Balance of power in Senate rests on Georgia's runoff elections
Fox News correspondent Jonathan Serrie has the latest from Atlanta on 'Special Report'
With their Georgia Senate race headed for a runoff in January, the mudslinging is ramping up between Sen. Kelly Loeffler and her Democratic challenger Raphael Warnock.
A spokesperson for the Republican called an allegation from a case nearly two decades ago “disgusting” and demanded Warnock shed more light it.
Warnock and another minister were accused of hindering an investigation into child abuse at a church-run camp in 2002 – but charges were dropped a few months later.
“It’s no surprise that as Reverend Warnock’s support grows, the false attacks start,” a Warnock campaign spokesperson told Fox News. “The truth is, he was protecting the rights of young people to make sure they had a lawyer or a parent when being questioned. Law enforcement officials later apologized and praised him for his help in this investigation.”
Kelly Loeffler (R) and Raphael Warnock (D) advance to run-off election for Georgia's senate.
Warnock and the minister were charged after police said they got between officers investigating the abuse allegations and camp counselors, who were teenage church employees, according to the Baltimore Sun. Warnock said he was just making sure the teens were allowed to have a lawyer present during questioning.
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When the charges were dropped, a prosecutor said the arrests came after “some miscommunication,” and that Warnock and the other minister “were very helpful with the continued investigation,” the paper reported.
Despite that, Loeffler’s campaign raised questions about the case.
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“What exactly was going on there?” asked Loeffler spokesman Stephen Lawson. “What was the nature of the child abuse? What was his involvement? If he wants Georgia voters to believe anything he says, he needs to come clean and explain what happened.”
Another decades-old detail also reemerged surrounding Warnock.
Before working at the Baltimore church, he worked at one in New York City that hosted and celebrated the late Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
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His campaign said he was a junior staff member at the time and played no role in the visit from Castro during his 1995 trip to New York City to address the United Nations.
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