GOP Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp Wants To Ban Atlanta Mayor From Talking About COVID-19
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is not going to stop talking.
Things are not going well in Georgia, corona-wise. There's been a major surge in the state since GOP Governor Brian Kemp's premature "reopening," and several mayors have responded to this by issuing restrictions — including mask-wearing — that are more strict than Kemp's guidelines. One of these mayors is Keisha Lance Bottoms of Atlanta, with whom Kemp has had an ongoing feud. Kemp seems to be really enjoying the spike in cases for some reason, and Bottoms keeps trying to ruin that for him by making it harder for people in Atlanta to contract the virus.
On Thursday, Kemp decided to show Mayor Bottoms who's boss by literally suing the city of Atlanta over the mask requirement. Bottoms's response at that time was:
"A better use of taxpayer money would be to expand testing and contact tracing. [...] If being sued by the State is what it takes to save lives in Atlanta, then we will see them in court."
On Sunday, Bottoms revealed that Kemp, who insists this is about "the rule of law" and who has authority to do what, rather than his own personal love of surging COVID-19 infections, went a step further, asking a court to issue an emergency injunction to keep her from speaking to the press. Specifically, he wants a court to "[i]ssue an interlocutory and permanent injunction to restrain Mayor Bottoms from issuing press releases or making statements to the press that she has the authority to impose more or less restrictive measures than are ordered by Governor Kemp related to the Public Health Emergency."
Governor Kemp claims he is doing this is because Bottoms's announcement that Atlanta must return to its "Phase 1" of reopening is "confusing" for people who thought they were all in the clear.
Via WSB-TV:
Kemp told Channel 2′s Richard Elliot that Bottoms' announcement caused confusion in the businesses community, particularly the restaurant industry, which Kemp has allowed to reopen dining rooms. Under Bottoms' Phase 1 guidelines, restaurant dining rooms were to remain closed.
And, given the fact that things are much worse in Atlanta, and Georgia as a whole, than they were in the beginning of the pandemic, it seems like closing restaurant dining rooms would be a pretty good idea.
Even if that "confuses" people, which it shouldn't.
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