Two of the four senatorial candidates, Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler and her Democratic challenger Rev. Raphael Warnock, debated each other Sunday, a month before the election.
The debate, hosted by the Atlanta Press Club, featured sharp attacks on both sides and a handful of false or misleading claims. Here is a rundown of some of them with more to come.
Issues in the election
In a Georgia rally the day before, President Donald Trump showed his support for the Republican senatorial candidates and continued to falsely claim the election was rigged. When asked during the debate whether she agreed with the President, Loeffler responded "it's very clear that there were issues in this election."
Facts First: That's not true. Federal, state, local and private election officials have called this election the most secure in US history. There is no evidence of any significant improprieties either in Georgia or in any other state. Georgia's secretary of state said he has not seen evidence of widespread voter fraud though the state continues to systematically investigate any potential claims.
"We have ongoing investigations but we've not seen something widespread of a large nature," Georgia's Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told CNN in November.
Fidel Castro
Presenting Warnock as a "radical liberal," Loeffler said "he invited Fidel Castro into his own church."
Facts First: This is misleading, at best.
In 1995, Fidel Castro was invited to speak before the congregation at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York where Warnock was a youth pastor at the time, according to the Warnock campaign. However, Warnock insists he had no role in the decision to invite Castro.
Responding to Loeffler's allegations in the debate Warnock said, "I never met him, I never invited him. He has nothing to do with me."
Loeffler's support
Warnock claimed Loeffler "welcomed the support of a QAnon conspiracy theorist and she sat down with a White supremacist for an interview."
Facts First: This needs context.
Warnock's comments likely refer to newly elected Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has previously promoted QAnon conspiracy theories, and Jack Posobiec, a right-wing activist who has tweeted anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic statements.
In July, Loeffler was interviewed by Posobiec, who had gained a national profile after criticizing what he perceived as a lack of "national media outrage" over shootings in Chicago during the same 2017 weekend that Charlottesville, Virginia, became a national flashpoint for White supremacist violence. Trump has amplified Posobiec's posts over the years. Posobiec told CNN, "I have always fully repudiated the KKK and White nationalists and their vile ideology of hatred and bigotry."
Loeffler did welcome Greene's endorsement in October, saying she was "thrilled to know I've got a strong, conservative champion that's going to be fighting right alongside with me." However, Loeffler and Greene have both tried to downplay any connection to QAnon, with Greene telling Fox News in August that QAnon "wasn't part of my campaign" and that once she "started finding misinformation," she "chose another path."
Warnock's arrest
During part of the debate where the candidates were allowed to ask each other questions, Loeffler claimed Warnock was arrested for obstructing police in a child abuse investigation.
Facts First: This needs context.
Media reports from 2002 show Warnock was indeed arrested but a judge ultimately dropped the charges after a prosecutor clarified there had been some miscommunication.
"The truth is he was protecting the rights of young people to make sure they had a lawyer or a parent when being questioned," Warnock campaign spokesperson Terrence Clark told CNN. "Law enforcement officials later praised him for his help in this investigation."
Gangsters and thugs
Loeffler claimed Warnock "said police officers are gangsters and thugs."
Facts First: This needs context.
Loeffler's claim is likely a reference to a 2015 sermon in which Warnock said some of the police officers in Ferguson, Missouri, where Michael Brown had been shot and killed by police the year before, had been "showing up in a kind of gangster and thug mentality."
However, Warnock's campaign said his comments were directed at the specific incident and the behavior of some of those involved, not all police officers in general.
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