Karen Handel resigned from the nation's top breast cancer advocacy organization, the Susan G. Komen Foundation, in 2012 after it came to light that she helped convince board members to end funding for breast cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood because she opposes abortion.
But that's not how Handel told it at Tuesday night's debate in Georgia's sixth Congressional District after Democrat Jon Ossoff repeatedly touched on the issue. NPR reports:
The subsequent uproar led Komen to reverse itself three days later, but contributions to the organization fell by more than 20 percent. Handel resigned soon after.
Handel downplayed her role.
"I was one of hundreds of employees at the Komen foundation," Handel said. "Secondly, I was tasked by the CEO and chairman of the board to develop options for how the organization could disengage from Planned Parenthood. Why? Because the grants were not effective."
It was a distinctly defensive moment for Handel.
Ossoff didn't let it go:
She saw fit to impose her own views on health care decisions of Georgians when she was an executive at the Susan G. Komen Foundation, a charity committed to fighting breast cancer, when she imposed her own views and cut off funding for breast cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood. And I think the question that I have, and that many voters in the 6th District have, is why Secretary Handel thought it was reasonable when she took a job at an organization dedicated to fighting breast cancer to impose her own views and cut off funding for lifesaving breast cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood.
Handel went on the attack over Ossoff's unprecedented war chest of over $8 million, emphasizing that many of his donations have come from outside Georgia.
"They are coming from [House Minority Leader] Nancy Pelosi, California, New York, Massachusetts. He doesn't want the people of Georgia to know that he is a liberal Democrat."
In fact Ossoff, a documentary filmmaker and former congressional aide, has raised more than $8 million, most of it online, much of it from Democrats anxious to send a message to President Trump.
"The average contribution to my campaign is less than $50," Ossoff said. "And in stark contrast Secretary Handel, like so many career politicians in both parties who are mired in gridlock in Washington, has had her campaign bailed out by anonymous Washington super PACs who are spending unprecedented amounts on attack ads here."
We'll take a base of $50-dollar donations over a predominately PAC-funded candidacy any day of the week and twice on Sundays.