Georgia Republican Senator David Perdue’s campaign removed a digital ad attacking Democratic opponent Jon Ossoff amid allegations of anti-Semitism after a report said it included an image that had been altered to enlarge Ossoff’s nose.
Ossoff, who is Jewish, claimed the ad, which showed him and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., with the message “Democrats are trying to buy Georgia!” played on anti-Jewish stereotypes. Schumer is also a Jew.
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“US Senator David Perdue’s digital attack announcement distorted my face to enlarge and extend my nose,” Ossoff said in a statement. “I am a Jew. This is the oldest, most obvious and least original anti-Semitic trope in history. Senator, literally no one believes your excuses. You can start with an unreserved apology to the Georgian Jewish community.”
A report by the Jewish news outlet The Forward, based on the views of three graphic design experts, said the image had been altered to make Ossoff’s nose longer and wider, keeping the rest of his face the same. The report featured comparisons of the original 2017 image and the one used in the ad.
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Perdue’s campaign claimed it was nothing more than a technical error. A statement from a campaign spokesperson said a “third-party vendor” who did the graphic design used an image filter “that appears to have caused an unintended error that distorted the image,” The Forward reported. The statement went on to say that to avoid confusion they removed the Facebook ad.
The spokesman then rejected the claims of dire intent.
“Anyone who implies that this was more than an inadvertent mistake is intentionally misrepresenting Senator Perdue’s solid and consistent record of being firmly against anti-Semitism and all forms of hatred,” the statement said.
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Miryam Lipper, Ossoff’s director of campaign communications, rejected the explanation.
“Everyone in politics knows this was not a technical error,” Lipper said in a statement. “Facebook’s shady ads are where campaigns try to do their specific dirty work. This is just old-school anti-Semitism, trying to fly under the radar, embarrassing for a serving senator, and David Perdue was caught in the act.” .
