kelly raphael georgia senate runoffs debate
Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Democratic challenge, Raphael Warnock, appear during a debate Sunday, Dec. 6, 2020, in Atlanta.
Ben Gray/AP Photo
  • Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler became the subject of mockery for repeating a handful of phrases during Sunday’s debate in the Georgia Senate runoff election.
  • Her catchphrases of the night included “Radical liberal Raphael Warnock,” “I lived the American dream,” and “President Trump has every right to,” referring to the president launching legal challenges to overturn the results of the 2020 election. 
  • Fox News host Steve Hilton showed a montage mocking Loeffler and said, “I think this could be put in the category of: Thanks Kelly Loeffler, I think we got the message.”
  • Loeffler also got made fun of by political commentators and comedians, several of whom compared her to a “robot.”
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler gave a bizarre performance during Sunday’s Georgia Senate runoff debate, often repeating the same phrases regardless of the question being asked.

Loeffler, 50, was appointed to the Senate in 2019 by Georgia’s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp following the retirement of Johnny Isakson.

In Sunday night’s debate, Loeffler faced off against her Democratic opponent, Rev. Raphael Warnock, both of whom are vying for one of Georgia’s senate seats during the January 5 runoffs.

Loeffler found a descriptor for Warnock and stuck with it, repeating the phrase “radical liberal Raphael Warnock” to such an extent that even a Fox News host poked fun at her.

“I think this could be put in the category of: Thanks Kelly Loeffler, I think we got the message,” Steve Hilton said.

Hilton is one of President Donald Trump's favorite Fox News hosts, despite recent grievances with the network following the election.

Yet Hilton wasn't the only one who picked up on Loeffler repeating herself.

Several reporters, comedians, and political commentators began mocking Loeffler and comparing her to a robot as the debate went on.

Warnock did not jump at the chance to call out Loeffler for repeating the same things, choosing instead to stay on message and draw policy parallels to his personal story.

The moderators also pressed Loeffler on issues such as whether members of Congress should be allowed to trade stocks, or if President-elect Joe Biden won the election.

Loeffler dodged those questions, sticking to wording on how Trump "has every right to every legal recourse" while continuing to challenge the results of the election, despite no evidence of widespread fraud as the weeks have gone by.

She also kept going back to a line on how she has "lived the American dream," and used that notion to pivot from the question on trading stocks. Loeffler was cleared in a probe looking into trades she made at the outset of the pandemic, but Warnock has stuck with it as an attack on her being out of touch and self serving in Washington.

Loeffler's performance also elicited some comparisons to that of GOP Sen. Marco Rubio, of Florida, during the 2016 Republican primary debate in New Hampshire. Rubio kept going back to a line on how then-President Barack Obama "knows exactly what he's doing."

Unlike Warnock, one of Rubio's opponents seized on the repetition.

"There it is," former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said at the time. "There it is, the memorized 25-second speech."

Read the original article on Business Insider