We're back at the site of tomorrow's historic presidential debate here in Georgia. Look how beautiful that shot is. It is home to the single closest race in the last election, Joe Biden beating Donald Trump by just over 12,000 votes here in 2020, a number that we all remember quite well. It also made Trump the first Republican nominee to lose here in nearly 30 years. Tomorrow, Trump is going to get a chance to convince not just all Americans, but Georgians, especially this time around. And few people know that better than my next Republican source. I sat down exclusively this afternoon right here behind me with Georgia's Republican governor, Brian Kemp.

Governor, thanks for being here. What do you think Donald Trump needs to do tomorrow night on that debate stage to win over voters in Georgia, but really the 2024 election?

Well, welcome to Georgia. It's going to be an exciting night. Look, I think former President Trump has a great opportunity to really be forward-thinking, not look in the rear view mirror, not focused the past, but stay focused on the future. Contrast where things are right now from where they were four years ago with President Biden's record and tell people like, what I'm going to help you do in the future as your new President.

If he focuses on the past and on the 2020 election. Do you think that's a mistake?

Well, I think that hurts them with swing voters. I mean, from the people I'm hearing from, they're not focused on what happened in 2020 or 2022. They're focused on what happened when they went to the grocery store, the gas pump. They're focused on what's been happening at the border. And I think it's just a great opportunity for former President Trump to stay focused on those issues because I think Biden has real liabilities there. I mean, to me, this is going to be a pocketbook election. There's so much chaos with all these other things that have been going on. But at the end of the day, I'm not hearing about those chaotic things. Yeah.

Well, in the Georgia primary in March, we saw something so fascinating where Nikki Haley had already dropped out of the race, but 78,000 almost, Georgia still voted for her. I mean, what does Donald Trump need to do to earn their votes?

Yeah, and look, you had the same thing happening with President Biden. There's a lot of people on the other side that are not real happy with him. So there's definitely this fraction of people out there that maybe don't like either candidate. But at the end of the day, they got to decide who are they going to vote for that's going to make their life better next week, next month, next year, or over the next four years. I think that's where President Trump has an opportunity to me to really talk about those things and say, Hey, gas prices weren't this high when I was President. Your insurance wasn't this high. Your mortgage rates weren't this high. The border wasn't this porous. We didn't have weakness around the world when you think about things like the pull out of Afghanistan and other things. I think as long as he stays focused on that, I think he wins over those people that really don't like either candidate or people that are truly undecided. It's hard to believe that there's many of those out there, but there are those fractions. But at the end of the day, people got to decide one or two things, whether they're going to vote or whether they're going to stay at home.

And if they go vote, they got to pick who they're going to vote for.

Well, speaking of the Georgia primary, who did you vote for?

In the Georgia primary, I didn't vote for anybody. I voted, but I didn't vote for anybody. The race was already over when the primary got here.

But you didn't vote for Donald Trump?

I didn't vote for anybody.

Why not?

Because the race was over with.

Wow. That's pretty interesting.

I I wanted to go vote. I always tried to go vote and play a part in it. But look, at that point, it didn't really matter. I've said for a long time, as you know, I'm going to support the ticket. That's what I'm doing now. We have a lot of races on the ballot here in Georgia, not just the presidential race. We got a lot of my friends and partners in the General Assembly, and I'm focused on holding our majorities and making sure we turn out the vote for the whole ticket all the way to the top.

But there were a lot of other Republicans who came out and voted in that primary and voted for Donald Trump. So I think it would be pretty interesting for them to hear or why you didn't feel the need to vote for him or didn't want to.

Well, it would be for me personally, politically. I mean, it'd be interesting if I had to vote for him, be interested if I didn't, or be interested if I didn't vote at all. But bottom of the line, it didn't really matter. I mean, he was a presumptive me before the primary ever got here. I didn't support anybody in the race. I mean, I was thinking about it, but just because a lot of circumstances and the way things played out, didn't end up doing that, but said all along, for the most part, that I would support the ticket, and that's what I've I've always done. That's what I'm doing this November.

On supporting the ticket, that clearly means you're going to vote for Donald Trump in November. Are you going to campaign for him, though?

Well, we'll see how the race plays out and what they might ask for or need. But right now, I'm focused on turning the ticket out so we win. Regardless of our history together, I have a vested interest in Georgia. Remaining in Republican hands, we did a great job of doing that in '22, beating Stacey Abrams by almost eight points. Our whole ticket at the state level won. We just had a great Supreme Court race here where we had a liberal Democrat that was trying to knock off really a great Supreme Court justice that I appointed. And so that was really a political race. The challenger made it political, and we won that. I have a vested interest in making sure that Georgia remains red unlike it did in 2020. I think that sends the narrative that Georgia is not this Purple state that everybody thinks it is. We're a 52, 53, 48, 47 Republican leaning state. And as we go into the 26 cycle, when you're going to have an open seat for the governor's race, one of our US Senate seats up. It's important for us to win this year, regardless.

You're popular. I mean, you beat... Donald Trump endorsed your primary challenge. You beat him by over 50 points. You cruised to re-election. You said, If they reach out. Has the Trump campaign not reached out to you so far?

Well, I haven't talked to the former President. I've talked to a few folks on a campaign or representatives of the campaign. But look, I'm not looking for a phone call. I don't need a phone call or I don't have to be catered to to support the ticket. Everybody knows here I'm a Republican. I'm at the top of the ticket in Georgia. We've had issues with our state Republican Party. We've had issues at the national level on what they've been doing on the ground game. I don't have any ill will against any of those people, but I want to win. For us to win in Georgia, we have to have a good ground game. I just decided I was going to do that myself. My whole campaign team did, my family did, and we raised a lot of extra money. We did phone calls and door knocking and targeting persuadable voters, persuasive voters, and we won.

We're waiting on the Supreme Court any moment now to issue its ruling on Whether Donald Trump's acts related to the 2020 election were covered by presidential immunity. He's been arguing that he can't be prosecuted for that. I mean, one of the last times that you all spoke, if not the last time, was when he was asking you to do things that you said you didn't have the authority to do as governor of this state. Do you believe his acts related to Georgia, specifically, in your view, are covered by presidential immunity?

Yeah, I wouldn't want to get into any... I'm not a lawyer. I relied on a lot of good in my office and others to make sure that we were doing the right thing and follow the law and follow the Constitution. I'm going to continue to do that. I wouldn't really be able to speak with all the different things that he was saying and doing. He wanted me to do things that I don't think would have been necessarily illegal, but they were just things that I didn't have the authority to do. He obviously didn't like that, that I couldn't do those things or in his mind, maybe wouldn't do it. But I just didn't have the legal authority to do that. I was very honest and forthright with that and held my ground. That's what I'll continue to do as we go into this cycle in this election.

Do you have any concerns that he'd try to do that again in 2024?

Well, I've seen some of these stories and people worrying about this, about that. I don't worry about the institutions of democracy too much. I mean, they held up under a lot of pressure.

Only because of people like you.

Well, that's right. There's still a lot of those good people that are serving. I think there's a lot more people watching now than we're watching in 2020. A lot of people that have complained about the process and said, I should do this and I should do that. I've challenged them and say, Hey, were you a poll watcher? Were you out there watching the process? Were you paying attention to what was going on? Did you volunteer? Did you sign up as a lawyer to be part of a legal team, to take advantage of the legal processes post-election, that there is problems, to go to a superior court or file challenges or whatever things that you can do under the law. That's how the process is supposed to work. Look, democracy has been bent and challenged in this Republic in the past, and it will be in the future. But I'm very confident that it will hold. I think we have a lot of people that will follow the law and the Constitution. At the end of the day, I know myself, I believe we're going to have a secure, accessible, fair election in the great state of Georgia, and I'm looking forward to that.

Governor Kemp, thank you for your time.

Thank you.