NEW: Perdue Conveniently Hides His Business Ties, Years of Work In Asia Despite China Fear Mongering As “Central Theme” of His Campaign

December 16, 2020

Perdue spent years outsourcing American jobs to foreign factories, “especially in Asia”

ATLANTA — While fear mongering about China has been a “central theme” of Senator David Perdue’s campaign, a new HuffPost report shows in his newly released biographical video, “nearly identical” to his campaign video in 2014, Perdue conveniently leaves out his years of experience in Asia, even removing a picture of him and his wife at the Great Wall of China. In an effort to hide his own record, Perdue also cuts the mention of the years he spent doing business in Hong Kong from the 2014 video for this year’s update.

Perdue has had “significant work with Asia” throughout his career, where his job was essentially to outsource manufacturing operations to cheaper foreign factories, especially in Asia.

The report on Perdue’s years of close business ties with China comes as Perdue has repeated “outrageously false” claims against his opponent that a chorus of independent fact checkers have called out as a “flatly false” lie, saying Perdue is “insistent on misinterpreting” the facts and “should be ashamed of himself.”

“Senator Perdue has used fear mongering about China throughout his campaign to distract from the years of experience he has working in Asia and sending American jobs overseas,” said Braxton Brewington, spokesman for the Democratic Party of Georgia. “Georgians can’t trust Perdue because he only tells the part of the story he wants voters to know while hiding the truth. Perdue will say or do anything to get reelected.”

Huffington Post: David Perdue Edits Out His Asia Experience From Senate Campaign Ad

  • “Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) is out with a new biographical campaign video touting his family roots and his successful business career as he fights to hold on to his seat ahead of a Jan. 5 runoff against Democrat Jon Ossoff.”
  • “The biographical information is nearly identical to a video he put out in 2014, with a key difference: The new one removes a mention of the two years he spent in Hong Kong working for Sara Lee and takes out a picture of him and his wife at the Great Wall of China.
  • “The 2014 video has a section about how David and Bonnie “set out for the world and added two sons along the way.””
  • ““For Sara Lee, David led their expansion into Asia, living in Hong Kong for two years,” the narrator says at 1:45 into the video. “It sure wasn’t Georgia,” quips Bonnie.”
  • “The new video, released last week, skips right from the part about setting out to see the world and adding to their family to his experience at Reebok, omitting any mention of his time in Hong Kong. … The Perdue campaign did not return a request for comment, and Ossoff’s campaign declined to comment.”
  • “Fearmongering about China has been a central theme of Perdue’s campaign, so a picture of him at the Great Wall and boasts about time spent in Asia aren’t politically convenient. Perdue has accused Ossoff of being funded by the Chinese government and endorsed by the Communist Party. … But both of Perdue’s claims are false.
  • “In a 2005 deposition, when asked about his “experience with outsourcing,” Perdue bluntly admitted, “Yeah, I spent most of my career doing that.” In 2014, Perdue’s then-campaign manager insisted that the comments about outsourcing referred to a “company contracting with an outside source, not the direct shift of jobs overseas.””
  • “In that deposition, Perdue also talked about his work with other companies importing goods from Asia ― including from China ― dealing with companies as far away as Japan, and his time living in Singapore and Hong Kong. And during his time with Sara Lee, Perdue oversaw a restructuring that closed factories in places like Georgia while expanding operations in Asia.” 

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