At a rally in Atlanta on Saturday, former President Donald Trump again slammed Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, both Republicans, for refusing to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election loss to Joe Biden.
The governor responded by suggesting Trump should focus on winning the November election and refrain from “petty personal insults, attacks on Republicans and dwelling on the past.”
Before the rally, Trump criticized Kemp, a popular Republican governor in a must-win battleground state for Republican presidential candidates, suggesting the governor should be “fighting crime, not fighting Unity and the Republican Party.”
Trump also criticized Kemp’s wife, Marty, for saying she would vote in her husband’s name, rather than the former president’s, in November’s presidential election.
“Brad Raffensperger must do his job and stop this election from being stolen,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social. “Brian Kemp should be focusing on fighting crime, not fighting Unity and Republicans! His Georgia crime rate is awful, Atlanta crime rate is the worst, and his economy is average.”
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Former President Donald Trump held a rally on May 23, 2024, in New York City’s historically Democratic-held South Bronx neighborhood. (Spencer Pratt/Getty Images)
During his tenure as governor, Kemp has repeatedly been credited with helping Georgia’s booming economy, and his approval rating in the state has soared, hitting 63% in a June poll by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Governor Kemp was endorsed by President Trump and narrowly defeated Democrat Stacey Abrams for governor in 2018. In 2022, Governor Kemp handily defeated former U.S. Senator David Perdue (R-GA), who was endorsed by President Trump, in the primary and then defeated Abrams by 7.5 points in the general election rematch.
“He should seek unity, not retaliation, especially with the person who helped get him the nomination through their endorsement. Without them, he would never have been able to beat Stacey Abrams,” Trump wrote. “He and his wife never thought he could win. I said, ‘You say you will win,’ and then he celebrated and his wife said, ‘Thank you, we can never make it up to you!’ Now she says she won’t endorse me and is going to ‘write in Brian Kemp’s name. Well, I don’t want her endorsement and I don’t want his endorsement.”
“They are the ones who set up Fani Willis and her boyfriend to ‘amp it up’. He could end this tragedy with a phone call but he’s a bad guy and doesn’t want it to end,” he continued.
Trump was referring to the controversial relationship between Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is prosecuting Trump’s election interference case in Georgia, and Nathan Wade, who was the prosecutor on the case but resigned earlier this year amid an investigation into their relationship.
Kemp responded to the former president in a post on social media platform “X,” saying, “My focus is winning the election in November and saving the country from Kamala Harris and the Democrats. I am not going to make petty personal insults, attack Republicans or dwell on the past.”
“The president should do the same, and not drag my family into it,” Kemp said.
Raffensperger also responded to Trump’s claims in his own post.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp looks on during a ceremony celebrating the Georgia Bulldogs’ national championship victory on Jan. 15, 2022, in Athens, Georgia. (Todd Kirkland/Getty Images)
“Georgia’s elections are secure,” Raffensperger wrote on X. “The winner in November will reflect the will of the people. History has taught us that this type of messaging has no place here in Georgia.”
Notably, Governor Kemp signed the Georgia Election Integrity Act of 2021, which requires identification at the polls, extends the early voting period, and provides for ballot drop boxes in every county.
At Saturday’s rally, Trump spent 10 minutes blasting Governor Kemp’s baseless claims about his loss to Biden and his failure to block the prosecution of Willis in Georgia’s election interference case. After Governor Kemp signed the bill into law, the state board has the power to discipline and fire prosecutors who fail to follow the law, but the governor does not have the power to fire prosecutors.
“He’s a bad guy. He’s a disloyal guy. And he’s just a regular governor. Little Brian, Little Brian Kemp. He’s a bad guy,” Trump said.
The former president continues to repeat his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
Biden defeated Trump in Georgia by 11,779 votes in 2020, and the former president pressured Raffensperger to “find” the number of votes needed to win. Trump and his allies also tried to submit a slate of so-called “fake electors” to replace Democratic electors won by Biden.
Trump was subsequently charged with trying to overturn the election results in Georgia, but the case is currently on hold while a court decides whether Willis can continue to pursue the charges.
Kemp certified the electoral votes won by Biden in 2020 and rejected attempts by Trump allies to switch them.
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Georgia Governor Brian Kemp speaks during an election night rally, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022, in Atlanta, Georgia. (Elijah Nouvellage/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The governor did not endorse anyone in this year’s Republican primary but has said he will vote for the Republican candidate in the November primary. President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, who became the presumptive Democratic nominee after Biden suspended his reelection campaign, are seeking to win Georgia, a battleground state that has been won by a Republican presidential candidate every year since 1996 and that Biden won four years ago.
Before Trump’s rally, Harris’ campaign correctly predicted that she would reject the results of the 2020 election.
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After the rally, the Harris campaign released a statement from former Georgia Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan, who served with Kemp during his first term in office.
“If you could see through Donald Trump’s incoherence and vindictiveness tonight, you saw a Donald Trump who has no interest in uniting our country or speaking to the voters who will decide this election,” Duncan said in a statement. “Millions of Americans are tired of a disgruntled campaign that only thinks about itself.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
