In the lead up to President Donald Trump’s 2016 electoral victory, current Georgia Democratic Senate candidate Raphael Warnock said America should “repent” for supporting Trump and for its “worship of whiteness.”
Warnock delivered the remarks during an October 2016 speech to Atlanta’s Candler School of Theology, just prior to Trump beating Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race. The Washington Free Beacon first noted the speech Saturday.
“If it is true that a man who has dominated the news and poisoned the discussion for months needs to repent, then it is doubly true that a nation that can produce such a man and make his vitriol go viral needs to repent,” Warnock said, according to a video recording. (RELATED: ‘We Have A List’: Pundits And Democrats Plan To Hold Trump Supporters Accountable)
Democratic Senate candidates Jon Ossoff (L) and Rev. Raphael Warnock, bump elbows at a rally on October 24, 2020, in Duluth, Georgia. (Photo by ELIJAH NOUVELAGE/AFP via Getty Images)
“No matter what happens next month, more than a third of the nation that would go along with this, is reason to be afraid. America needs to repent for its worship of whiteness, on full display this season.”
Warnock is locked in a runoff election with Republican Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler. The state’s other Republican senator, David Perdue, is also facing a runoff election with Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff. (RELATED: Stacey Abrams Predicts Ossoff, Warnock ‘Absolutely’ Can Win Georgia Runoffs)
Warnock faced some criticism on the campaign trail when it was revealed that he worked as a youth pastor at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, New York, when it hosted Cuban communist dictator Fidel Castro for a speech in 1995. Warnock’s campaign had no comment as to whether the Senate candidate attended the event.