On the eve of Georgia's primary, Gov. Brian Kemp and former Sen. David Perdue, two former allies, made their closing arguments to Republican voters.
The intrigue: They did so with their most prominent surrogates, who are also two former allies — former President Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence.
What's happening: Trump participated in two telephone appearances with Perdue on Monday. The former senator's closing message remained evocative of his campaign so far, falsely arguing in a Monday press conference that Kemp "allowed fraud to happen in our election" and "denied it."
- He rejected the reporting that Trump had backed off of his campaign, even personally attacking one reporter about the story during his press conference.
- Perdue also caught heat for racist comments about Stacey Abrams made during a live radio show taping.
Meanwhile: Kemp held a joint rally with allies and Pence on Monday. Pence took his most dramatic step yet against Trump to campaign alongside Kemp, after leaving the door open to a 2024 run in a New York Times interview.
- Pence called Kemp "one of the most successful Republican governors in America."
The other side: In an 8-minute long tele-rally with Perdue minutes after Pence stopped speaking, Trump repeated his attacks on Kemp, calling him "a governor that’s done the worst job of any governor in probably decades on election integrity."
The big picture: Polling has projected Kemp will handily win. When asked about a recent Fox News poll showing Perdue down 30 points, he fired back at a reporter with critiques of the poll's sample size.
- When asked if he would accept the results of the election, Perdue said, "Depends on whether there's fraud or not," before repeating a promise to campaign with the Republican victor ahead of November.
