GOP presidential hopefuls appear in Buckhead’s ‘The Gathering,’ but Trump charges avoided

Friday, most of the big-name candidates for the Republican presidential nomination for 2024 came to Georgia to talk about their campaigns.

A noticeable absence among the challengers was former President Donald Trump.

Conservative radio personality Erick Erickson hosted what he calls “The Gathering” in Buckhead.

Few there wanted to talk about the former president, as observed by Channel 2′s Richard Elliot.

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In Fulton County, Trump faces a series of charges, including racketeering.

Erickson didn’t even invite the former president to his Gathering event, running Friday and Saturday at the Grand Hyatt.

Most of the candidates who did attend, including former Vice President Mike Pence, tried to avoid criticizing the potential 2024 nominee and treaded lightly around the indictment filed in Georgia.

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It was a who’s who of well-known GOP candidates and other party leaders at the Buckhead event, and while commentary on Trump was mostly avoided, Pence still weighed in on election issues at the center of the indictment for 2020 election-related actions.

“I kept my oath to the Constitution of the United States, and I always will,” Pence said.

The former vice president is still defending his actions on Jan. 6, 2021 to Republican voters. Many still believe he had the legal authority to overturn Trump’s election loss, as the former president had pressured him to do.

Now under indictment in Fulton County, Trump faces charges for attempting to overturn the election results in Georgia in a bid to remain in the White House, instead of turning the office over to his rival, now-President Joe Biden.

“I do think it’s important irrespective of that case, or other cases going forward, that we speak the truth to the American people,” Pence said. “I had no right to overturn the election and the Georgia election was not stolen.”

Pence was joined by fellow GOP candidates such as U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and former governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley.

All were in Buckhead to share their vision of the presidency and America’s future under their leadership, with Erickson’s “The Gathering” serving as a forum for top Republican issues to be discussed.

Erickson notably didn’t invite Trump as the two men have been in a feud for years.

DeSantis didn’t stop for questions while walking through the crowd, but the presidential hopeful did allude to the need to move forward while on stage.

“I hope that we will be focused on the future of the country rather than some of the other static out there right now,” DeSantis said, essentially saying that focusing on past issues like the 2020 election wouldn’t win anyone the White House in 2024.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, also in attendance, joined the candidates in Atlanta as they campaigned at the political event.

Unlike some of the speakers, Kemp talked a little about the former president’s Georgia indictment as well as the Republican Party’s future.

“I was subpoenaed for the special grand jury,” Kemp said. “So you know, I’m sure I’ll be a witness in whatever goes forward, so I really can’t say much about the indictment.”

Still, Kemp reiterated what he’s said since 2020, that Georgia’s election was not stolen, and those who say otherwise risk losing elections.

“We have to be focused on the future, not something that happened three years ago,” Kemp said. “We don’t need to be focusing on stupid things that aren’t going to happen before this election. We can deal with it later.”

Commenting on the gathering of Republican presidential hopefuls in the Atlanta area, the Democratic Party of Georgia issued a statement, saying in part that the candidates were out of touch.

“Republicans can plug their extreme, out of touch agenda, but Georgians already rejected MAGA extremism in 2020, and we’ll do it again in 2024,” the statement said.

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