Republican Sen. David Perdue of Georgia was denounced for being “incredibly racist” Friday night after he willfully mispronounced the name of his Senate colleague Kamala Harris, the Democrat from California and her party’s vice presidential nominee, at a campaign rally for President Donald Trump.
Perdue—currently in a heated reelection campaign of his own against Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff—was just completing his introduction for Trump at the rally in Macon, Georgia when he referred to Harris as “Kah-mah-lah? Kah-MAH-lah? Kamala-mala-mala” and then said: “I don’t know. Whatever.”
While the Perdue campaign said the GOP senator “didn’t mean anything by it,” it was clear from the laughter by the predominantly white Republican crowd that the overt dogwhistle had its intended effect. Continue reading.