The Republican civil war begins in Georgia as David Perdue launches bid against Brian Kemp
Former President Donald Trump has managed to recruit David Perdue into running against Gov. Brian Kemp, which the Daily Beast described as ushering in a civil war in the GOP.
The former president has publicly stoked his grudge against Kemp after he refused to overturn the 2020 election, won by Joe Biden in 2020. He also secretly recorded Trump during a call in which the disgraced former president demanded Kemp commit voter fraud by finding the votes necessary to overturn the will of the people.
Kemp’s team is already hitting hard by attacking Perdue as launching a race only to “soothe his own bruised ego” after the humiliating loss to Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) during the 2021 runoff election.
Trump has been among the top politicians to recruit candidates who can bring down Republican incumbents who aren't supportive enough of the ex-president.
Kemp, by contrast, has been furious that Trump tried to bring him down simply for refusing to commit a felony.
"I worked extremely hard for the president. I worked extremely hard for David Perdue and Sen. Loeffler and the rest of the Republican ticket all the way down to local races. I did over 80 political events for the Republican Party and Republican candidates all over the state to help us in 2020," Kemp told Fox News in an interview. "David’s told me he was going to support my campaign for governor. Until something happens otherwise, I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing. I can’t control who may be getting in the race."
Trump has claimed that he will recruit Republican candidates to primary the 13 GOP members of Congress who voted to support the infrastructure bill that was also supported by many Republican Senators. Trump hasn't threatened the senators he'll oppose them and, in fact, he's already done a rally supporting Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who voted to support Biden's bill.
Perdue will face off against allegations that he used his position in the Senate to dump stocks before the markets tanked during the COVID crisis. He was the most prolific stock trader in the Senate before he was voted out, according to a New York Times analysis.
The report calculated that Perdue made 2,596 trades in one term in office, according to his stock portfolio. Perdue is a member of the Senate cybersecurity subcommittee and has raised alarms claiming that overseas hackers are a threat to the United States. The evidence he said comes from a California company called FireEye, which has federal contracts that do malware detection. Perdue also owns as much as $250,000 in shares of the company, after making 61 purchases since 2016.
"Mr. Perdue’s investment activity — and especially his numerous well-timed trades — has increasingly come into the public glare," the report said.
Read the full report from the Daily Beast.