Gov. Kemp speaks out after Trump flips and praises former nemesis: 'Small distraction' in the past

EXCLUSIVE — Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp insists "the road to the White House is going to run through Georgia" and said he is focused on the future, downplaying former President Donald Trump's tirade against him earlier this month as a "small distraction that’s in the past."

Kemp, the popular two-term conservative governor of the crucial southeastern battleground state, emphasized in an exclusive national interview with Fox News Digital that "there’s no path for former President Trump to win or any Republican … to get to 270 [electoral votes] without Georgia."

Kemp, interviewed Tuesday on the eve of Vice President Harris' two-day bus swing through Georgia, said his state "should be one that we win if we have all the mechanics that we need. And I’m working hard to help provide those in a lot of ways and turn the Republican vote out."

"It’s my belief that we cannot afford four more years of [President] Joe Biden and Kamala Harris or Kamala Harris and [Minnesota Gov.] Tim Walz, which I think would probably be worse than even Biden and Harris were," Kemp said.

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The governor was interviewed a couple of days after Trump praised Kemp in a social media post "for all of your help and support in Georgia, where a win is so important to the success of our Party and, most importantly, our Country."

"I look forward to working with you, your team, and all of my friends in Georgia to help MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" the Republican presidential nominee added.

The comments from Trump were a major change of tune when it comes to Georgia's governor.

For two years after his 2020 election defeat to President Biden, which included a razor-thin loss in Georgia, Trump attacked Kemp for failing to overturn the election results in his state. 

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Trump toned down the criticism in 2022 after Kemp crushed Trump-backed former Sen. David Perdue in the state's GOP gubernatorial primary.

Earlier this month, Trump went on a 10-minute tirade against Kemp at a rally in Atlanta just blocks from the Georgia State Capitol. Trump blamed the governor not only for failing to overturn the 2020 vote count but also for not stopping a county prosecutor from indicting the former president for his attempts to reverse the results.

"He’s a bad guy. He’s a disloyal guy. And he’s a very average governor," Trump said. "Little Brian. Little Brian Kemp. Bad guy."

Kemp told Fox News, "I’m not sure exactly what happened going into the rally. I’ve seen a lot of different stories and people’s explanations of what happened."

"To me, that was a small distraction that’s in the past," Kemp added.

And Kemp said Republicans "need to stay focused on the future. … We need to be telling people why they should vote for us, what we’re going to do to make things better than they are right now. And there’s a host of issues that I think you could contrast Kamala Harris and her record.

"To me, that’s what we need to stay focused on, not some dustup from two or three weeks ago."

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Asked about Trump's reversal last Thursday, Kemp said, "You have to ask him those questions. I’ve been consistent for really the last couple of years that I was going to support the ticket, whoever our nominee was, in Georgia. That’s exactly what I’m doing, what I have been doing."

But Trump’s statement came moments after Kemp appeared on Fox News Channel and reiterated to host Sean Hannity that "we need to send Donald Trump back to the White House."

Asked Tuesday if he and Trump had connected since last week, Kemp said, "I haven’t talked to him."

"I’ve talked to a lot of other folks, and I think everybody has a good understanding of where everybody is and understands my position has not changed," Kemp said. "I have been supporting him and the whole ticket in Georgia, and I'm still doing that and will continue to do that through November."

Republican strategists agree that to recapture Georgia, Trump will need assistance from Kemp's well-oiled and funded political machine to turn out GOP voters.

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Kemp said he's "working hard" to "turn the Republican vote out and make sure that we win this state in November."

"How that looks and how that goes will really be up to kind of how things play out and what states are in play and who’s going where and when," Kemp added.

"I’ve got other responsibilities in my duties with the Republican Governors Association, traveling around the country helping to raise money to win North Carolina and hold New Hampshire in our column and also helping our legislative races here."

Kemp also acknowledged that he's asked for legal advice from the state attorney general on whether he can remove from the state election board three conservative members on the five-person panel who championed and passed a controversial set of new rules that mandate extra requirements for county election boards to certify their results.

"We’ve asked the attorney general for an opinion on that on whether this would be an official complaint, if you will, and I’m waiting to hear back. So, I really wouldn’t be able to comment too much on that since we’re asking for legal advice," Kemp told Fox News.

Trump, who has been charged in Fulton County, Georgia, with election interference, praised the three members for pushing for the new rules and called them "pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency and victory."

Georgia Democrats call the new rules a "concerted effort to subvert democracy" and have challenged them, arguing they could delay election certification and spark major disputes.

Max Flugrath, a spokesman for Fair Fight, a Georgia-based voting rights organization founded by 2018 and 2022 Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams, argued that "Gov. Kemp is trying to pass the buck on protecting the integrity of Georgia elections from the illegal actions of the Election Board members."

"Georgia law does not state what would be a considered a formal complaint in this instance — Kemp is quibbling with language instead of defending Georgia's voters," Flugrath claimed.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.