ATLANTA — Democratic US Senate candidate Jon Ossoff sent out a release on Saturday demanding that Republican incumbent Sen. David Perdue apologize for what he called the "intentional mocking" of Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris during a rally for President Donald Trump in Macon on Friday.
While speaking at the rally, Perdue, speaking about California Sen. Harris, first pronounced her first name properly, then mocked its pronunciation.
“KAH’-mah-lah? Kah-MAH’-lah? Kamala-mala-mala? I don’t know. Whatever," Perdue said during the rally.
Ossoff challenged Perdue's speech in a social media post on Twitter, while referring to Perdue as being of anti-Semitic attack ad infamy.
"We are so much better than this," Ossoff said, in part.
In a message, Perdue spokesperson Casey Black tweeted an explanation for the senator's statement.
"Sen. Perdue simply mispronounced Sen. Harris' name. He didn't mean anything by it. He was making an argument against the radical socialist agenda that she & her endorsed candidate Jon Ossoff are pushing: Green New Deal, Medicare-for-all, raising taxes, & holding up COVID19 relief"
In another tweet, Ossoff said that Perdue would not have made that sort of statement toward someone he works with who was male or white.
"Senator Perdue never would have done this to a male colleague. Or a white colleague. And everyone knows it," Ossoff tweeted.
In Ossoff's Saturday release, the candidate said that Sen. Perdue should "take responsibility and apologize to the Indian-American community and Black women in Georgia and nationwide."
Ossoff called the Perdue campaign's statement released Friday "false and ridiculous."
“David Perdue should grow up, take responsibility for once in his career, admit he was wrong, and publicly apologize," Ossoff said.
On Saturday, Black said, Perdue indicated that he meant no offense to Sen. Harris.
“I absolutely meant no disrespect to the Senator from California," Perdue said, according to Black. "My role in this is to point out the differences in what their agenda is and what our agenda is. A lot of Democrats will do or say anything right now to hide their radical, socialist agenda."