The junior U.S. senator from Georgia snatched a phone from a student after he was questioned about his support for Georgia gubernatorial hopeful Brian Kemp.
Republican Senator David Perdue encountered the student after a Georgia Tech game on Saturday, according to WXIA. The student, who has chosen to remain anonymous, is a member of the Georgia Tech chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America. The organization posted the video on its Twitter page.
Today @sendavidperdue visited Tech to campaign for Kemp. A student tried asking a simple question about @BrianKempGA 's racist scheme to threaten voter registrations from black people, but before he could even finish the question, Perdue stole his phone. pic.twitter.com/K0iffU57Di
— YDSA Georgia Tech (@YDSAGT) October 13, 2018
The student approached Perdue and began to ask him a question.
"So, how can you endorse a candidate … " was all the student was able to ask before Perdue forcefully grabbed the phone.
"No, I'm not doing that,” the Senator was heard saying in the video. "If you want a picture, I can give it to you."
The student accused Perdue of theft and eventually got his phone back. He recorded Perdue walking away from the scene.
"He won't answer why he's endorsing a candidate who's trying to purge people from voting on the basis of their race,” the student said as Perdue exited.
That candidate, Brian Kemp, is Georgia’s GOP nominee for the state's top job. Kemp is also Georgia's current secretary of state and has been accused of purging over 50,000 mostly black voters from the state’s records to sway the election his way.
Purdue’s office released a statement claiming the senator grabbed the phone so the pair could take a picture together.
"Senator Perdue spent several hours meeting with hundreds of people at the Georgia Tech game this weekend," the statement read. "In this instance, the senator clearly thought he was being asked to take a picture, and he went to take a selfie as he often does. When he realized they didn’t actually want to take a picture, he gave the phone back."
The student said he is considering pressing charges against Perdue.
This is the second time in a month protesters have confronted Perdue. He hid in a bathroom at Reagan National Airport on October 1 after protesters encountered him following his support of Brett Kavanaugh, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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