Another compelling argument against political debates was Sunday’s cage match between Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and his GOP primary challenger, former Sen. David Perdue. It was nasty, brutish, but unfortunately not very short.

Perdue’s opening statement was a grotesque Big Lie monologue.

PERDUE: First off, folks, let me be very clear tonight. The election in 2020 was rigged and stolen. All the madness we see from the Biden administration … two million illegals, rising gas prices, unbelievable inflation, the brink of war … all that started in Georgia when our governor caved and allowed radical Democrats to steal our election. And because of that, he has divided our party and cannot win. What you’re going to see tonight unfortunately is an embattled governor … a 20-year career politician who’s gonna parrot his political handlers to distract you from the fact he sold us out and cost us the majority in the United States Senate.

This is all just slanderous bullshit, and it didn’t work the last time. When Perdue ran around with fellow former Senator Kelly Loeffler ranting about a rigged election, MAGA voters stayed home. Perdue should remember because he lost his runoff to current awesome Senator Jon Ossoff.

Perdue’s position is that Kemp can’t win because Trump humpers are pissed at him, but then he describes the nightmare dystopia Joe Biden supposedly inflicted on us. You’d think disappointed MAGA voters would get over themselves if the circumstances were truly that dire.

PREVIOUSLY: David Perdue Embraces Trump’s Big Lie That He Can Beat Stacey Abrams For Georgia Gov.

Kemp reminded Perdue that he couldn’t legally overturn Biden’s victory: "I was secretary of state for eight years, and I don't need to be lectured by someone who lost his last election.”

But whiny Perdue threw a tantrum and insisted, “the only reason I'm not in the United States Senate is because you caved in and gave the elections to Stacey and to the liberal Democrats in 2020.” Ain’t that just pathetic? Georgia conducted two recounts in the month after the election, and Donald Trump lost like a loser. Perdue is simply the blunt instrument of Trump’s revenge. He got annoyed whenever Kemp would talk about actual issues, like advancing the standard evil GOP agenda. Perdue preferred to dwell in an unalterable past.

Slamming Trump by proxy, Kemp told Perdue, “Weak leaders blame everybody else for their own loss instead of themselves.” Political columnist Patricia Murphy at the Atlanta Journal-Constitutiondescribed the debate as "family counseling gone awry. Accusations and grievances pouring out from both candidates.”

PREVIOUSLY: David Perdue Will Lay Own Body Down Before Stacey Abrams's Evil Shermanesque Death March To GA Gov!

Perdue pursued Trump’s vendetta against the “consent decree” that he claimed "makes it impossible to check and match signatures on ballots and envelopes.” That’s a lie. It actually does the exact opposite. Here’s what Stacey Abrams told the Los Angeles Times in October 2020:

"[Y]ou could always vote by mail, that was never a problem. The issue was they threw out your ballot if there was a signature mismatch, which was twice as likely if you were Black or Latino, five times as likely if you're young," Abrams said.

"And a fairly high percentage of immigrants had their ballots thrown out. We were able to get a consent decree earlier this year where you'd get to fix your ballot if they think there's a problem."

So, signatures were verified. That’s the whole point of the process. Abrams isn’t the one “rigging” elections. It’s the Republicans who want to toss out (mostly minority) ballots because someone didn’t dot the “i” in their name.

Kemp presented himself to GOP voters as the only one who’s beaten Abrams and can prevent the "Star Trek" future where she’s president of the Earth. “Stop Stacey” is an absurd platform, but at least it’s more or less consistent with Kemp’s record. Perdue’s campaign contends that the whole system’s out of order, but Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger are still in charge of it through the end of the year. What’s the actual narrative for a Perdue victory under the conditions he’s outlined?

Meanwhile, Kemp remains well ahead of Perdue in the polls and even otherwise devout Trump supporters don’t blame Kemp for the 2020 election outcomes. However, they seem more likely to blame Trump himself if Abrams wins in November.

Perdue’s impending second annual election loss is a shameful end to a shameless man’s career.

[The Daily Beast / CNN]

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