Georgia Gov. Kemp attends White House Christmas party despite Trump attacks

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) said he attended a White House Christmas party on Friday, even as President Trump has continued to levy attacks against him and other Georgia officials for certifying the state’s election results for President-elect Joe Biden.

Kemp tweeted photos Friday evening of himself and his daughter Lucy posing for pictures at the White House, filled with Christmas trees and other decorations for the holiday. 

“Lucy and I had a great time at the @WhiteHouse Christmas Party today. Merry Christmas, everyone!” the GOP governor tweeted. 

Lucy and I had a great time at the @WhiteHouse Christmas Party today. Merry Christmas, everyone! pic.twitter.com/nKPLe3M32Y

— Governor Brian P. Kemp (@GovKemp) December 19, 2020

Jenna Ellis, one of the attorneys on Trump’s legal team that pushed several unsuccessful lawsuits seeking to overturn election results in pivotal states, offered a one-word response to Kemp’s tweet, writing, “Seriously?”

A number of other Trump supporters responded to the governor’s tweet, with some criticizing Kemp for failing to look into the president’s unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud.

Kemp posted the photo hours after the president tagged the governor in a tweet calling both him and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) “so-called ‘Republicans.'”

The president targeted the governor earlier in the week as well, retweeting a post from attorney Lin Wood that suggested Kemp and Raffensperger should be put in jail for declining to subvert Georgia’s election results. The Georgia-based attorney has pushed a number of unproven allegations of voter fraud in recent weeks.

“President Trump @realDonaldTrump is a genuinely good man. He does not really like to fire people. I bet he dislikes putting people in jail, especially ‘Republicans,'” Wood tweeted. “He gave @BrianKempGA & @GaSecofState every chance to get it right. They refused. They will soon be going to jail.”

Biden’s win in Georgia was confirmed multiple times through several recounts, with the Electoral College on Monday certifying the former vice president’s victory. Biden defeated Trump in the Peach State by just more than 12,000 votes.

Despite this, Kemp has continued to face attacks from the president since the governor signed off on the state’s certification of the election. 

Last month, Trump in a phone interview with Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo said he regretted endorsing Kemp while also putting blame on the governor and Raffensperger for using Dominion Voting Systems machines in Georgia, which are the subject of unproven conspiracies among some conservatives.

“Everything has to be approved by the legislature, and they had judges making deals, and they had electoral officials making deals like this character in Georgia who’s a disaster,” Trump said of Raffensperger, who has defended the integrity of the presidential election in Georgia.

“And the governor’s done nothing. He’s done absolutely nothing,” Trump added of Kemp. “I’m ashamed that I endorsed him. But I look what’s going on. It’s so terrible.”

On Friday, The New York Times reported that Trump decided not to continue with a tentatively planned trip to Georgia this weekend to campaign for Georgia Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, who face runoff elections next month. 

A senior Republican official who spoke to the Times cited the president’s continued anger with Kemp and Raffensperger as the reason for canceling his Georgia trip.