“I think it is personal retaliation and he sued us personally,” Bottoms told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota on Friday morning. “She did not sue the city of Atlanta. She filed a lawsuit against me and our city council personally.”
The dispute between Bottoms, a Democrat, and Kemp, a Republican, reached new heights on Thursday when Kemp challenged his mask requirement, saying it violates his emergency order that prohibits local action from being more prohibitive than state requirements.
The governor defended his move at a press conference on Friday morning, saying he “is confident that Georgians do not need a mandate to do the right thing.”
“Mayor Bottoms’ mask mandate cannot be enforced,” he added. “But their decision to close businesses and undermine economic growth is devastating … I refuse to sit back and watch disastrous policies threaten the lives and livelihoods of our citizens.”
“For him to say that we are closing businesses in the city of Atlanta and that it costs people money is a blatant lie,” he said.
“I don’t think it was by chance that this lawsuit was filed the day after Donald Trump visited Atlanta,” Bottoms said, because Kemp “does President Trump’s orders.”
He added that Kemp’s lawsuit is a “total waste of time and money” at a time when the governor’s attention must be focused on addressing the pandemic, noting that several other cities, including Savannah and Kemp’s hometown of Athens, they have not been sued in a similar way. for their mask mandates.
When asked for a response to Bottoms’ comments, Kemp’s office referred to his press conference, in which he said his actions were to safeguard the lives of Georgians. When asked by a reporter at the event if he would sue other cities with mask requirements, Kemp said such mandates are “unenforceable,” but did not say whether he would seek legal action.
Despite his executive order and lawsuit against Bottoms, Kemp urges Georgians to wear a mask when they are in public or when social distancing indoors is not possible. As state public health commissioner Dr. Kathleen Toomey said at Friday’s press conference, “Cloth overlays are one of the most powerful weapons we have to slow and stop the spread of this virus. Use of a mask prevents an infected person from spreading Covid-19 to others. “
Bottoms told CNN that it is “beyond my understanding that we cannot follow the science about it.”
“It is about people’s lives,” he continued. “And the people in my city are dying. The people in our state are dying.”
CNN’s Veronica Stracqualursi, Jay Croft and Madeline Holcombe contributed to this report.
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