GA Primary Day with C&B: Gov. Brian Kemp’s Final Argument

CLAY: It is decision day in Georgia — for the primary, at least — a lot of hotly contested races underway. And in one of those races, we’ve got the current governor of the state of Georgia, Brian Kemp, with us now. Governor, appreciate you making the time.

GOV. KEMP: Hey, thanks for having me back on, guys. Good afternoon.

BUCK: Appreciate you, sir. So tell us, what do folks need to know about what you’re pushing for and what’s going on today? I mean, what are the primary takeaways for Georgia decision day?

GOV. KEMP: Hey, what I’ve been telling people for weeks and months now is we’re in the fight for the soul of our state, and Marty and the girls and I are getting up every day working hard to make sure that Stacey Abrams is not gonna be our governor or your next president and we gotta win the primary first and be able to do that. But that’s our message to people is, “Look. I’ve got the record to beat her, I’ve beaten here before, and we can do it again and we need to get the vote out today and bring this thing home tonight and then unite and go and make sure that Stacey Abrams is not gonna be our governor.”

CLAY: Governor, you won by 55,000 votes in 2018, and Stacey Abrams refused to concede. She’s now saying Georgia is the worst state in the country. She’s getting her picture taken not wearing a mask while all the kids around her have to wear masks. How bad do you have to beat her do you think for her to be willing to concede in 2022?

GOV. KEMP: Oh, man, I’m not worried about her conceding. I just want to beat her. I want to beat her and get the race certified and continue serving this great state. I’m so proud of her state. It’s obvious she is not. We have resilient people here. We fought through so much, especially the last two years. And have so many good things going for us, you know. She’s tired of hearing that we’re the number one state in the country for business.

Well, I’m not tired of hearing that because we’re giving hardworking Georgians great opportunities out there — and Marty and the girls and I know, we live in the greatest state in the country to live, work, and raise our families. You know, that’s what we’re fighting for. She’s trying to please her Hollywood elite and folks from New York and California and other places around the country that are funding her campaign so she can use this as a steppingstone to be president.

And we’re focused on hardworking Georgians and doing what they want and what they care about, and that’s why I reopened the economy when I did after not closing most of it. And she criticized me. And it’s why we pushed to get our kids back in the classroom. She criticized that. Passed the strongest Election Integrity Act in the country. She criticized that. She criticized the heartbeat bill, and everybody was trying to cancel us here. But I stood up and fought back, ’cause that’s what Georgians wanted. I was listening to them, not the national media and not her, and that’s what I’ll continue to do as our governor.

BUCK: Georgia Governor Kemp is with us right now, and, Governor, there is this narrative that’s already forming because some of the early voting numbers are already in, and — not a surprise to the host here or the audience of this show, but — numbers are up, it turns out, despite Joe Biden claiming Georgia was engaged in Jim Crow 2.0.

And, yes, that was the quote said many times by Biden and other prominent Democrats. That’s clearly not going on. I mean, that was outrageous — an outrageous slander, really, of your state — at the time to say that. But now they’re trying to claim, well, if it weren’t for the voting integrity measures in the state of Georgia, it would have been an even better turnout. What do you say to that argument?

GOV. KEMP: Look, their argument is fallen on deaf ears here. You know, people in Georgia know it’s easy to vote and now it’s hard to cheat. We passed the strongest Election Integrity Act in the country. But we have, you know, great opportunities for people to vote in early voting here in our state. Over three weeks we added days for people to vote on the weekend last year in the Election Integrity Act.

Obviously, you can vote weeks before the election by an absentee ballot in Georgia. And poor President Biden didn’t even realize his own state of Delaware is restrictive or more restrictive than most states in the country, I’m pretty sure I can say that. I know they’re more strict, Delaware is, than Georgia. So they’re just all being hypocrites. I mean, look. Stacey Abrams reserved the domain name JimCrow2.0 three weeks before the final version of the bill was ever put together, ’cause they don’t care about the truth.

It’s just a narrative that they want people to believe ’cause it months old good with certain people but now people are seeing what the truth is, just like we knew it would be when it played out and you’re seeing the participation rate is up in Georgia. It’s up on the Democratic side as well as the Republican side. And that’s a good thing. We want people to participate. But we also want everybody to have confidence in the elections.

And, you know, people want to have confidence in their government. And I think they’re Kennedy with where Stacey Abrams would take us if she were our governor ’cause it’d be the same way they’re taking Washington, D.C., with 40-year high inflation, more taxes, more regulation, less opportunity. And that’s what we’re fighting against. And that’s why we’re in the fight for the soul of our state, just asking people for their vote and their support today. But this is gonna be a race that will be the number-one watched governor’s rate in the country so after we get through the night, we’re gonna need everybody out there that’s worried about Stacey Abrams being the president coming here to support us and helping her defeat her again.

CLAY: Where Governor Kemp, when we talked, I remember speaking of people that bought into the Jim Crow 2.0 lie, one of them was Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred and he pulled the All-Star Game out of Atlanta. Now, I know a lot of Braves fans listening to us right now are excited because the Braves won the World Series and brought three World Series games to Atlanta anyway.

But I will be Rob Manfred called you and told you that he was going to be pulling the All-Star Game. Assuming you win tonight — which I think you are — do you plan on talking to Rob Manfred anytime soon and asking him to bring the All-Star Game back to Atlanta because, beyond any doubt whatsoever, the criteria which he used to justify pulling that All-Star Game has been proven to be a hundred percent false? Shouldn’t he apologize to the people of Georgia, Atlanta Braves fans, and bring the All-Star Game back, given what he’s been now proven to be wrong about?

GOV. KEMP: Well, the best news is the Braves got us poetic justice when they won the World Series.

CLAY: Yes.

GOV. KEMP: I think the baseball gods were looking out for us ’cause what was done by Major League Baseball and other big corporations was wrong. They didn’t understand what was in the bill. They were trying to placate to the radicals and Stacey Abrams because of political pressure and they folded to it. And I warned them that you can never make this crowd happy. There’s always gonna be more they want and also you’re gonna make the other side mad in the middle of this.

You should just stay out because the truth is the bill is a good bill but, you know, I’m not focused on the All-Star Game right now. I’m focused on the Braves winning and getting back above .500 and winning the division again, and I’m focused on winning this election here tonight and again in November. I’m not too worried about Major League Baseball right now. I think they’ve seen by the way things have played out and what the numbers are in early voting.

You know, doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that the truth was on our side, we did the right thing, and we’re gonna continue to do that. And that’s what I’ve been standing up for even under incredible political pressure. And I think that’s what people want in their leaders, you know? They want somebody that’s gonna stand up and fight for ’em. And I have been doing that, and that’s what I want to continue to do.

CLAY: Governor Kemp, enjoy the night. We’ll talk to you again soon. I know it’s gonna be a long struggle through the fall, but a lot of people got their eyes on Georgia, and we look forward to helping you out.

GOV. KEMP: Thanks, guys. Have a great afternoon.

BUCK: Thanks, governor.

CLAY: That is governor Brian Kemp. Big night in the state of Georgia when it comes to primaries.