At Georgia's final gubernatorial debate, election truther and conspiracy theorist Stacey Abrams -- who appears poised to lose to Gov. Brian Kemp again, based on polling -- took an ugly, parting shot at Georgia law enforcement. After the governor touted his endorsements from more than 100 sheriffs around the state, within the context of a discussion about crime, Abrams retorted that she lacked such support because those officers are motivated by racism. Notice, there is no effort to point to any individual (allegedly) racist sheriff in this answer. It's an appalling broad-brush smear of the entire group, baselessly imputing racist motives to their work. In short, they're not endorsing me because they are racists. Really gross:
Disgusting… “defund the police” Stacey Abrams think very little of law enforcement in GA@BrianKempGA proudly touts the support of 107 GA sheriffs & Abrams claims it’s because of race
— Jesse Hunt (@JJHunt10) October 30, 2022
“So no I don’t have 107 sheriffs who want to be able to take black people of the streets.” pic.twitter.com/1ZpTIeNqsa
These sheriffs just want to round up black people, she casually shrugs. According to the Kemp campaign, Abrams may be feeling a bit touchy on this front because she was unable to win the public backing of a single sheriff in the state. This is reminiscent of Mandela Barnes' Senate campaign in Wisconsin. That candidate is so radically anti-law enforcement, to the point of tarring American police on Russian propaganda television, that his campaign was unable to identify a single active officer to endorse it. Not one, in the entire state. Abrams has a similar issue in Georgia, perhaps because people aren't buying her back-filled denials on 'defund the police' extremism. She's accusing Kemp of lying, but she's on tape:
Stacey Abrams tonight: “I've never said that I believe in defunding the police."
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 31, 2022
Stacey Abrams in 2020: "We have to reallocate resources, so yes" I support defunding the police. pic.twitter.com/gcWtUk8Ogj
She also said that she supported "the vision" of the 'defund the police' movement. She was catering and pandering to her base when she said those things, and the political winds have since shifted, turning her comments into liabilities. She can try to pretend she never said what she said, but like a lot of Democrats, she's being haunted by the ghosts of 2020. In another shameless attempt at revisionism, Abrams is also accusing Kemp of costing Atlanta the Major League Baseball All-Star Game last year. She lied about 'Jim Crow 2.0,' whipped up racial fear and discord based on those lies, and fomented a boycott. Then when she realized this had been a political misstep, she literally tried to erase the record. Remember this from last spring?
USA Today appeared to have bizarrely allowed retroactive edits of an op-ed written by prominent Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams in an effort to water down her previous justification for boycotts after MLB moved its All-Star Game from Atlanta. In a piece published on March 31, just days before the MLB announced that it was relocating its game due to the backlash over Georgia's election reform bill that was signed into law, Abrams seemed to defend the national response to what she called the "racist, classist" legislation...The article was "updated" April 6, but Abrams' commentary went through quite the transformation...Her revised op-ed adds, "Instead of a boycott, I strongly urge other events and productions to do business in Georgia and speak out against our law and similar proposals in other states." GOP strategist Matt Whitlock was the first to sound the alarm on the stealth edits that were made to Abrams' op-ed, which was being cited by media outlets attempting to "fact-check" Republicans accusing her of being supportive of boycotts.
Not over the fact that Stacey Abrams published an op-Ed about the Georgia law saying “boycotts work,” and she wouldn’t blame anyone for boycotting..
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) April 24, 2021
Then AFTER the MLB move, STEALTH EDITED the op-Ed with stronger language opposing boycotts, and media have used it to defend her. https://t.co/A284wksh2c
How's the 'Jim Crow suppression' lie holding up these days, having already been exploded in the recent primary elections conducted under the new, entirely reasonable, law?
With the votes cast this weekend and the absentees accepted we have over 1.66 million votes cast to open the final week of early voting. That includes over 1.5 million early in person votes. Georgia remains on a pace to break the midterm early vote record. #gapol #PlanYourVote pic.twitter.com/TsXKOWLoZX
— Gabriel Sterling (@GabrielSterling) October 31, 2022
Abrams' new line, remember, is that record-breaking turnout doesn't mean there's no suppression, or something. It's incoherent, and nobody believes her. I'll leave you with Georgia-based radio host Erick Erickson's assessment of where things stood as of yesterday (he also thinks the Senate race is trending red, with Abrams hurting Warnock):
“Abrams is toast and the election isn’t for eight more days. What a disaster.” https://t.co/WdTQZLAnL4
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) October 31, 2022
We'll see if he's right. For what it's worth, here's the final poll of the races from the state's largest newspaper:
🚨 FINAL GEORGIA POLL By AJC
— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) October 31, 2022
SEN
Walker (R): 46% (+1)
Warnock (D): 45%
GOV
Kemp (R): 51% (+7)
Abrams (D): 44%
LG
Jones (R): 47% (+8)
Bailey (D): 39%
AG
Carr (R): 49% (+7)
Jordan (D): 42%
SOS
Raffensperger (R): 48% (+10)
Nguyen (D): 38%https://t.co/yod4vKqX0K pic.twitter.com/WjDim507Wh
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