Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp accused Democratic Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and other local leaders of “playing politics” in the debate over coronavirus measures.
After issuing a statewide executive order this week that bars municipalities from issuing mandatory mask mandates stricter than state guidelines, Kemp sued the city of Atlanta for defying the order.
During the Friday night “Ingraham Angle” interview, Fox News host Laura Ingraham played a clip of Lance Bottoms criticizing Kemp’s lawsuit, then asked the Georgia governor to respond.
“Let me tell you what’s really going on in Georgia,” Kemp said.
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“I’m working very hard every day and have been for a long time now to protect the lives as well as the livelihoods of my fellow citizens,” he continued. “However, we have local mayors who are playing politics. They want to go back to shelter in place. They want to stop in-person dining with no notice, just pulling the rug out from under people and I’m not going to allow that to happen.”
“We are fighting two battles here now, one to protect lives but also to protect livelihoods and so I filed a lawsuit to stop them because those orders are in conflict with the statewide order that I have executed for the public health state of emergency,” he continued.
Kemp argued that a statewide mask mandate isn’t “needed for Georgians to do the right thing,” and expressed frustrating at local authorities who haven’t enforced “existing orders on the books” regarding businesses and social distancing.
“Instead of having and government mandate, enforce the orders that we have, make sure businesses are following the rules, people are socially distancing,” Kemp said. “I’ve been talking about people wearing a mask as much as anybody. And I said today in my press conference, for those who do not want to wear a mask, if you have a health condition that prevents it or some sort of phobia or anything, just socially distance yourself.” (RELATED: Louisiana AG Criticizes Governor’s Mask Mandate: ‘When Facts Changes, His Edicts Have To Change As Well’)
Kemp and Ingraham went on to discuss the economic ramifications of more lockdowns, should they occur.
The Fox News host then asked Kemp if he felt like Democrats could be angling for a shutdown to “pull the brakes on a recovery” before the election.
“People can’t handle it,” Kemp responded. “I wouldn’t be able to speak to their politics. It certainly seems like they are trying to undermine our economic recovery.”
“It’s got to be pandemic politics,” he continued. “But I know this — talking to our hospital CEOs, they cannot go through what we did before. It will not be financially viable. It will bankrupt our hospitals. We’ve heard from restaurateurs that are like, if we have to shut down again, if we have to move away from in-person dining, we are out for good. And our state can’t afford that.”