OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former President Donald Trump laid into GOP Gov. Brian Kemp during a massive rally in Commerce, Ga., Saturday evening, referring to him as a “RINO” (Republican In Name Only) while again throwing his support behind former Sen. David Perdue, who is running to unseat Kemp in this year’s primary election.
“Brian Kemp is a turncoat; he’s a coward,” Trump told the rally, adding that Kemp has made Georgia elections “a complete and total disaster.”
Trump was angered by Kemp after the Georgia governor refused to intervene on behalf of the then-president following allegations of vote fraud during the election in what has become a battleground state. While Trump has frequently made such allegations, to date, there has been little evidence to suggest that vote fraud during the 2020 election was widespread enough to have changed the outcome of a Joe Biden victory.
Still, Trump did not spare Kemp during his speech or other Republicans he considers to be RINOs as well.
“Eight months from now the people of Georgia going to vote to fire radical Democrats and are going elect a friend of mine and a great man — great senator and a great man — David Perdue as your governor,” Trump said. “We need him. We need him badly.
“Before we can defeat the Democrats, socialists, and communists, which is exactly what we’re running against at the ballot boxes next fall, we first have to defeat the RINOs, sellouts, and the losers in the primaries this spring. We have a big primary coming up right here in your state. We’re going to throw out a very, very sad situation that took place here: RINO Gov. Brian Kemp,” Trump continued.
“And we’re going to replace him with a very strong person and a fearless fighter and somebody that frankly got screwed in the last election; David Perdue never lost in his life.”
Trump accused Kemp of allowing radical left-wing Democrats control the state’s largest cities while hamstringing law enforcement amid spiking crime.
“Your state is in criminal anarchy, because you have a lousy governor,” he said. “It’s in criminal anarchy.”
“We have to get Kemp the hell out,” Trump argued, claiming that Democrat Stacey Abrams will beat Kemp, but not Perdue in a gubernatorial general election in November.
“He will go down in flames at the ballot box because they see will steal it from him, and humiliate him just like she brazenly stole the Georgia election from right under his nose in 2020 — which hurt two senators and which hurt the presidential candidate,” he said.
“Who is that? That happened to me. The fact is, Republicans were so angry at Kemp and [Secretary of State Brad] Raffensperger that they refused to go out and vote for the two senators,” Trump continued, likely referencing several reports following the two January U.S. Senate runoff election that helped flip the chamber to Democrats because hundreds of thousands of Republican voters failed to turn out.
Purdue and then-U.S. Sen. Kelly Loefler (R-Ga.) both lost their runoffs to Democratic challengers.
“Make no mistake: David Perdue — who is a wonderful man and incredible family and really get screwed by Kemp — is the only one who can defeat Stacey ‘the hoax’ Abrams this November,” Trump added.
“Remember, they did nothing except hinder and impede the process of finding out what the hell happened once and for all,” Trump said. “It’s time to teach the RINOs a lesson. It has to be a lesson that they will never forget.
“The days of phony politicians betraying Republican voters, and, frankly, voters of our country — it’s over.”
Trump then turned his attention to the Biden administration and ruling Democrats in Congress.
“Democrats are bad on the economy; they’re horrible on inflation; the military; bad on taxes; bad on Ukraine — should have never happened — and boy are they bad on getting out. We were all set to get out of Afghanistan with dignity,” he said.
“You might not have seen Ukraine because I think [Vladimir] Putin was watching and he said, Man, these people are incompetent. The only thing they’re good at, frankly, is cheating on elections.”
