Oh Dear, Jon Ossoff Debate Did Not Go 'Well' For Georgia Sen. David Perdue

Perdue: 'China virus! Radical socialists! Nancy Pelosi!'

In Savannah, Georgia, last night, incumbent US Sen. David Perdue (R) got dick-slapped by Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff, who went after the GOP's record of soft-peddling the threat of the coronavirus pandemic, and in particular Perdue's dumping of stocks he owned back in February. Perdue insists those stock sales were all made by his financial advisers, and were perfectly cromulent.

Regardless, near the end of the debate, Ossoff had Perdue dead to rights on his own multiple votes to eliminate Obamacare, all of which culminated in this clip that went viral on the Twitters:

I’d like to report a murder. Jon Ossoff slays GOP opponent Perdue in Georgia US Senate debate. https: //t.co/RL2CrTPSMJ

— John Aravosis 🇺🇸🇬🇷🏳️‍🌈 (@John Aravosis 🇺🇸🇬🇷🏳️‍🌈) 1603939818.0 

Somebody get Perdue some Dramamine. He's going to blow!

OSSOFF: Perhaps Senator Perdue would have been able to respond properly to the COVID-19 pandemic if you hadn't been fending off multiple federal investigations for insider trading. It's not just that you're a crook, Senator. It's that you're attacking the health of the people that you represent.

You did say COVID-19 was no deadlier than the flu. You did say there would be no significant uptick in cases. All the while, you were looking after your own assets, and your own portfolio, and you did vote four times to end protections for preexisting conditions.

Ossoff went on to point out that Perdue's preferred "replacement" for the Affordable Care Act's protections for patients with pre-existing conditions, the "Protect Act," includes "loopholes that specifically allow insurance companies to deny policies to Georgians with preexisting conditions."

We're going to call that factcheck: 90 percent true , because it's just shorthand for the bait and switch in the GOP bill. While the Protect Act technically prohibits companies from denying insurance policies to folks with preexisting conditions, it includes loopholes that would allow insurers to refuse to actually cover medical care for those conditions. Isn't that a neat trick?

But did Perdue rise to Ossoff's challenge to look into the camera and tell people why he voted four times to kill the ACA and take away protections for preexisting conditions? We took a look at the CSPAN video, and golly, he did! By lying, of course.

I voted against the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, because it was taking insurance away from millions of Georgians. Today, almost 18 percent of Georgians don't have insurance, because of the Affordable Care Act.

Fact checks: 1) the only insurance policies "eliminated" by the ACA were junk insurance plans that provided insufficient coverage. And the US Department of Health and Human Services estimated that between 2010 and 2015, 581,000 Georgians actually  gained    health insurance.

2) Georgia has consistently refused to accept Medicaid expansion under the ACA. In 2019, the state applied to partially expand the program, but with benefits limited to those with income up to 100 percent of the poverty level (the full ACA expansion covers up to 138 percent of the level). And yes, that would have a work requirement, too.

3) Fuck you, David Perdue.

For much of the rest of the debate, Perdue tried to accuse Ossoff of being a radical socialist, falsely claiming he would support the Green New Deal and Medicare for All (which he oughta, but he does not), and yelling about Ossoff supposedly taking orders directly from Xi Jinping because Ossoff, a filmmaker, sold a documentary film to a company in Hong Kong whose owner supports Beijing. It is not clear whether Ossoff's movie included any marching songs in praise of Mao and tractors.

Earlier in the debate, Perdue even dramatically waved around a financial disclosure form listing that transaction, and demanded that Ossoff "own up to it, because sooner or later, we need someone in the United States Senate who will stand up to Communist China."

Ossoff wasn't having that nonsense either, using the moment to call attention to other underhanded tricks Perdue has used in the campaign, like that time a Perdue ad digitally altered a photo of Ossoff to make his nose bigger, just in case anyone didn't know Ossoff is Jewish.

Ossoff to Perdue: “First, you were lengthening my nose in attack ads to remind everyone I was Jewish” https://t.co/6agclGULFo

— Bill Grueskin (@Bill Grueskin) 1603945151.0 

"You continue to demean yourself throughout this campaign with your conduct," Ossoff retorted, suggesting it might be better for Perdue if he could not listen to every brilliant idea his "handlers in Washington" tell him to do, because "you'll lose your soul along the way."

As of press time, Perdue's campaign has neither confirmed nor denied the existence of the senator's soul.

It's a squeaker of a race! If you'd like to help out Jon Ossoff, please do!

[ AJC / WaPo / AP / Wapo / CSPAN / HealthInsurance.org ]

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