Kemp touts Georgia's 'resilience' in response to COVID-19

Kemp Georgia COVID-19 response

Still chastened by Major League Baseball’s decision to move the All-Star Game away from nearby Truist Park, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp told a Cobb Chamber of Commerce audience Monday that the Atlanta Braves were also robbed on the field Sunday night.

“The refs screwed us at the Braves game Sunday night,” Kemp said, a reference to a controversial ninth-inning run by the Philadelphia Phillies that was upheld on a video review, and turned out to be the game-winner.

Kemp quickly moved on to assessing the state of the state, and especially its economic recovery and COVID-19 response, during the Cobb Chamber’s annual meeting at the Cobb Galleria.

During an appearance Saturday at AJ’s Famous Seafood and Poboys in East Cobb, Kemp blamed Democrats for MLB’s relocation of the All-Star Game due to Georgia’s disputed new election law.

On Monday, he defended the law and said the All-Star Game decision was “misguided.”

But “despite the actions by some to torpedo economic growth in the Peach State,” Kemp said, he’ll be eager to sign a new law providing tax incentives for Georgia companies that manufacture personal protective equipment.

The benefits of such measures, he insisted during a luncheon speech, “will expand opportunities for citizens across our state . . . . despite measures to try to divide us.”

(You can watch Kemp’s full address by clicking here; his remarks begin at the 37-minute mark.)

He said Georgians have “overcome a lot together and our future is bright.” While challenges remain, “I have never been more optimistic because we on our way to defeating the virus and returning to normal in the Peach State.

“Our resilience as Georgians has carried us this far,” Kemp said.

As of Monday afternoon, there have been more than 862,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Georgia since March 2020, and more than 17,000 deaths.

In Cobb County, there have been more than 59,000 cases and 932 deaths, the second-highest total in the state.

Kemp applauded Cobb officials and the Georgia National Guard for quarantining passengers from a California cruise ship at the start of the pandemic.

He said while some states wouldn’t take their own citizens for quarantine at the time, “this community stepped up. This is who we are as a state.”

Georgia was one of the first states to begin lifting COVID restrictions last April, and Kemp said the state is on the road to a strong economic recovery as a result.

The state has maintained its AAA bond rating, and in the recent legislative session major budget cuts were avoided and some funding was restored to areas such as education, public safety and health care.

A tax cut with a reduction in the standard deduction was also enacted this year, and Kemp said he also was proud of reforms to the state’s citizens arrest law.