Remember when then-President Donald Trump repeatedly blasted Gov. Brian Kemp for his decision to reopen parts of Georgia’s economy during the first weeks of the global coronavirus pandemic?
When Trump said Kemp acted “too soon” and that he “totally disagreed” with the governor? And he declared he was “not happy about Brian Kemp”?
It was a major moment in the Kemp administration’s struggle to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 and an ominous sign of his decaying relationship with the then-president, one that would be in tatters by year’s end when the governor refused to illegally help Trump overturn the results of that year’s election .
Well, Trump has decided to forget his sharp words and instead heap praise on his onetime political nemesis. At a campaign event this week, Trump said Georgia “was closed a little bit, for a short time, they did a very good job.”
That brought howls from the people who know Kemp best. Cody Hall, one of the governor’s top political advisers, took to Twitter to retort, saying Georgians “are better off today” because Kemp ignored Trump’s warnings.
Trump became the first Republican presidential candidate to lose Georgia since 1992 when he failed to carry the state three years ago, and his attempt to reverse his defeat to President Joe Biden is at the center of multiple local and federal investigations.
Both parties see Georgia as one of the few competitive battlegrounds in the 2024 race for the White House, and polls show Trump with an early lead among Georgia Republicans.
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