Hall County

Trolls ‘Zoom-bomb’ Senate candidate with racial slurs, Nazi symbolism during town hall

HALL COUNTY, Ga. — Both Democrats and Republicans are blasting a racist troll attack during a Zoom meeting of the Hall County Democratic Party.

The trolls targeted Democratic Senate candidate the Rev. Raphael Warnock.

It wasn’t until he started speaking that the trolls started inundating the conversation.

“It was so fast, and so in your face, you know? You’re trying to stop it and figure out what’s happening, and it was really overwhelming,” said Leigh Miller with the Hall County Democratic Party.

Miller said the Zoom-bombing started slowly but then intensified with more slurs, Nazi symbolism and pornographic imagery just as Warnock started to talk.

“This wasn’t just one troll bombing a Zoom. This was a coordinated attack. This took some knowledge of technology, of where the reverend was going to speak, of how things work,” Miller said.

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Warnock said he’s never encountered a Zoom-bombing before and worried more about its effect on the people he was trying to talk to.

“I’d heard about it, but I had not experienced it in Zoom,” Warnock said.

Even one of his GOP rivals, Doug Collins’ campaign, was quick to condemn it, telling people instead to focus on the issues.

“This kind of stuff is dumb, sick and not at all right,” Collins’ campaign said in a statement.

Warnock said the Zoom-bombing won’t deter his campaign.

“As ugly as the incident was, it just reminds us of how much work we still have to do,” Warnock said.

Sen. Kelly Loeffler’s campaign had no comment on the bombing.

Zoom has had issues like this before and has taken steps to try and stop it from happening.