Kemp Rips Into Pro-Trump Hecklers on Campaign Trail: ‘I’m the Governor. I’m Not a Dictator’
Georgia’s Republican Governor, Brian Kemp, pulled no punches over the weekend in shutting down Republican activists accusing him of participating in election fraud during and after the 2020 presidential election.
The Atlanta Journal-Consitution highlighted on Tuesday Kemp’s tussling with right-wing activists during a Fulton County GOP meeting. “If you thought Gov. Brian Kemp had moved beyond the hecklers and naysayers at GOP grassroots meetings, think again,” noted the AJC.
AJC reporter Greg Bluestein shared a video from the event, in which Kemp can be seen strongly pushing back against accusations from the audience, while also receiving loud applause from the group as a whole.
“Did you have a question?” Kemp asks a member of the crowd during a Q&A. “Well telling something is not a question, that’s an opinion and you are wrong on that,” he adds, while the other person speaks, but can not be heard in the clip.
“I’m the governor. I’m not a dictator.” Georgia @GovKemp gets spicy during a Q&A this morning at the Fulton GOP from pro-Trump activists who challenged him on his role in the 2020 election. #gapol https://t.co/yOqoRldwu0
— Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) April 9, 2022
During another exchange Kemp says, “I know there’s a lot of people that lied to people about what my powers are,” Kemp said at one. “I mean, I’m the governor, I’m not a dictator. I was secretary of state for nine years.”
Kemp continued:
I can tell you every single day serving as your governor, I have done exactly what I said I would do when I put my hand on the Bible and said I would follow the laws and the constitution of this state and the constitution of the United States, all the issues you are talking about, you need to talk to the secretary of state about that.
The governor, who is facing a challenge in the Republican primary from Trump-backed, former Sen. David Perdue (R-GA), went on to ask where were “all the people that are out there saying all these things” when he was running against Stacey Abrams in the 2018 election.
One of the pro-Trump activists yelled out “liar” at one point, to which the governor quickly shot back, “If you want to know what the truth is about the election, you should first relearn what the laws and the Constitution say.”
Despite former President Donald Trump’s endorsement and his high name recognition in the state, Perdue continues to trail Kemp by an average of 10 points in the GOP primary for governor, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polling.
