Trump attacks Kemp at Atlanta rally, reviving internal GOP war

ATLANTA — Former President Donald Trump revived a bitter, long-running dispute with Gov. Brian Kemp and other top Republicans at his first rally in Georgia since Vice President Kamala Harris emerged as his Democratic rival and transformed the presidential race.

After months of a tepid truce with Georgia Republican leaders, Trump renewed his attacks on social media on Saturday as he prepared to take the stage at a rally packed with thousands of supporters — but notably missing Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

He then sharpened his broadsides after he took the stage at Georgia State University’s arena, calling Kemp a “bad guy, a disloyal guy and a very average governor” and blasting his wife Marty for saying she cast her presidential primary ballot for her husband rather than vote for Trump.

“I don’t want her endorsement. I don’t want his endorsement. I just want him to do their job for Georgia,” he said to boisterous applause, adding: “In my opinion, they want us to lose.”

At another point, Trump lavished praise on his MAGA allies while describing Kemp as the architect of a mediocre state economy and a dangerous society: “Atlanta is like a killing field, and your governor ought to get off his ass and do something.”

The homicide rate in Atlanta dropped significantly in recent years.

The attacks came exactly three weeks after a would-be assassin’s bullet grazed his ear in Pennsylvania, leading to promises of unity at the Republican National Convention. They brought a stinging rebuke from Kemp, who previously endorsed Trump but also admitted he cast a blank ballot rather than vote for the former president in the state’s primary.

“My focus is on winning this November and saving our country from Kamala Harris and the Democrats — not engaging in petty personal insults, attacking fellow Republicans or dwelling on the past,” Kemp said. “You should do the same, Mr. President, and leave my family out of it.”

Raffensperger, too, warned Trump that he was harming his own goal of winning the state.

“The winner here in November will reflect the will of the people,” said Raffenpserger, who like Kemp easily defeated a Trump-backed Republican challenger in 2022. “History has taught us this type of message doesn’t sell well here in Georgia, sir.”

The exchanges hearkened back to the infighting that plagued the GOP much of the last four years, when Trump recruited allies to challenge Kemp and three other Republican incumbents. And they were a departure from the message of unity his campaign is eager to project ahead of November.

“I’m scratching my head,” said Bobby Saparow, a veteran GOP strategist who was one of Kemp’s top campaign aides. He brought up Kemp’s thrashing of former U.S. Sen. David Perdue, who lost the 2022 primary despite Trump’s support.

“Attacking the popular governor of a pivotal swing state makes zero sense. If we want to actually unite, ask for support from Kemp, who beat your endorsed primary opponent by 52 points and handily defeated Stacey Abrams.”

The remarks punctuated Trump’s roughly hourlong speech at the rally, where he also slammed Harris as a “dangerously liberal” and “lunatic” politician.

Since President Joe Biden withdrew from the race two weeks ago and Harris became the presumptive nominee, polls in Georgia have tightened and Democrats report a surge in enthusiasm — evidenced by a similarly large and excited crowd at the same venue earlier this week.

And Republicans, who just weeks ago were confident of victory in November, are now acknowledging a closer, tougher race for the state’s 16 electoral votes.

The rally at Georgia State University’s convocation center served as a rare barometer for the dueling campaigns in Atlanta, the deep-blue heart of one of the nation’s most competitive battlegrounds.

Harris held a rally at the same venue on Tuesday, and both attracted roughly 10,000 attendees, though Trump complained that campus administrators blocked hundreds more from entering the arena.

Trump’s rally drew scores of Georgia’s most prominent MAGA supporters, including U.S. Reps. Mike Collins of Jackson and U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Rome, along with Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a likely candidate for governor in 2026.

Each gave a fiery speech that revved up the audience. Collins mocked the “twerk concert” by Megan Thee Stallion at the Harris rally on Tuesday, saying that Trump “never needed a gimmick to draw a crowd.”

Jones’ spiciest remarks involved his predecessor, Geoff Duncan, who could be formally exiled from the Georgia GOP after becoming one of the few prominent Republicans to endorse Harris.

“Someone asked me what I thought about that,” Jones said, “and I said, ‘Sometimes you just can’t fix stupid.’”

Trump’s speech was peppered with insults hurled at Harris. He called her a “crazy liberal,” a “low IQ individual” and a “grossly incompetent” politician who would be dangerous on the world stage.

“She’s worse than Biden. She’s worse than Bernie Sanders,” he said of the liberal Vermont U.S. senator. “She’s Bernie Sanders — but not as smart.”

And he criticized the agreement Biden engineered that released Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and others from Russia as part of a prisoner swap involving seven countries. He called it “another great deal” for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

He also blamed Harris for the brutal killing of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student bludgeoned to death on the campus of the University of Georgia. A Venezuela national who was arrested in 2022 after illegally entering the U.S. has pleaded not guilty to her killing.

“Kamala Harris should not be asking for your vote,” said to the crowd. “She should be begging Laken Riley’s family for forgiveness.”

Riley’s body was discovered Feb. 22 in a wooded area near UGA’s intramural fields. The man charged in her killing, 26-year-old Jose Antonio Ibarra, is a Venezuela national who was arrested in 2022 after unlawfully entering the United States, federal immigration officials said. He has pleaded not guilty.

Some of the loudest cheers, however, came when Trump repeated election fraud lies surrounding his 2020 defeat in Georgia and pledged to “save democracy” if elected in November. Attendees stomped their feet and roared in approval.

Another roar of applause came when Trump singled out three allies on the State Election Board accused by voting rights activists of orchestrating new policies that could undermine confidence in election results.

Outside the arena, crowds began forming before sunrise. Asked hours later why he stood in the baking sun to attend the rally, 65-year-old John Wilkins of Stockbridge gave a straightforward answer.

“I love Trump and I love what he stands for. And I hate everything that the Democrats do,” he said, adding that Harris is a “lizard that will change colors” depending on the political gain.

Just as notable were those who didn’t attend: Kemp, Raffensperger and Attorney General Chris Carr sent word through aides they wouldn’t be attending; Carr cited a family obligation.

The fourth member of the GOP quartet who thwarted Trump-backed challengers in the 2022 primary is Insurance Commissioner John King. He had skipped previous rallies, but he sat near the front of the stage on Saturday.

“Americans know that President Trump secured our border, unleashed our economy and protected our country,” said King. “They also know that Vice President Harris has done the exact opposite.”

Greene said in an interview ahead of the rally that the internal turmoil is a sign of a strong Republican ecosystem.

“I think that the Republican Party is a family that fights with each other. It’s kind of like one of those family reunions where cousins don’t get along,” she told Channel 2 Action News.

But Trump made clear it was more than a little internal strife. He chided Perdue for encouraging him to endorse Kemp in 2018 and took credit for Kemp’s narrow victory over Abrams.

“Somewhere he went very bad,” Trump said of Kemp, adding that he is “very bad” for the GOP. “You could do a lot better.”

Senior Georgia Republicans cringed. Erick Erickson, a WSB radio personality and influential conservative figure, said Trump will need Kemp’s vast political network to propel him past Harris in November.

“He can’t help himself,” Erickson said. “And if he loses, it’ll be because of this stuff, not a stolen election.”