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Kelly Loeffler ad calls her more conservative than Attila the Hun, Internet points out ‘destroyer’ killed many

The ad for the Georgia senator, who was reportedly selected to bring in moderate voters, spoke about how the ancient ruler wanted to 'fight China', 'attack big government', and 'eliminate the liberal scribes'

“If you ask yourself why Attila the Hun is trending, the answer will be dumber than you could possibly imagine,” wrote a Twitter user on Monday, September 21. The ruler of a tribal empire consisting of Huns, Ostrogoths, and Alans among others, in Central and Eastern Europe, from AD 434 until his death in AD 453, was indeed trending on Twitter.

So why was Attila the Hun trending? Kelly Lynn Loeffler, a Republican politician serving as the junior United States Senator from Georgia since 2020 released an ad on Monday describing her as "more conservative" than the ancient ruler. Loeffler’s 30-second ad sees a man lounging on a couch with his wife, who describes the senator as “more conservative than Attila the Hun”. In television-within-television, we then see Attila the Hun grunting orders to "fight China", "attack big government", and "eliminate the liberal scribes."

“More conservative than Attila the Hun. Kelly Loeffler, 100 percent Trump voting record,” a narrator says, as the ad cuts to a picture of Loeffler with President Trump. As per reports, the ad is running on TV statewide, said the Loeffler campaign. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported back in August that Loeffler was picked for the coveted U.S. Senate seat partly to help persuade wavering moderate voters to return to the Republican fold. But the report noted that she squandered that opportunity.

Loeffler is running in a multi-candidate special election to fill the seat of retired Republican Senator Johnny Isakson. The winner of the election will fill the remainder of the term which ends in 2022. 

“Now here's an ad for you: Sen. Kelly Loeffler's new spot is all about how she's ‘more conservative than Attila the Hun,’ and includes an actor portraying a grunting Attila who delivers orders to, among other things, ‘eliminate the liberal scribes’,” wrote journalist Jacob Rubashkin, sharing the ad. “You have Loeffler comparing herself to Attila the Hun and promising to ‘eliminate liberal scribes.’ You have Trump using fascist language & calling the press ‘the enemy of the people.’ Barr is calling NYC ‘anarchists.’ DeSantis is cracking down on protests. Still, ‘both sides’,” noted journalist Wajahat Ali. “Attila the Hun wasn't ‘conservative.’ He was, from the perspective of written history, simply a destroyer. That's what the modern Republican Party aspires to be. They are most popular in places with the highest rates of suicide and opiate addiction. They want to destroy,” noted a Twitter user.

But concern for the political climate was not the only thing that was being tweeted. There were also many simply mocking the ad. “Underrated dumbest part of all this is that Loeffler confused Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan. Attila the Hun didn’t fight China, but Genghis Khan did. That’s one of those things the ‘liberal scribes’ she wants to ‘eliminate’ might have been able to tell her," wrote journalist Matt O’Brien, adding, “Also, Loeffler is ‘joking’ about either getting rid of the First Amendment or killing journalists?”

Author David Frum noted, “Attila the Hun killed and enslaved a lot more Christians than Ghengis, though, maybe that's the point Senator Loeffler wanted to make.” TV presenter Alton Brown wrote, “Dear @SenatorLoeffler, Attila the Hun was referred to as ‘Flagellum Dei.’ I know you don’t know what that means but you might want to have someone google it.”

Writer Charlotte Clymer said, “The Attila the Hun ad from Loeffler is a particularly effective argument that the American public education system has been deeply in trouble for quite some time.” Another Twitter user observed, “Kelly Loeffler's ‘More conservative than Attila the Hun’ ad is nuts until you consider that all the GOP does is rape & pillage. Even crazier is it originally said ‘More conservative than Attila the Hun, more anti-Semitic than Adolf Hitler, more cannibalistic than Jeffrey Dahmer’.”