Gov. Kemp slams election conspiracy theorists for harassing family

Kemp didn't blame Trump, who has targeted him by name for refusing to change the will of Georgia voters.

Dec 18, 2020

Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, is fed up.

The Donald Trump-supporting Kemp has been subject to unrelenting attacks on his character and now, even death threats to his family in the wake of certifying his state’s votes for President-elect Joe Biden.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp speaks to the media before health care workers received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine outside of the Chatham County Health Department Tuesday in Savannah, Georgia. (Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

“It has gotten ridiculous,” Kemp said, speaking to reporters after a vaccine-related event at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, “from death threats, (claims of) bribes from China, the social media posts that my children are getting.”

“We have the ‘no crying in politics rule’ in the Kemp house,” he continued. “But this is the stuff that, if I said it, I would be taken to the woodshed and would never see the light of day.”

The governor said the worst attacks have been levied against his daughter, Lucy. She has reportedly been inundated with hate messages and false conspiracies about her longtime boyfriend, Harrison Deal, who was recently killed in a car accident.

“I can assure you I can handle myself,” said Kemp, sounding every bit like the typical protective father. “And if they’re brave enough to come out from underneath that keyboard or behind it, we can have a little conversation if they would like to.”

He did not lay any blame on the Twitter fingers of Trump, who has targeted him by name for refusing to use his power to change the will of Georgia voters. The president has called Kemp a “clown” and a “fool” for refusing to send pro-Trump electors to the Electoral College, as well as for certifying the results of Georgia’s election, which were recounted twice.

“As far as I know, my relationship with the president is fine,” said Kemp. “I know he’s frustrated, and I’ve disagreed on things with him before.”

“At the end of the day, I’ve got to follow the laws and the Constitution and the Constitution of this state,” he added. “If anybody has an issue with something I’ve done, they need to come to see me, and I’ll talk to them about it. They don’t need to bother my wife or my children or anybody.”

“It’s fine to disagree on policy,” the governor maintained. “We’re just not going to go down the road of enticing violence — at least here, in this state, as long as I’m governor.”

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