Republican Georgia Governor Brian Kemp joined the “Ingraham angle” on Friday to discuss his lawsuit against the city of Atlanta, and accused Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and other local officials of “playing politics” with the pandemic. of coronavirus.
“I am working very hard every day, and have been doing it for a long time to protect the lives and livelihoods of my fellow citizens,” Kemp told host Laura Ingraham. “However, we do have people, local mayors, who play politics. They want to go back to the shelter in place. They want to stop having dinner in person without warning, just by removing the rug from under the people, and I’m not going to allow make that happen.
“We are fighting two battles here now, one to protect lives, but also to protect livelihoods,” the governor continued. “And so I filed a lawsuit to stop them because those orders are in conflict with the state order that I’ve executed for the state of public health emergency.”
GOVERNOR OF GEORGIA Sues ATLANTA, SAYS LOCAL OFFICIALS WANT ‘TO DISMANTLE ECONOMIC GROWTH
The Kemp lawsuit and state attorney general Chris Carr argue that Bottoms overstepped its authority by announcing earlier this month that the city would return to “Phase 1” of reopening due to an increase in coronavirus cases. That move would have closed the city’s dining rooms and nonessential facilities, in addition to requiring city residents to wear masks.
For his part, Bottoms described the lawsuit as “bizarre” and accused Kemp of putting “politics on people” during an appearance on NBC’s “Today” show on Friday.
Kemp has also clarified his executive orders to expressly ban Atlanta and at least 14 other local governments across the state from requiring people to cover their faces.
ATLANTA MAJOR SLAMS ‘BIZARRE’ DEMAND BY THE GOVERNOR OF GEORGIA
“I don’t think a mandate is needed for Georgians to do the right thing,” he told Ingraham. “We have existing orders on the books … What is so frustrating for many of the locals who play politics with this is that we have orders on the books that have worked in the past to help us flatten a curve and help stop propagate it.
“They have the ability, through my order, to use their law enforcement to enforce those orders,” added the governor. “And they are not doing that. And that is what I have been telling them.”
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Kemp added that “it certainly appears that” the Democrats are “trying to undermine our economic recovery.”
“I am as concerned about the virus as anyone. We are working with our local school leaders and our school superintendents to open schools,” said Kemp. “You know, I was just approached when I started opening businesses from the beginning from the left because they made fun of us opening hairdressers and beauty salons and now they say that the guide we had, you know, for people to wear masking and wearing PPE and having these rules in place have kept the spread in our salons and hair salons.
“It has to be a pandemic policy.”
Fox News’ Gregg Re contributed to this report.
