Georgia Governor Brian Kemp condemned progressive activist Stacey Abrams on Thursday for comparing her fight to change her state’s election laws to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky leading his country against a Russian invasion.
Speaking to the Daily Show with Trevor Noah on Wednesday, Abrams suggested Kemp and Russian President Vladimir Putin were both waging a ‘war on democracy’ — though Kemp is fighting a legislative battle as Putin orders weapons into Ukraine that are reportedly being used to slaughter civilians.
Democrat Abrams is running to challenge Kemp for governor in November, after having lost to him in 2018.
A spokesman for Kemp’s 2022 campaign told DailyMail.com that Abrams’ comparison is ‘disgusting’ and suggested she was using the unfolding tragedy for her own gain.
‘This is a disgusting comparison. President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people are fighting for their freedom against a callous invasion that has killed innocent civilians,’ Kemp campaign press secretary Tate Mitchell said.
‘Stacey Abrams is a political opportunist who has lined her pockets on lies about common-sense election integrity measures like voter ID. The two are not the same.’
Abrams was asked during the TV interview about how she squares her push to expand voting rights with the fact that data show it will likely boost her campaign.
Progressive Georgia activist Stacey Abrams was criticized by Republicans from her state on Thursday for comparing her fight against Georgia election laws to Ukraine’s fight against a Russian invasion
The former state lawmaker stood firm in her belief that it ‘should be easy to vote’ and said she did not care who those she registered were voting for.
‘My focus should never be on who you cast your ballot for. Voting itself, the process is nonpartisan. We are a stronger nation when we allow people to participate,’ she explained.
‘And if we ever doubted that — the war that Putin is waging against Ukraine, President Zelensky said that — I’m going to paraphrase him probably poorly — he said this isn’t a war on Ukraine, this is a war on democracy in Ukraine.
‘When we allow democracy to be overtaken by those who want to choose who can be heard, and those choices are not based on anything other than animus or inconvenience, then that is wrong.’
Abrams previously lose to Kemp in 2018 in a close race for governor of the Peach State.
Since then she’s focused on ramping up voter registration through her group Fair Fight. Her efforts were widely credited for helping President Joe Biden clinch Georgia in the 2020 presidential election.
She’s also focused on attempting to roll back Kemp’s election security law, which civil rights groups and Democratic opponents claim heavily disenfranchises non-white voters in Georgia.
Abrams said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Ukrainian people were fighting for their democracy, as they also fight for their lives against an onslaught of Russian troops
An aerial view shows a residential building destroyed by shelling, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, in the settlement of Borodyanka in the Kyiv region on March 3
Roman, a former Ukrainian soldier injured in combat, gives instructions on how to handle weapons and move during conflict to civilians in the outskirts of Lviv
Meanwhile in Ukraine, civilians have armed themselves and are constructing molotov cocktails to help Kyiv’s defense forces fight against a Russian invasion.
For roughly a week, Putin’s forces have rained airstrikes and various shellfire down on Ukraine’s cities.
Kyiv officials have said that at least 2,000 civilians, including children, have been slaughtered so far.
Former Georgia Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler on Thursday criticized Abrams for making the comparison.
‘Stacey Abrams is so self-absorbed that she just compared her push to undermine fair elections with Ukraine’s invasion by a murderous dictator,’ Loeffler wrote on Twitter.
The Democrat had previously made similar comments claiming the heavily-armed Russian invasion was a test of Ukraine’s ‘democracy’ — and compared the situation to the fight for America’s future at home.
On February 28, days after Putin personally ordered Moscow’s forces to attack, Abrams told Axios the invasion was ‘not a question of Putin, it’s a question of Ukrainian democracy working.’
Former Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler also condemned Abrams’ comparison
‘Stacey Abrams is a political opportunist who has lined her pockets on lies about common-sense election integrity measures like voter ID. The two are not the same,’ Kemp’s press secretary told DailyMail.com
‘We are watching across this world the attacks on democracy, and they are more salient and more effective than they’ve ever been,’ she said. ‘And the United States is not immune.’
Elsewhere in her Daily Show interview on Wednesday night, Abrams was forced to again defend herself against criticism over the infamous February photo of her sitting in a classroom full of children wearing masks. Abrams’ smile was the only one that could be seen.
‘My responsibility in that instance, if I created any appearance that I did not take children’s lives safe –seriously, that’s a mistake. But your job fundamentally is to acknowledge when you make a mistake and try to make it right. We have this narrative that we have invincible leaders, that’s just not true,’ she said.
‘What we have are humans who want to do a job and we have to hold them accountable for the job they do. But we have to have grace when they make mistakes and trust that their intentions were right.’
The long-winded response is a far cry from her gubernatorial campaign’s initial reaction slamming criticism of the photo as ‘baseless.’
