After watching the goings-on at last weekend’s Trump rally in Atlanta — and all the ensuing sideshows — I smiled. I knew my fruitful colleague, Greg Bluestein, has all the ingredients for his next book: “When Republicans Go Cuckoo.”
But after thinking it through, I grimaced, realizing this election will be another long, bitter slog for Georgians.
With the state in play again for the main event, the 2024 presidential race, we are set to get absolutely carpet-bombed by political ads.
Records show that a total of $1.5 billion (yes, that’s a B) in political spending was doled out in four marquee Georgia elections: the two U.S. Senate seats won by Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in 2020, Warnock’s reelection two years later against Herschel Walker, and Gov. Brian Kemp beating Stacey Abrams in their 2022 rematch.
Negative advertising threatens to be so ubiquitous that by November, Georgians will be seeing grainy, slow-motion, black-and-white video images of Kamala Harris in their sleep. The dueling rallies held by Donald Trump and Harris at the Georgia State University Convocation Center in the space of four days set the stage for the showdown and underlined the urgency that each campaign sees in Georgia.
“The path to the White House runs right through Georgia,” an upbeat Harris told supporters, later adding, “The momentum in this race is shifting.”
Trump, as is his wont, embraced a darker tone, “If we lose Georgia, we lose the whole thing and our country goes to hell.”
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
And by “hell,” he means World War III, a Depression and “the suburbs will be awash with violent crime and savage gangs.” It’ll get so bad in the ‘burbs that even the most overbearing HOA will be rendered useless.
The dude does like to dive deep into dystopia.
The rapid and seismic stages in the race have been astonishing. Events in Georgia have bookended a mind-numbing, five-week political demolition derby:
― President Joe Biden crashes and burns at the June 27 debate in Atlanta.
— Trump narrowly avoids assassination and looks defiant moments later.
― Trump and the GOP take a victory lap at convention.
— Biden bows out after a mounted pressure campaign.
― And now, it was back to Atlanta where Harris beamed in a 20-minute speech, saying the Dems still have a pulse, and Trump, in a rambling 90-minute stream-of-consciousness, did his best to throw the race back into the “pick-em” category.
That’s where things got, to use Harris’ description, weird.
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
Much has been said about Trump rolling into Georgia and repeatedly dogging Gov. Brian Kemp and even his wife, Marty.
“He’s a bad guy; he’s a disloyal guy and a very average governor,” Trump said, before trying to tag Governor Shotgun with a nickname: “Little Brian, Little Brian Kemp.”
Well, at least he didn’t go after Kemp’s pet dogs.
It would seem an unwise strategy to stir further animosity against a governor who has favorable approval ratings and is good at getting Republicans out to vote.
The event has been called a “dumpster fire” and a “meltdown.” But really, it was just another afternoon on the Trump front.
One gem was Trump telling his faithful, “I’m being indicted for you,” echoing old Georgia Gov. Eugene Talmadge who liked to tell his followers, “Sure I stole, but I stole for you!”
It was telling that the former president trotted out Mister 22 Percent to pump up the crowd — AKA former U.S. Sen. David Perdue, who got Ossoffed from office in a January 2021 runoff election and who later picked up a pathetic 21.8% of the vote in 2022 when Trump talked him into running against Kemp for governor.
Kemp, as well as Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Attorney General Chris Carr — the trio of state GOP officials who refused to help Trump steal the 2020 election here — were nowhere to be seen. Carr used the “family obligation” excuse for not attending, which is politico-speak for “I hate getting booed.”
Credit: Ben Hendren
Credit: Ben Hendren
It seems that Bill White, the petulant Trump backer and face of the unsuccessful Buckhead cityhood movement, was on hand Saturday to prod his New York bud into going after Kemp.
Trump also favorably called out several names from the stage, including fake elector Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and state Sen. Brandon Beach. Those two were part of a state senate cabal who wanted to hold a “special session” in December 2020 to “investigate” the election and, according to a petition issued back then, “take back the power to appoint electors.”
Most enlightening (troubling) about Trump’s 90 minutes on stage was him heaping deep and prolonged praise toward the three MAGA members ― “pit bulls,” he said — who make up the majority of the State Election Board.
Last month, I wrote about that board in a column headlined, “The drive to hijack Georgia elections part of ongoing plan.”
Nice to see Trump say the quiet part out loud.
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