'Auditioning to see who could be the MAGA king': Governor trades Georgia jobs for Trump’s support
Brian Kemp, the Governor of Georgia, speaks during a virtual Memorial Day ceremony at Clay National Guard Center in Marietta, Georgia on May 21, 2020. Governor Kemp spoke of the ultimate sacrifice that fallen Georgia Guardsmen have made while fighting for the freedoms all Americans possess today. U.S. Army National Guard photo by Capt. Bryant Wine
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports Gov. Brian Kemp pledged to make Georgia the “electric mobility capital of America” when he was inaugurated for his second term. And now the state is “awash in clean energy projects pumping billions of dollars and thousands of jobs into the economy.”
But now some of Kemp’s prized projects are jeopardized by a provision in President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” budget proposal that guts Biden-era incentives that helped make Georgia a hub for electric vehicles, battery manufacturing and solar.
“When poor people are at risk, when rural communities are at risk, when the needs of our communities are at stake, they will always choose themselves and their allies,” said former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, who added that Kemp has shed his care for the state’s economy to align himself with Trump. “… I see no daylight between Donald Trump and Brian Kemp on every major issue.”
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U.S. Rep. Austin Scott, R-Tifton, who once told CNN’s Manu Raju that the GOP’s inability to elect a new speaker “makes us look like a bunch of idiots,” now says Georgia can absorb the effects of Trump’s federal spending cuts “because the state of Georgia is well-run,” reports AJC.
Kemp’s endorsement could define “his final chapter as governor, forcing him to grapple with politically fraught cuts to health care and social services,” AJC says. But neither can he afford to alienate the Republican Party’s reigning leader by criticizing the president’s beloved budget proposal, despite the Congressional Budget Office finding the bill would shrink incomes for the poorest 10 percent of U.S. households while boosting earnings for the top 10 percent.
AJC reports Democrats say Georgia Republicans are so tethered to Trump they’re “willing to gut health care and nutrition programs to bankroll tax breaks for the wealthy.”
“That’s what it’s all about,” House Minority Leader Carolyn Hugley said. “Everybody’s auditioning to see who could be the MAGA king.”
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Read the full Atlanta Journal Constitution report at this link.
