Trump attacks on Georgia Gov. Kemp leave some Republicans saying its not a wise strategy to win the state
COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL) — Republican presidential candidate and former president Donald Trump was in Georgia Saturday.
The rally was in the same Georgia State University arena that presumptive Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris rallied in five days earlier.
Trump had sharp criticism for Harris and the Democratic policies on the Southern border and the handling of the economy.
But the former president was also upset with someone else.
Some Georgia Republicans are shaking their heads today because during that Atlanta rally and on social media the Republican presidential candidate had harsh words for Georgia’s popular two-term Republican governor – Brian Kemp.
Some are trying to figure out how this is winning strategy for a key battleground state in the 2024 presidential election.
Back in 2020 Trump lost Georgia by less than 12,000 votes to Joe Biden. That win helped pave the path Biden took to the White House.
Saturday 2020 was very much on former President Donald Trump’s mind as he rallied thousands of supporters in downtown Atlanta.
He renewed his nearly four-year dispute with Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
“It’s that for whatever reason Brad Raffensperger and Brian Kemp – Raffensperger and Brian Kemp, your governor, who I got elected by the way. If it wasn’t for me, he wouldn’t be your governor,” Trump said. “I think everybody knows that. He’s a very disloyal person – very disloyal.”
Trump’s endorsement from the White House in 2018 helped Kemp secure the Republican nomination and eventually the governor’s job.
Kemp has repeatedly said relitigating a 2020 election that was fair and secure is not the way for a Republican to win the White House this year, says Brian Robinson, a Republican strategist.
My focus is on winning this November and saving our country from Kamala Harris and the Democrats – not engaging in petty personal insults, attacking fellow Republicans, or dwelling on the past.
You should do the same, Mr. President, and leave my family out of it. pic.twitter.com/m8y6CSuZKY— Brian Kemp (@BrianKempGA) August 3, 2024
“The rhetoric that President Trump used on Saturday divides the Republican coalition,” Robinson said. “Much less the independents and others we have to persuade to bring to the Republican side. It wasn’t a good strategy. It is not going to help win Georgia. And Georgia is a gateway to the White House. If he wins here, Kamala Harris’ path gets very narrow.”
Olivia Troye is a lifelong Republican who worked in the Trump Administration for Vice President Mike Pence on national security issues. She is now part of a Republicans for Harris movement.
“The moderate Republican voter out there is watching this and does not identify with it,” she said. “They have to be questioning right now, ‘What does this all mean?’ Why would you do this. Kemp is a successful governor. … You are seeing a lot of the party leaders come to his defense.”
Kemp has said he did not vote for Trump in the primary and instead left the race blank. First Lady Marty Kemp said she wrote in the name of her husband back in March.
Saturday Trump was demanding their loyalty and said that Kemp and Raffensperger were working against him.
“He’s the governor, he ought to support his Republican Party. Becuase if he does not have his Republican Party – and I can tell you where he came from and it isn’t good. … And Raffensperger ought to make sure the vote is honest,” Trump said. “And they don’t want the vote to be honest. In my opinion, they want us to lose.”
Robinson, a veteran of many Georgia elections and former press secretary for Gov. Nathan Deal, offered some free advice to the Trump campaign.
“I know he doesn’t like Gov. Kemp. I know he doesn’t like the First Lady of Georgia,” Robinson said. “… The thing that is in his best self-interest is to just ignore them. Don’t talk about them. Stick to the issues and that’s the winning formula here in Georgia.”
Kemp responded on social media Saturday. The governor said his focus was on winning in November and saving the country from Kamala Harris. He was not going to engage in personal insults and encouraged the former president to do the same.
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