- Democratic Senate candidate Jon Ossoff accused Republican Sen. David Perdue of using an anti-Semitic trope to attack him in a recently deleted Facebook ad showing Ossoff, who is Jewish, with an enlarged nose.
- Perdue's digital ad featured the altered image of Ossoff in which his nose is enlarged and elongated next to a picture of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is also Jewish, and claimed "Democrats are trying to buy Georgia."
- The Perdue campaign took down the ad on Monday and claimed the nose enlargement was an "unintentional" biproduct of the photo-editing process conducted by a consultant.
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Democratic Senate candidate Jon Ossoff accused Republican Sen. David Perdue of Georgia of using an anti-Semitic trope to attack him in a recently deleted Facebook ad showing Ossoff, who is Jewish, with an enlarged nose.
Perdue's ad, which began running on July 22, featured the altered image of Ossoff in which his nose is enlarged and elongated next to a picture of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is also Jewish, according to the Jewish news outlet the Forward.
"Democrats are trying to buy Georgia," it read.
Accusing Jews of using money to corrupt politics and depicting them with large noses are longstanding anti-Semitic tropes.
The Perdue campaign took the ad down on Monday and claimed the nose enlargement was an "unintentional" biproduct of the photo-editing process, which was conducted by a consultant.
"In the graphic design process handled by an outside vendor, the photo was resized and a filter was applied, which appears to have caused an unintentional error that distorted the image," a campaign spokesperson told the Forward in a Monday statement. "Obviously, this was accidental, but to ensure there is absolutely no confusion, we have immediately removed the image from Facebook. Anybody who implies that this was anything other than an inadvertent error is intentionally misrepresenting Senator Perdue's strong and consistent record of standing firmly against anti-Semitism and all forms of hate."
Three graphic designers told The Forward that Ossoff's nose was the only part of his face that was enlarged in the altered image.
Ossoff slammed the ad on Twitter and said "literally no one believes" the Perdue campaign's claim that the photo edit was "accidental."
"This is the oldest, most obvious, least original anti-Semitic trope in history," he tweeted. "Senator, literally no one believes your excuses."
The Georgia Democratic Party also characterized the ad as an "anti-Semitic attack."
Ossoff, who's running a competitive race against Perdue in Georgia, later demanded that Perdue apologize to Georgia's Jewish community.
Sitting U.S. Senator David Perdue's digital attack ad distorted my face to enlarge and extend my nose.
— Jon Ossoff (@ossoff) July 28, 2020
I'm Jewish.
This is the oldest, most obvious, least original anti-Semitic trope in history.
Senator, literally no one believes your excuses.https://t.co/PiA7P4O4M2
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