Donald Trump visited Atlanta on Saturday, August 3, to deliver a presidential campaign speech but used the occasion to deliver a harsh and unprecedented attack on Georgia’s Republican leaders, Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Trump has viewed them as his political enemies since they refused to cave in to his attempt to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential returns that gave Joe Biden Georgia’s Elecroral College votes. Trump’s has never wavered in his Big Lie that the election was stolen from him.
But the viciousness of his attack left the public and GA Republicans stunned. According to the AJC, Trump launched a diatribe on social media even before taking the stage in Atlanta, berating Kemp and his wife Marty as traitors to the GOP cause.
Once on the stage before thousands of supporters gathered at a Georgia State University arena, Trump escalated his attacks, saying Kemp and his allies “want us to lose” in November. Under Kemp’s watch, he added, “the state has gone to hell” and Atlanta became a “killing field.”
Many Georgia Republicans were mystified and irate at Trump’s fusillades. They cringed at what they saw as a massive miscalculation, believing that Trump’s stoking of intra-Party divisions could lead to Georgia once more voting Blue in November.
Kemp was livid over Trump dragging his wife Marty into the political fray: “Leave my family out of it.”