Happy Thanksgiving! Here’s the latest from this shortened week ahead of the holiday, and we’ll be back in your inbox on Monday.
AP INVESTIGATION REVEALS MORE “SUSPICIOUS” PERDUE STOCK TRADING. A bombshell new AP investigation today revealed that Senator David Perdue made even more “suspicious” stock transactions earlier this year. Perdue dumped stock in the Georgia-based financial tech company Cardlytics right before its value tanked, then bought back shares weeks later following the company’s “unexpected leadership shakeup,” and the value of the stock has since quadrupled. Before becoming a senator, Perdue served on the board of Cardlytics and company executives continue to donate to Perdue’s campaign. Legal experts told the AP that “the timing of his sale, the fact that he quickly bought Cardlytics stock back when it had lost two-thirds of its market value and his close ties to company officials all warrant scrutiny.” Perdue’s knack for “impeccable” timing on his stock trading is raising more questions for the vulnerable incumbent. AP: Ga. Sen. Perdue boosts wealth with well-timed stock trades
DRIP, DRIP, DRIP: SCRUTINY GROWS OVER PERDUE’S CORRUPT RECORD. Senator Perdue was already facing growing ethics scrutiny before today after the Daily Beast and ProPublica reported last week that the wealthy former corporate insider was once again “engaged in conspicuously timed trading” of stocks and “privately pushed Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to give wealthy sports owners a lucrative tax break” as they filled his campaign coffers. It’s part of a growing record of the vulnerable incumbent getting caught appearing to abuse his office to make shady, well-timed stock trades to line his own pockets and pushing for policy changes to help his biggest special interest campaign donors. Now Perdue is facing a well-earned barrage of brutal headlines for his pattern of flagrant self-dealing and political corruption as he faces an increasingly competitive runoff. Take a look here.
HOUSE OVERSIGHT MEMBER REQUESTS SEC INVESTIGATION INTO PERDUE. Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee’s subpanel on economic policy, is requesting a federal investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission into Senator Perdue’s “purchase and sale of stock in a U.S. Navy contractor while he was chairman of a Senate subcommittee with jurisdiction over Navy spending.” Reminder: “lawmakers are barred from using information they glean through their official duties for personal financial benefit.” Daily Beast: Key House Democrat Asks SEC to Find Out if Perdue Sub Deal Was as Shady as It Looks
LOEFFLER MARKETED OFFSHORE CAYMAN ISLANDS TAX SCAM DURING GREAT RECESSION. Just months after the 2008 crash, Kelly Loeffler marketed an offshore tax shelter for the world’s ’s biggest financial institutions at Ugland House — a location infamous in the Cayman Islands for being an “offshore tax dodge.” After the market crash cratered America’s economy, Loeffler’s company “created a way for the world’s biggest banks to keep trading in the very financial instruments that contributed to the crisis in the first place.” As ICE’s top marketing executive, Loeffler played a key role and “helped package and sell the product.” At a time when Georgia taxpayers were reeling, Loeffler and ICE “created a system that rewarded the people whose recklessness had destroyed the economy only months earlier.” Salon: Kelly Loeffler marketed derivatives during Great Recession at world’s most notorious tax haven
ADD THIS LATEST PROBLEM TO LOEFFLER’S YEAR IN THE SWAMP. Senator Loeffler’s short tenure in Washington has been marked by a “‘minefield’ of potential ethical issues,” from a corrupt appointment process to a series of ethics red flags and conflicts of interest, accusations of insider trading, and more. Loeffler’s problems keep getting worse –– in the past week alone, not only did new reporting detail how she played a key role marketing an offshore tax scam, she also violated ethics rules and federal law by illegally soliciting campaign contributions from within a Senate building and was caught appearing to have falsified information on her personal financial disclosures to hide her private jet. Take a look back at Loeffler’s scandal-plagued year in the swamp here.
“TOUGH STRING OF HEADLINES” HIGHLIGHT LOEFFLER AND PERDUE’S CORRUPTION, DEM OPENING. A common theme in recent coverage of Senators Loeffler and Perdue? They are “two uber-rich senators whose wealth helped bring them power and put them in a position where they could make more money.” As scrutiny grows, it’s clear “the last thing Perdue and Loeffler want is for their actions to become the theme of Georgia’s crucial runoff elections.” One ethics expert said Loeffler and Perdue’s stock trades while in office have “every appearance of insider trading.” The bottom line is “self-dealing is never a good look when running for reelection” — and the narrative could also “dampen” voter enthusiasm for Loeffler and Perdue. Mother Jones: Perdue and Loeffler’s Well-Timed Stock Trades Give Georgia Democrats an Opening
PERDUE SLAMMED BY LOCAL PRESS FOR HIDING. It’s been three weeks since Senator Perdue was forced into a runoff, and he’s still hiding from local media –– and Georgia’s press corps is fed up. After a campaign stop this week, where Perdue once again refused to answer questions, 11Alive’s Doug Richards called out Perdue for having “skipped back onto his campaign bus without answering questions afterward.” Perdue is hiding because he knows he can’t defend his toxic record of shady stock trades and attacks on health care.
WAPO EDITORIAL: LOEFFLER AND PERDUE “UNFIT” AFTER GIVING IN TO WASHINGTON GOP LEADERS. The Washington Post Editorial Board eviscerated Senators Perdue and Loeffler for their attempt to undermine GOP election officials in Georgia at the behest of party leaders in Washington. The Post’s Editorial Board declared that Loeffler and Perdue are “two politicians conspiring to groundlessly undermine faith in American democracy.” Washington Post (Editorial): Georgia’s recount revealed no fraud — and just how unfit Loeffler and Perdue really are
JEWISH LEADERS DEFEND WARNOCK AGAINST LOEFFLER’S DESPERATE ATTACKS. After a round of desperate attacks from Kelly Loeffler and her allies, Jewish leaders are speaking out to defend Reverend Warnock, citing his “long history in Jewish community” and his “strong support for Israel and his partnership with the Jewish people.” Nearly 200 rabbis and faith leaders voiced their support for Warnock, denouncing Loeffler’s “baseless claims and attacks” and condemning her efforts to “divid[e] traditionally marginalized communities in order to consolidate political power.” Jewish leaders also called Loeffler out for openly embracing her endorsement from QAnon-supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene –– QAnon is a baseless conspiracy that “traffics in anti-Semitic and racist tropes.” Loeffler has nothing good to say about her own record, so she’s resorted to ugly and false smears.
OSSOFF AND WARNOCK TRAVEL GEORGIA, TALK TO VOTERS ABOUT ISSUES CLOSEST TO THEM. While Loeffler and Perdue are drowning in swampy scandals, Jon Ossoff and Reverend Warnock are traveling around Georgia, talking to voters about the issues that matter most to them like delivering coronavirus relief and protecting their health care. Over the weekend, Ossoff distributed food and goods to Georgia families ahead of Thanksgiving and was joined by Congresswoman Lucy McBath to distribute yard signs in Alpharetta. Warnock visited Macon, Butler and Taylor Counties where he held meet and greet events and got the chance to speak with over 800 Georgians about what’s at stake on January 5th.
GEORGIA AD WATCH
– Reverend Raphael Warnock released two new ads this week:
WHAT GEORGIANS ARE READING
TWEET OF THANKSGIVING WEEK
Lauren Passalacqua
@laurenvpass
Stewart Boss
@stew_boss
Helen Kalla
@helen_kalla
Shea Necheles
@sheanecheles
Regina Anderson
@reginasopinion
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