Donald Trump vs. Brian Kemp

And a ridiculous moment in Atlanta.

Over the weekend, Donald Trump held a rally in Atlanta, Georgia, and once again he brought up the “stolen election” stuff before a rabid crowd.

But among all the talk is was this little gem that I could not believe was actually uttered at first.

During the rally, Trump suggested that Georgia might have been better off had Stacey Abrams been the governor instead of Brian Kemp.

That wasn’t the only moment when he endorsed Abrams over Brian Kemp. “Stacey, would you like to take his place? It’s OK with me,” he said elsewhere during his speech. (He also called on David Perdue to challenge Kemp at one point.) Watching that and remembering how narrow Kemp’s victory over Abrams was in 2018, you’re left to wonder how the governor can possibly win the general election next year even if he survives his primary. All it would take is a few percentage points’ worth of hardcore Trumpers to stay home in order to send Abrams to victory, and here’s Trump himself all but encouraging them to do so.

For those who don’t remember, Kemp beat Abrams in a close race in 2018, kicking off the start of the Abrams Sympathy Tour, where she would be given plenty of time on television to suggest the election was stolen from her.

Wait, maybe that explains Trump’s semi-endorsement.

Some of Trump’s fans have suggested he was joking (I know they were in my replies on Twitter arguing that point for sure), but you have to remember what happened in Georgia in 2018 and in 2020.

In 2018, Abrams lost because in the days and even hours before the election was over, she and her campaign were out in force saying that the fix was in, that the Republicans were going to steal it, etc. As a result, a lot of those new voters her organization touted as having signed up to vote never went out because the campaign was essentially saying there was no point. She killed her own chances at election.

Likewise, in 2020, Trump convinced his voters that the fix was in and his voters did not show up to vote for him. A large enough portion of the Republican base stayed home during the presidential election and in the Senate run-offs a month later (interestingly, the Republican Senators got more votes in the run-off than Trump did in the general). Trump spent weeks talking about how mail-in ballots were going to make sure he lost, so he depressed his own vote.

And because Kemp would not violate his constitutional duties according to the Georgia constitution, Trump has decided he has to go. He is desperately looking for someone who will successfully challenge Kemp and get rid of him for the sole reason of disloyalty. Kemp, however, has been a very solid leader in Georgia and his voters are aware of that.

Kemp’s leadership during the pandemic has been great and as a result, Georgia was able to avoid a lot of the issues other states had.

All that means nothing to Trump, who insists that Kemp has to go. It takes nothing more than a large enough number of disgruntled Trump supporters to put Kemp’s re-election chances in danger, and that would be very bad for Georgia.