ATLANTA — During his 90-minute campaign speech Saturday, former president Donald Trump spent a surprising amount of time attacking Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a fellow Republican.
The two had been allies until Kemp declined to help the Trump overturn the election in 2020.
Trump and Kemp haven’t appeared together in years, but their friction had seemed to cool off -- until Trump reignited it Saturday.
"Your governor, I’m not a fan of your governor," Trump said about one-third of the way into his rambling 90 minutes speech at Georgia State University's convocation center.
But then Trump spent almost six straight minutes badmouthing Kemp. Kemp won two elections in Georgia and, unlike Trump, polls show has substantial bipartisan approval.
"Kemp is very bad for the Republican party. He wouldn’t do anything" about the election, Trump complained.
Trump was talking about Kemp’s refusal to call what Kemp said would have been an illegal special session of the legislature to try to overturn the 2020 election vote in Georgia.
Republican former state senator PK Martin wrote on X, “a good way to lose a swing state is to attack that’s state’s most popular elected leader.”
Republican State Rep. Lauren Daniel wrote, “Donald Trump claiming @GovKemp is ‘bad for the Republican party’ is the most out of touch thing he could have possibly said.”
And an X user called "3 Year Letterman" wrote, “even my Uncle Gary three cases of Natty Lite deep isn’t stupid enough to challenge Brian Kemp in Georgia.”
Kemp himself took a bit of offense at Trump, who mentioned his wife Marty, as being part of what Trump views as a problem.
Kemp's muted response reflected the fact that many of Kemp's supporters are also Trump supporters. Conversely, Trump seemed to have little regard for that overlap as he tries to dislodge on-the-fence voters to support him this fall.