Trump says Stacey Abrams ‘might be better than existing governor’ Kemp

Former President Trump on Saturday quipped that 2018 Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams (D) may have done a better job in office than her opponent, Gov. Brian Kemp (R), who has continued to catch the former president’s ire for refusing to overturn 2020 election results. 

During a rally Saturday evening in Perry, Ga., Trump, while once again advancing his unsupported claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, compared his resistance to admitting defeat to Abrams’s refusal to concede in the Georgia race, a parallel she has previously dismissed. 

Trump argued that unlike the reaction to his refusal to concede, “When Stacey Abrams says I’m not going to concede, that’s okay.” 

“Of course, having her I think might be better than having your existing governor, if you want to know the truth,” he noted, prompting overwhelming boos from his crowd of mostly maskless supporters. 

“Might very well be better,” he added. 

Trump used much of his more than hour-long Georgia rally to rail against Kemp, who attracted Trump’s ire when he certified the state’s election results in favor of Biden last year. 

The Washington Post reported in January that Trump asked Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger (R) to “find” more than 11,000 ballots needed to overcome the gap between Trump and Biden in the Peach State. 

Trump during his rally Saturday railed against both Raffensperger and Kemp, who he said “has been a complete disaster on election integrity.” 

The former president after the 2020 election launched several legal efforts attempting to overturn results based on unsubstantiated allegations of widespread fraud. Each of the lawsuits were either dropped or thrown out by courts. 

Saturday night’s rally comes as Trump is attempting to play a role in Georgia ahead of the upcoming 2022 midterm elections. 

He has already endorsed Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.), a Trump ally, to oust Raffensperger, and former football star Herschel Walker to challenge Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.). 

Trump also used the Saturday rally to repeat his disapproval of a draft report of Arizona’s Maricopa County election audit released Friday, which affirmed Biden’s victory in the state and showed that the current president won by 360 more votes than previously recorded. 

Biden’s predecessor has blamed the media for its coverage of the audit, and falsely argued Saturday that the audit  actually showed he won.