Eviction notices sent to apartment building becomes latest squabble between Senate candidates

ATLANTA — There is new back and forth in Georgia’s U.S. Senate race.

Republican challenger Herschel Walker claims tenants in a building once owned by incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock’s church got eviction notices.

Warnock called Walker’s claims shameless lies on Tuesday.

The Columbia Tower at MLK Village are part of the Capital Gateway project. Ebenezer Baptist Church’s foundation once owned the building and is still connected to it. The eviction notices were sent by a separate company that actually manages it.

Walker accused Warnock of not taking responsibility for the eviction notices. Warnock accused Walker of “lying.”

Channel 2′s Richard Elliot was there as Walker stood outside Columbia Tower at MLK Village apartment building on Tuesday and accused Warnock and Ebenezer Baptist Church of trying to evict tenants during the pandemic -- something Warnock preached against at that time.

“I think it’s wrong to have leaders to not take responsibility to do what’s right. And my campaign is about doing what’s right for the people of Georgia,” Walker said.

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With a small group of protesters looking on, Walker’s campaign produced documents they say showed the eviction notices, though Walker himself conceded that no one was actually evicted.

“The people behind us now are being evicted. Yes, it’s true. No one has left, but they got the eviction notice and he knew about it,” Walker said.

About two hours later, in Carrollton, Elliot spoke with Warnock as he campaigned inside Legends West Park.

“My church has no involvement in the day-to-day operations of that apartment building,” Warnock said.

He insisted that no one was actually evicted from the property and accused Walker of exploiting the residents of Columbia Tower -- including disabled, mentally ill and people escaping homelessness -- for political gain.

“This is an example of a candidate who has so little to offer to the people of Georgia that he has resorted to trying to sully the name of Martin Luther King Jr.’s church,” Warnock said.

Walker denied he was trying to sully the name of Ebenezer Baptist. He has offered to pay back rent for the tenants who got an eviction notice.

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