A son of former President George H.W. Bush on Tuesday denounced as “shameful” claims endorsed by Georgia GOP Senate candidate David Perdue that his Democratic rival, Michelle Nunn, “gave money to organizations linked to terrorists.”
Neil Bush directed those comments, a day after his father endorsed Perdue, at a TV spot paid for by the National Repubican Senatorial Committee.
“It really makes my blood boil to think that someone would make that kind of an allegation,” Bush told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The younger Bush is chairman of the charitable Points of Light Foundation, which his father founded and Nunn serves as its CEO.
Bush called on Perdue to renounce the accusation.
“Neither Points of Light nor Michelle Nunn have had anything to do with funneling money from our organization to terrorists organizations,” he said. “Anyone who makes that claim needs to understand the facts, and then they need to denounce those claims. … To smear our organization for political gain, is in my opinion shameful.”
Attempts to obtain comment from Perdue’s campaign were unsuccessful.
Nunn’s vulnerability to the charge first surfaced in a memo generated by her own campaign, which explored GOP arguments that might be used against her.
The charge involves MissionFish, a business entity Points of Light used to collect donations from eBay users for any of 20,000 charities. One of those charities, Islamic Relief USA, received about $13,500. Islamic Relief USA is part of a global network of charities that is under the umbrella of Islamic Relief Worldwide.
A top Israeli official has accused that organization of having links to the terrorist group Hamas. Islamic Relief has denied any such connections.
PolitiFact found that because of the way MissionFish worked, there’s no indication that Points of Light directed money to Islamic Relief USA.
Bush praised Nunn for her work with the foundation but stressed that he was not making a political endorsement.
“She showed the right kind of visionary leadership,” Bush said, “a nonpartisan or bipartisan approach to our service world.”
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