Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Friday defended his controversial decision to take legal action to block Atlanta’s mask mandate, claiming it is up to the communities to defeat the coronavirus and not the government.
He also rebuked critics who “have decided to play politics by exploiting these difficult emotional moments for political gain.”
The Republican governor, an ally of President Trump, said that while he agreed that wearing a mask is effective, he is “confident that Georgians do not need a mandate to do the right thing.”
ATLANTA MAJOR SLAMS ‘BIZARRE’ DEMAND BY THE GOVERNOR OF GEORGIA TO BLOCK THE MASK MANDATE
He also took the opportunity to destroy Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms for undermining the city’s businesses by calling for a mask mandate that he says would compel companies to control.
“Companies are barely holding on now,” he said. “They cannot be the police force of any city. It sends a terrible message, and that is one of the reasons why I continue to take this position.”
The governor on Thursday filed a lawsuit challenging the mask mandate of Georgia’s largest city, as well as Bottoms’ decision to return to the Phase 1 guidelines that push restaurants to shut down interior dining rooms and ask the residents leaving their homes only for essential trips.
ATLANTA MEGACHURCH CLOSED UNTIL THE END OF 2020 BY CORONAVIRUS
Bottoms, who has refused to back down, claims that it is Kemp who bows to political pressure and criticized him for wasting public funds.
“A better use of taxpayer money would be to expand testing and contact tracking,” he said on NBC News on Friday. “If being sued by the state is what it takes to save lives in Atlanta, then we’ll see you in court.”
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He also rejected Kemp’s claims that a mask mandate would harm businesses in the state, calling the argument “unfounded and a waste of taxpayer money.”
Kemp is the only governor who is suing about the mask requirements. More than two dozen states across the country have mandated the wearing of masks, including Republican governors in Alabama, West Virginia, and Texas.
