#Georgia senate race is now focused on how to pronounce ‘Kamala’

A Georgia Republican mocked fellow Sen. Kamala Harris’ name as “Kamala-mala-mala … whatever” at a campaign rally in Macon — and within the hour, his Democrat opponent was on Twitter and cable TV calling him racist.

Sen. David Perdue, who has been in the senate with Harris for three years, says through a spokesman that he “didn’t mean anything by it” when he mispronounced his colleague’s name.

Perdue was on stage in advance of rally headliner President Trump Friday night when he made this reference to Harris, the Democratic candidate for vice president:

“Kamala? Kamala? Kamala-mala-mala? I don’t know. Whatever.”

But his opponent in a tight race for Perdue’s seat, Jon Ossoff, quickly tweeted a video of Purdue’s diss.

“Senator Purdue never would have done this to a male colleague,” he said in the tweet.

“Or a white colleague. And everyone knows it.”

An hour had not passed before Ossoff was on MSNBC condemning Purdue’s “race-baiting.”

“This kind of vile, race-baiting trash talk is what President Trump has unleashed from sitting Republican members in the Senate,” he told the cable network’s Joy Reid.

National Journal reporter Josh Kraushaar was quick to point out the timing.

“Talk about rapid response,” he tweeted. “The same hour Sen. Perdue mangles Kamala Harris’ name, Jon Ossoff goes on MSNBC to go on the attack.”

In response, @dfinney16 tweeted a video of Harris’ running mate, Joe Biden.

“Has everyone forgotten that Biden couldn’t pronounce it either?” he wrote above a link to the clip.