Ga. GOP gubernatorial candidate: Republican primary was about who could ‘be the craziest’

GOP Georgia gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp on Monday released an audio recording of his opponent, Georgia’s lieutenant governor, saying the GOP primary in Georgia was about “who had the biggest gun, who had the biggest truck, and who could be the craziest.”

“The issues you talk about are the issues I care about as well,” Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle said in the audio recording to Clay Tippins, former candidate for Georgia governor. “The problem is in a primary — and you and I are just talking off the record … they don’t give a f— about those things.”

“In the general election, they care about it,” he added. “But they don’t care about it in a primary. This primary felt like it was who had the biggest gun, who had the biggest truck, and who could be the craziest.”

{mosads}

Kemp and Cagle are running against each other in Georgia’s July 24 GOP primary runoff to represent the Republican party in November’s general election against the Democratic candidate, former state representative Stacey Abrams.

Cagle once boasted a considerable lead over Kemp, but Cagle’s numbers have taken a hit in recent weeks, partially because of the audio originally released by Tippins, according to the Albany Herald.

In the full audio recording, Cagle derides a bill that he voted for.

“It ain’t about public policy,” Cagle says in the recording, according to The Gainesville Times. “It’s about f—ing politics.”

A spokesman for Kemp told the Albany Herald that the recording “exposes Cagle’s real opinion of Republican voters in Georgia.”

Cagle’s campaign released a response to the audio later on Monday, saying, “Lyin’ Brian is at it again. It’s clear now that he colluded with a losing candidate to unethically record a private conversation.”

“As if it’s not bad enough that [Kemp] has shown his true character by taking part in dirty politics,” Cagle’s statement adds. “Now he’s totally lying about who Casey is talking about on the tape. That’s incompetence for you. All voters have to do is read the transcript to see he’s not talking about voters.”

Updated at 1:47 p.m.