Georgia elected officials on hand for preliminary events ahead of Biden-Trump debate

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp paid a visit and spoke with reporters on the red carpet at the CNN media center Thursday afternoon. He said he didn’t vote for former President Donald Trump in the Georgia primary earlier this year. | Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have both arrived in Atlanta for the highly anticipated first presidential debate of the 2024 election.

Biden was greeted by Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, Stacey Abrams, Jason Carter and other prominent Georgia Democrats who stood on the tarmac at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta. He shook hands and briefly chatted with each person but did not respond to questions shouted at him by the press pool about how he was feeling ahead of the debate.

The president stopped to chat with dozens of supporters who gathered outside of Truist Plaza in downtown Atlanta and chanted “four more years” and “let’s go, Joe.”

Trump landed a couple hours later at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, where he was welcomed by supporters on the tarmac.

Over at Georgia Tech’s McCamish Pavilion in Atlanta, where hundreds of reporters are gathered for the debate and aftermath, surrogates and notable figures have started showing up to have their say about the state of the presidential race and tonight’s debate.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp paid a visit and spoke with reporters on the red carpet.

Kemp said he’s rooting for Trump in tonight’s big event, but he also revealed he did not vote for him in the primary.

“I didn’t vote against him, either. I just didn’t vote for anybody,” he said. “But the primary was over when it got here. But you know, at this point, I’m not looking in the rearview mirror. That’s what I’ve been urging the former president to not do is to look in the rearview mirror and focus on the past.”

Kemp and Trump have been on-again-off-again allies, which has been mostly off since Kemp refused to go along with the Trump campaign’s push to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.

“I’ve said all along, I was going to support our nominee. I am doing that. We had a lot of great candidates that ran, but he’s at the top of our ticket and he wants to win Georgia, and I want to win Georgia too.”

Kemp demurred when asked whether his support might include appearing at a rally alongside Trump.

“Well, I’m hoping that Trump does so good tonight that he’s not even going to have to come to Georgia, we’re doing so good here,” he said with a laugh. “So, we’ll see. I wouldn’t be able to speak to that until we know what their plans are.”

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com . Follow Georgia Recorder on Facebook and X .

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