Kemp gets 'frustrations out of the way' before trumpeting business wins

Sep. 18—MARIETTA — It took Gov. Brian Kemp a while to get to the meat of his speech at the Cobb County Republican Women's Club Friday.

First, he had to blow off some steam.

The nation's southern border is in crisis, Kemp said. Lawlessness menaces the streets of Atlanta. Federal overreach threatens to force the COVID-19 vaccine on Americans and torpedo the GOP's new elections law.

Ostensibly coming to Marietta to tout Georgia's eighth consecutive year as the "No. 1 State to Do Business," the governor dove into a buffet of hot-button issues. His remarks, by turns genial and fiery, cheery and foreboding, weren't quite a full blown reelection speech — but weren't some casual lunchtime chat.

Crime a bummer for business

If there was a common theme to Kemp's concerns about governance by Democrats, it was chaos.

Segueing from taking shots at President Joe Biden over the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan last month, Kemp said "the other side" was likewise trying to sweep crime under the rug.

"They're trying to divert from their party's stance — (Missouri Congresswoman) Cori Bush and others — of this whole defund the police issue," Kemp said, before thanking Cobb's Republican state legislators for voting for a bill this year which bars local governments from reducing police funding.

At the local level, Kemp said he wouldn't stand for leaders who condemn the state's elections law (Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms called it "divisive" and "unnecessary") and then rebuff state intervention on crime.

"We're stepping in and doing something about it," Kemp said, to murmurs from the crowd of "Thank you," and, "Amen."

"It's bad for our capitol city, but it's also bad for the business reputation of our state," he said.

Kemp previously announced in July he was putting another $2 million into his "crime suppression unit," a multi-agency team of state law enforcement officers who would take on violence in the city. He ticked off statistics of the unit's success: 201 people with outstanding warrants arrested, 65 stolen weapons recovered.

The unit has worked well with the Atlanta Police Department and Chief Rodney Bryant. Unfortunately, Kemp said, their municipal colleagues "have one hand tied behind their back."

"I'll give y'all a little secret," Kemp said. "You cannot chase — you cannot catch street racers if you can't chase them."

Kemp was referencing a policy first implemented by Atlanta police in 2020, which banned vehicle chases after several bystanders were killed during pursuits. The department then amended the policy in January, but with restrictions, only allowing officers to chase in cases of violent felonies or an imminent threat.

'More federal overreach'

If local leaders are soft on crime, Kemp continued, Biden and the federal government are working overtime to use the pandemic as a cudgel against liberty.

"They're now using, you know, OSHA and the Department of Labor as a political tool on the whole vaccine mandate, which we're trying to figure out what the rule says. So we'll see what our legal options are," said Kemp, who has threatened to sue to block the mandate's implementation.

"It's not about the vaccines as much as it is just about more federal overreach," he would later add. "It's not that I'm against the vaccine. I'm vaccinated, Marty and the girls are. I've been telling people, look, talk to your doctor."

The governor said he'd spoken to a longtime friend and business owner who worried the Biden mandate would kill his business of more than 100 workers (the vaccine mandate applies only to businesses of 100 or more workers). Employees who didn't want to get the shot, the friend told him, could simply quit and go to work for one of his smaller competitors, where they'd be exempt.

Kemp likewise took shots at public health leaders and national Democrats for sending mixed signals on health and safety guidelines.

"When the president of the United States says, 'Get your vaccine and take your mask off,' and then weeks later turns around and says, 'Hey, you got to put it back on' ... Who can trust the government right now? I mean, I say this being the governor."

Eight Years Running

"Now that I've got some of my frustrations out of the way, I'll talk about the economy," Kemp said, some 20 minutes into his speech.

Despite the best efforts of Biden and company to put the lid on business, Kemp said there was plenty of good news to share. Unemployment is down to 3.5%, lower than in Texas or Florida; lower, even, than it was in March 2020. New investment keeps pouring in—$11 billion worth, creating some 34,000 private sector jobs. And lest anyone forget, for the eighth year running, Georgia is the No. 1 state to do business, according to "Area Development," a publication covering economic development.

Cobb Chamber of Commerce Chairman John Loud, who was among those in attendance, shared in the good tidings.

"We have 28 new closings, and that's 11 companies that are moving to Cobb, and the others are (staying) in Cobb. Here are the other numbers: that's a little over 3,500 new employees that will be coming this way. It's about $287 million of economic impact and investment in this area," Loud said.

Loud and Kemp both acknowledged, however, that a significant problem persists — public and private sector employers are still struggling to recruit workers, despite Kemp revoking the extra $600 per month in federal unemployment benefits, which he said was a drag on hiring.

"Even though everybody needs more workers, we're doing better than just about every other state," Kemp offered.

Loud hypothesized there's a large number of workers still transitioning between careers at the moment, saying, "There's a lot of folks that are saying ... I've gotten paid to have this time off, to think about, what am I going to do in my next career?"

But Loud readily admitted he doesn't have the definitive answer.

"Who's going to write that book later down the road?" he wondered—"Where Have All the Workers Gone?"