'Disgusting:' Georgia governor lashes out after DOJ challenges state's new voting law

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp sharply criticized the Department of Justice and Biden administration on Friday for suing his state over its new voting law.

“Let me be clear: The Department of Justice lawsuit announced today is legally and constitutionally dead wrong. Their faults and baseless accusations are quite honestly disgusting,” Kemp, a Republican, said at a news conference where he called the lawsuit a “politically motivated assault on the rule of law.”

The governor, who has championed and defended his state’s voting law as common-sense election reform, said that the lawsuit was a product of Democrats’ failure to pass the For the People Act this week and that the Biden administration was trying to force an “extreme agenda” on states.

“I can’t say I’m surprised, the president and his administration, Stacey Abrams, and their far-left allies have lied about the Election Integrity Act from the beginning,” he said.

Friday morning, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced a lawsuit against the state of Georgia, arguing that the law, enacted in March, was intended to deny or abridge Black Americans' vote. Garland had said he would ramp up the Justice Department’s staff and efforts to protect voting laws and scrutinize new voting restrictions enacted across the country.

Kemp vowed to fight the lawsuit in court while portraying the legal challenge as a threat to conservatives everywhere.

“They are coming for you next. They’re coming for your state, your ballgame, your election laws, your business, and your way of life,” he said.

He also suggested Garland’s news conference was designed to draw attention away from the border crisis, because it occurred close to when Vice President Kamala Harris’ plane landed on her southern border trip. In fact, Harris' plane had landed more than an hour before Garland’s news conference.