Former President Trump is back to knocking Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R).
In his first TV ad stumping for Georgia GOP gubernatorial candidate David Perdue on Tuesday, Trump paints Kemp as about as weak as they can come, in his book: He caved to Democrats when Trump tried to get him to overturn Georgia’s election results.
“The Democrats walked all over Brian Kemp,” Trump said.
The Democrat in this case: Stacey Abrams.
“He was afraid of Stacey ‘The Hoax’ Abrams,” Trump said. “Brian Kemp let us down. We can’t let it happen again.”
Kemp became one of Trump’s punching bags when he refused to play along with the former president’s election fraud falsehoods after President Biden won the state of Georgia. It’s clear that grudge is what’s fueling his Purdue endorsement.
Calling the former Georgia senator an “outstanding man” who is “tough” and “smart,” Trump said Perdue “has my complete and total endorsement.”
Perdue is headed for a primary clash with Kemp. Since announcing his bid for Georgia governor in December, Perdue has centered his campaign around his loyalty to the former president. Unlike Kemp, Perdue continues to push the Big Lie, saying that he wouldn’t have signed off on his state’s 2020 election results if he were governor at the time.
Additionally, Perdue got behind another Big Lie lawsuit over absentee ballots in Fulton County in December, following his backing of a similar lawsuit brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in late 2020.
In his campaign announcement in December, Perdue painted Kemp as someone who “caved” to Abrams because the Georgia governor didn’t follow Trump’s demands to not certify election results in the battleground state.
“Think about how different it would be today if Kemp had fought Abrams first, instead of fighting Trump. Kemp caved before the election and the country is paying the price today,” Perdue said in his campaign announcement video. “It’s time for a change. If our governor was ever going to fight for us, wouldn’t he have done it already?”
“Let me be very clear — over my dead body will we ever give Stacey Abrams control of our elections again,” Perdue continued.
