris have been colleagues in the Senate for three years — even serving on the sane budget committee together — but I’m sure this is an accident and not racist pandering from a desperate politician. https://t.co/VGDvWIDZqw
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) October 16, 2020
Safe to say, Sen. Perdue has served in the Senate with Sen. Harris long enough that it's likely he does know how to actually pronounce her name… https://t.co/by5gdcGCwZ
— stephen fowler (@stphnfwlr) October 16, 2020
Then-Sen. George Allen, 2006: “Macaca, or whatever his name is.”
Sen. David Perdue, tonight: “Kamala-mala-mala-whatever"
(Though Perdue is making fun of the actual name of a woman he has served with for four years.)pic.twitter.com/RYrHUR4CIS
— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) October 16, 2020
This is bigotry and it's no way to treat a colleague, or anyone for that matter. https://t.co/LHWk9PFdne
— Hunter Walker (@hunterw) October 16, 2020
Your macaca moment for 2020. This is not going to work out well for Perdue… https://t.co/7xgOeDJCVs
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) October 16, 2020
UPDATE — 7:57 pm ET: The Perdue campaign has responded in a statement provided to Mediaite saying, “Senator Perdue simply mispronounced Senator Harris’ name, and he didn’t mean anything by it. He was making an argument against the radical socialist agenda that she and her endorsed candidate Jon Ossoff are pushing, which includes the Green New Deal, Medicare-for-all, raising taxes, and holding up COVID relief for the people of Georgia.”
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