Donald Trump may have jeopardized a winnable state for himself and other Republicans by attacking the popular Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia, according to MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough. Over the weekend, the former president launched a tirade against Kemp on Truth Social and continued his attack during a rally in Atlanta, where he falsely claimed his supporters were barred from entering the venue after Vice President Kamala Harris had filled it earlier in the week.
“This is one of these things where you ask, are you going to believe me or your lying eyes?” said the “Morning Joe” host. “The fact is, the Harris rally was packed. There was a lot of excitement, more than we’ve seen at a Democratic rally in a very long time, certainly reminded a lot of reporters there of Barack Obama in 2008”, as per reports The Guardian.
Scarborough highlighted the enthusiasm among Democrats, which he believes has been building up for some time. “Again, the excitement that a lot of people have been saying has been bottled up for quite some time for Democrats. They’re out there now. I’ve always told people running for office that campaigns are about the future, they’re not about the past. I could add to that, they’re not about crowd sizes. They’re not about grudges and resentments, all the things that fuel Donald Trump’s campaign.”
Addressing Trump’s focus, Scarborough noted, “People say, well, he won. Yeah, he won in ’16. I’m not going to go through the litany of years Trump Republicans lost – 2017 all the way through 2023. It’s because it’s always resentment, it’s always crowd sizes. It’s always who he is going to, you know — who is treasonous. It is praising Vladimir Putin. It is these really weird things – weirdos, insurrectionists, and freaks, far out there, pushing a lot of the crazy stuff. It’s just, again, that’s not where Middle America is.”
Scarborough emphasized the strategic importance of Georgia in future elections. Trump lost Georgia in 2020 and his actions subsequently decreased voter turnout in the runoff election for the U.S. Senate, which he attempted to overturn with false claims of voter fraud.
“You know, at the Georgia rally, we’re really burying the lede,” Scarborough said. “Donald Trump has been a scourge, a scourge to Georgia Republicans. They’ve said as much. He was responsible for their loss in the 2020 Senate race, which, of course, kept Republicans from being the majority party in the United States Senate. He was responsible for the Senate candidates’ loss in 2022, which also helped Democrats control the Senate again. He goes in in 2024, Georgia, a swing state again. What does he do? He is raging behind the scenes, according to my sources inside the campaign.”
Trump’s decision to attack Kemp at this critical juncture was seen as particularly damaging. “So what does he do? He does the exact thing that his campaign staff, that members of the Georgia GOP would not want him to do. He picks a fight with an extraordinarily popular Republican governor.”
Scarborough concluded by noting the consequences of Trump’s actions. “Instead of doing what would have been good for Donald Trump and Republicans, and either making peace with Brian Kemp and Brad Raffensperger or at least not saying anything, this is what Donald Trump did at a critical moment in this campaign.”