OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock is once again in the news — and not in a good way — as voters begin going to the polls ahead of the Dec. 6 runoff election against GOP candidate and former football great Herschel Walker.
On Wednesday, Fox News Digital reported that in his post-college days, Warnock began working as an assistant pastor of a church, remaining there for 10 years “while it repeatedly hosted a former New York City professor who was ousted over antisemitic and black supremacist teachings.”
“From 1991 to 2001, Warnock served as youth pastor for six years and then assistant pastor for four years under Rev. Calvin O. Butts at Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City, several years before he went on to lead the same Atlanta church where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a pastor,” the report continued.
“From 1991 to 1998, Butts’ Abyssinian church hosted Leonard Jeffries as a speaker at least three times. Leonard Jeffries is the uncle of Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, who is poised to succeed Nancy Pelosi as the next Democratic leader in the House. The congressman said in 2013 that he remained close with his uncle but disagreed with his theories,” the outlet added.
Leonard Jeffries first appeared at the Abyssinian church in 1991 when he was involved in a major legal dispute to keep his position as the black studies department head at City University of New York (CUNY), Fox News Digital reported.
Ultimately, however, he was dismissed from his position following a dispute that lasted for years over racist and antisemitic remarks he made, including blaming Jews for the transatlantic slave trade and voicing support for black supremacist positions such as having higher melanin levels means that black people are naturally superior to whites.
“Leonard spoke about the CUNY controversy during an October 1991 speech at Abyssinian Baptist Church after a student reporter with The Harvard Crimson alleged the professor had slammed the outlet as a ‘Jewish newspaper’ during their interview, threatened the reporter’s life and had a bodyguard physically seize the audio recording of the interview, The New York Times reported at the time,” according to Fox News Digital.
Jeffries also appeared at the church in February 1992, where he spoke about systemic racism and white-on-black crime. He appeared there again in July 1998, Fox News Digital reported, citing various media outlets.
The left-leaning Anti-Defamation League published a report taking Jefferies to task for his past statements in 2017.
“Leonard Jeffries, the former head of the Black Studies Department at the City College of CUNY, and a professor there since 1972, has espoused racist and anti-Semitic views and theories since at least the early 1980s, when his comments – made while he was department head – began to attract public attention,” the ADL wrote in a report that addressed antisemitism on college campuses.
“In the spring of 1988, a white student wrote an account in the student newspaper of his experiences in Jeffries’ class, Black Studies 101,” the report continued. “The student recounted numerous times when Jeffries constructed large parts of his class around anti-white arguments.”
Meanwhile, a survey published last week showed Warnock with a slight lead over Walker, whose candidacy was endorsed by former President Donald Trump.
“An AARP poll released Tuesday surveying Georgia voters found that Warnock has a slight edge over Walker, 51% to 47%. Warnock holds a strong 24-point lead among voters 18 to 49 years of age, while Walker is up 9 percentage points among Georgia voters ages 50 and over,” Fox News reported.
“According to the poll, 51% of respondents have a favorable opinion of Warnock. Only 45% have a favorable opinion of Walker, while more of the voters surveyed, 49%, have an unfavorable opinion of the political newcomer. The survey revealed that Georgia voters are more fond of former President Donald Trump than current President Joe Biden. Only 43% of respondents approve of the job Biden is currently doing as president, while Trump received a 48% job approval rating for his time in the White House,” the report added.
