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You gotta hand it to Donald Trump; once he sets his sights on a certain goal, he really goes for it — whether that’s selling the Big Lie or his relentless crusade against batteries. This year, he seems to be fully committed to losing Georgia again and taking the state’s GOP down with him in the process.
Take Saturday’s rally in Atlanta. Ostensibly, this event was about campaigning against Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ presumptive presidential nominee.
However, at times, Trump sounded as though he were running against Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
“Your Governor Kemp and Raffensperger, they’re doing everything possible to make 2024 difficult for Republicans to win,” Trump told his audience in Atlanta. “What are they doing? I don’t know. They got something in mind. They got a little something in mind. Kemp is very bad for the Republican Party.”
That was the start of a 10-minute, fact-challenged tirade directed against Kemp, who enjoys a +24 approval rating in his state, during which the former president called the governor “the most disloyal guy I have ever seen.”
Trump also slammed Kemp’s performance, arguing that the state would do a lot better with another governor.
“In my opinion, they want us to lose,” he said of Kemp and Raffensperger, while also talking about the former’s wife and her refusal to endorse him.
However, the former president did not only dedicate a sizable portion of his rally to slamming the two GOP officials, he also maligned them on social media.
“Brian Kemp should focus his efforts on fighting Crime, not fighting Unity and the Republican Party! His Crime Rate in Georgia is terrible, his Crime Rate in Atlanta is the worst, and his Economy is average,” he wrote on his Truth Social website. “He should be seeking UNITY, not Retribution, especially against the man that got him the Nomination through Endorsement and, without whom, he could never have beaten Stacey Abrams.”
Of course, nothing says “seeking unity” like a party’s presidential candidate bad-mouthing a state’s governor and getting his supporters to boo him.
Trump’s mentioning of his wife in the post did not go over well with Kemp.
“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,” he stated. “You should do the same, Mr. President, and leave my family out of it.”
Trump also had some things to say about the secretary of state.
“Brad Raffensperger has to do his job, and make sure this Election is not stolen,” Trump wrote.
Of course, that is precisely what Raffensperger did in 2020, when he refused to yield to the then-president, who begged him in a now-famous phone call to “find” the 11,780 votes needed for him to prevail in Georgia.
