Governor of Georgia denounces MLB for moving All-Star game
Critics are lying about new election law, Kemp says
ATLANTA — A defiant Gov. Brian Kemp lashed out Saturday at Major League Baseball and Atlanta’s leading corporations for criticizing Georgia’s changes to its election law, saying they were bowing to pressure from Democrats who had mischaracterized the new measure.
“Major League Baseball caved to the fears and lies of liberal activists,” Kemp said. “They ignored the facts of our new election integrity law and they ignored the consequences of their decision on our local community.”
MLB announced on Friday that in response to Georgia’s new voting law it would move this season’s July All-Star game from Truist Park to a ballpark in another state.
The decision from MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred came eight days after Kemp signed the sweeping overhaul into law. Georgia Democrats and voting rights activists strongly opposed the law and Manfred remarked that MLB “opposes restrictions to the ballot box.”
Speaking in front of a group of largely unmasked supporters crowded inside the state Capitol, Kemp said, “In the middle of a pandemic, Major League Baseball put the wishes of Stacey Abrams and Joe Biden ahead of the economic well-being of hardworking Georgians.”
Shortly after Kemp signed the legislation into law, the president characterized it as “a blatant attack on the Constitution and good conscience.” Abrams, the voting rights activist and former gubernatorial candidate, has also strongly criticized the changes. On Saturday, Kemp accused Biden and Abrams of lying to the American people about Georgia’s new law.
Kemp warned that the “cancel culture” and partisan activists would target other events and businesses.
“They don’t care about jobs,” he said. “They don’t care about our communities, and they certainly don’t care about access to the ballot box.”
Kemp said if MLB truly cared about voting rights, it would have announced it was moving its headquarters out of New York, arguing that Georgia’s elections law is more favorable to voters than New York’s.
While critics say the changes are designed to suppress turnout by voters of color, Kemp and other supporters say the voting overhaul will increase confidence in Georgia’s voting system.
The new law covers voting access, ballot counting, election oversight and
runoffs.
Attorney General Chris Carr, who also appeared at Saturday’s press conference, said reading the bill reveals a different set of facts than what Abrams presents in media appearances. “When we defend this bill in court, the ‘Stacey says’ standard will not apply,” Carr said. “It will all be about the facts and the law.”
Carr criticized those who have described the new law as a return to Jim Crow. “Anybody who actually reads this bill sees how comparing it to the Jim Crow era, one of the most tragic periods in American history where human beings were killed and truly were prevented from casting their ballot, is preposterous, irresponsible and fundamentally wrong.”
For Kemp, the attacks may renew support from the GOP base, which soured on him during his conflicts with former President Donald Trump.
Brian Robinson, a GOP strategist, predicted it will help Kemp’s reelection campaign.
“The Democrats in one week have united a fractured Georgia GOP, (and) rallied Republicans to Brian Kemp at a time when many had abandoned him. …”