Georgia special election candidate says journalism has fueled 'lack of civility'

As voters go to the polls in a fiercely competitive special election in Georgia involving record spending, the Republican candidate has blamed social media and journalism for fueling a lack of civility in American society.

Speaking to the Guardian before a lunchtime event in Marietta on Monday, Karen Handel said a “lack of civility in society” was fueled by social media and “the fact that journalism is not journalism anymore”.

Handel’s election fight, against the Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff, comes less than a week after the shooting of the Republican congressman Steve Scalise and three others, and following a series of smaller-scale incidents of political violence in recent years.

Both Ossoff and Handel have received threats. Envelopes containing white powder and threatening messages were mailed to Handel’s house and to her neighbors. Both candidates have had security in place in the final days of the campaign.

“I don’t think it is just in the world of politics,” Handel told the Guardian. “The lack of civility in society as a whole, some of it, I believe, is very much fueled by social media and frankly, it’s fueled by the fact that journalism is not journalism any more.

“It’s tabloid. It’s 24/7 news – people get in the middle of a news cycle for 24 hours off of things that previously would never have gotten the kind of coverage that is happening.”

In response to a quizzical follow-up – “So you point the fingers at the journalism, then?” – Handel said: “No, don’t put words in my mouth, Ben.

“I had a very broad sentence. See, this is exactly what happens and why things are really broken. You don’t listen and you put words in people’s mouth.”

The Guardian said: “I was trying to clarify.”

Handel responded: “No, you really weren’t. But what I said was the following: there is a lack of civility in society as a whole, social media has been fueling it, journalism has been fueling it.”

Asked if the issue was partisan, Handel said: “I can only tell you what I have observed in this race. The anger has been from the left with groups of trackers showing up and literally adopting a gang-like posture and virtually stalking individuals.”

Referring to the threats she received in the mail, she added: “Just what I was subject to – that literally we had to have hazmat in our home and people having profanity hurled at them for no reason other than who they are supporting in this race – and it’s interesting to me that it has been very much one-sided.”

Handel’s attitude was shared by some supporters, including JoAnn Birrell, a local elected official, who said: “If you look at the folks who are doing this, it’s all anti-Trump protesters.”

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In contrast, Ossoff, a 30-year-old first-time candidate who has seemed almost preternaturally on message, focused a broader and non-partisan call for civility. He refused to address the political aftermath of the shooting of Scalise, which has been invoked against him in an ad released by a small and hitherto unknown political action committee.

“I can’t even think about the politics of it,” he said. “Representative Scalise is still fighting for his life. Politicizing it is disgraceful. This is a tragedy that has united people.”

To Ossoff, the heated political climate spoke to “the need for candidates and elected officials and leaders to call for calm and civility and respect despite intense differences in political opinion and to lead by example”. He added: “This is a deep-rooted problem in American politics right now which is going to take work and bipartisan commitment to try to heal wounds and focus on substance instead of fear-mongering and slander.”

As the race closed on Monday, its focus was not limited to civility. With unprecedented sums being spent on both sides, turnout was expected to rise beyond the norm for midterms. The key battleground was moderate suburban Republican-leaning voters – people skeptical of Donald Trump in what has long been a Republican district.

Ossoff pitched a message of fiscal responsibility and cutting government waste, seeking to avoid coming across as too liberal and criticizing Handel over her brief time with the Susan Komen Race For The Cure, a charity which seeks to combat breast cancer, where she led an effort to cut the organization’s funding for Planned Parenthood. After a national outcry, funding was restored and Handel stepped down. In clipped tones, Ossoff said: “In her last significant private sector experience, her performance also lacked.”

In contrast, Handel condemned Ossoff for not living in the district and for what she said was his support from outside the state. Her campaign repeatedly attacked Ossoff over his support from the House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, and his “San Francisco values”. As the US representative Doug Collins put it at Handel’s final campaign event: “The last thing we need in Washington is another Democrat from California, especially coming from Georgia.”

Handel, 55 and a former Georgia secretary of state, has also repeatedly criticized her opponent over his lack of experience.

While the race has become a focus for national attention as a referendum on the Trump presidency, both candidates tried to focus on local issues. At an election eve rally in a suburban restaurant, Handel insisted: “This race is not about what is going on in the rest of the country. It is about you and the sixth district.”

Ossoff hit a similar note, telling reporters: “This campaign has been focused on the daily concerns of voters here, despite the temptation to wade into the national circus.”

However, much enthusiasm in the race was clearly built around feelings towards Trump in a district the president barely won in 2016. At Handel’s election eve rally, where tickets were required for admittance, the president’s name went unmentioned. A lone attendee in a Make America Great Again hat seemed more like a unicorn than a base Republican voter.

Ossoff also avoided Trump’s name at his election eve event, in a strip mall office packed with hundreds of volunteers. But the loud chants of “Hey hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go” before he spoke made clear the disdain Ossoff’s base had for the president.

Such enthusiasm, however, may not be enough. This is a traditionally conservative district formerly represented by the ex-House speaker Newt Gingrich and Trump’s health secretary, Tom Price. One GOP operative involved in the race predicted that to win, Ossoff would need 20% of the Republican vote.