Keisha Lance Bottoms on Georgia’s Governor Race and Voter Frustration

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Ask what they blame for rising gas prices. Those voters pointed to corrupt politicians and billionaires. A response that surprised some long time strategists who've never seen government corruption emerge as a top issue for so many Republican voters in congressional race as well. When you have the most corrupt grifter fraud in the Oval Office who has pillaged this country and left people in shambles while he and his oligarchs have made billions in one case over a trillion dollars, this is how people are going to feel because of what's called their lived experience versus your political messaging or all of your disinformation that you're trying to inject out there. Even the state regime media fox poll showed among voters the top concern is corruption in government as number one and then number two inflation and high prices. Three gas prices to me all three of those are inextricably intertwined as you have the nation suffering from this cost of living crisis made worse by Donald Trump. The corruption in government is at the root cause or one of the root cause of all of this and Trump's catastrophic war in Iran as well. So you had Maga Mike Johnson making his rounds on state regime media where he's like, hey, everything's actually going great. The enthusiasm that we're seeing for Maga right now. I've never seen the enthusiasm like this. We go around the rallies are so big when I show up. Maga Mike, we've seen your events. It's like 12 people who are there. Also, we've been covering Donald Trump's events like the one he held recently in Kentucky where the arena was more than half emptying. You looked around empty seats everywhere. He's like, there's 25,000 people. It's like 1200 people there. But listen to it. Maga Mike says play this clip. We have superior candidates and extraordinary record to run on and we have great energy on the ground. Larry, everywhere I go from coast to coast and I'm I'm traveling nonstop 40 districts across 22 states this month alone. I'm going to the swing districts. I'm going to the places that the pundits and the pollsters say we're going to lose. They are wrong. We have incredible turnout. As I said in that clip, you played. It feels like 2024 to me when we defy the odds. I believe we can defy history and keep this majority. And our voters just need to ignore all the noise and go vote. Do your civic duty. That's why the enthusiasm is picked up right now. The understand is a contrast election between common sense and crazy and American people are not signing up for crazy. That's why we're going to win. And as Donald Trump's approval hits record lows as the generic ballots show Democrats leading in the House in the Senate and expanding that lead every day, you have Donald Trump boasting about his diesel deal and other deals on the horizon with Putin. There was the reporting yesterday about how Putin also flowed in a trilateral summit. Putin, Trump and G will decide how to split up Ukraine and the fate of Ukraine and other nations. They will be doing a trilateral together. So utterly disgusting right there. Then Donald Trump posted my decision on Russia is a simple one. He said he attacked Salinsky. He praises Putin more from Maga Mike Johnson here. And he's like, look, if we don't keep the House as the Maga Republicans, they're going to just keep on investigating Donald Trump every hour of every day for the two years. These Democrats, they're going to come after Trump and the oligarchs and the billionaires and the crooks and all of them. They're all kind of crooks as well. But here's what Maga Mike says. Play this clip. It went exact retribution on the Trump administration every hour of every day for the next two years. What would that do to the markets? What would that do to stability for us here? And what message would it send to our enemies around the world? This dangerous time. And Maga Mike's like, come on, please, we got to keep the grownups in charge. The Maga Republicans, you think you are the grownups here? Play this clip. You have to keep the grownups in charge steady hands at the wheel. That's why Republicans have to keep control of Congress. More for Maga Mike here, characterizing Trump providing sanctions relief to Putin as thinking outside of the box here. Play this clip right here. So I know the president's evaluating this as he does everything else. He has two major objectives as you know, Larry, every day. He wants to keep America safe and he wants to bring down the cost of living for every American. He thinks outside the box with creative ideas all the time and he carefully evaluates those. So I think the right decision will be made here in the end. Thinking outside of the box. So Donald Trump launches a catastrophic war that we should never have been involved in in Iran. Trump triggers a global financial crisis and global oil crisis. Then uses that as further pretext just to go mask off and show his relationship with Putin in order to do a deal of an inconsequential quantity of diesel that doesn't move the market at all. But then empowers Putin to do deals with Iran to further defeat the United States in the catastrophic war. Am I following this? But you had Netanyahu coming out yesterday with a message to Americans. Netanyahu addressed the Americans on behalf of Donald Trump yesterday pitching Americans on why the Iran war needs to keep on going and why Americans should keep on paying more money at the pump because prices would be even higher without the war. And so he praises Trump for the war. This is a message directed to the American people as Trump endorsed Netanyahu yesterday. This is Trump and Maga's focus. And then Netanyahu delivered the message on behalf of Trump and Maga. Here, play this clip. Let me say to the American people, if you're worried about today's gas prices, think of what will happen if Iran gets nuclear weapons, something that Donald Trump and I will never allow. And when that happens, when that threat of that regime disappears, gas prices will go down and how. But only under Trump. It's not going to happen with those who want to accommodate and appease these tyrants. More from Netanyahu over here, giving his message to the American people. Let's play it. But I think America has been fortunate to have a leader of conviction, of clarity, of courage, who faces down this threat to America and to Israel. Those who chant death to Israel, death to America, this vile, murderous dictatorship in Tehran that wants to acquire nuclear weapons and the means to deliver it to every American city, you understand that. And you're not set back by internal criticism. You're focused, laser focused on the task of removing this threat from the this current generation of Americans from all future generations. You've shown remarkable consistency and remarkable leadership. Donald Trump, though, also was very focused yesterday on destroying the East Potomac Golf Course in Washington, DC and replacing it with some bizarre Trump and steam championship golf course and shutting it down for 15 month, destroying the cherry trees, the maples, the oaks, the beautiful landscape so that he can turn it into a Trump golf course. He posted this is one of his closing messages to the American voters vote for Trump and Maga. They will rip apart the trees and focus on golf courses and never actually build it while engaging in a massive grift. Seriously, I want to bring in right now the interview I just did with Keisha Lance bottoms, Democratic candidate for governor of Georgia, former mayor of Atlanta. You're not going to want to miss this interview where she talks about what she's seen in the great state of Georgia. Let's bring in my interview with Keisha Lance bottoms. Now I want to bring in Keisha Lance bottoms. Great to see it as always. I want you to begin just by addressing the fact that Rick Jackson is too scared to debate you. I mean, there has been multiple opportunities for him to debate you. You've had to debate an empty podium and this is some somebody who's seeking the position of governor of the great state of Georgia, and he's scared, and he throws out all these attack ads about you and they poured in all this money, and they tried to act all tough. He's scared to debate and be on a, still a great debater, so I wanna give you your props, but he's scared to do it. If you're scared to do that, don't take this job. I want you to react to that. - Well, it's a pretty good indication of just how scared he is to do anything that exposes himself and gives him an opportunity to have to answer questions directly from voters and from the press. We accepted actually seven debates. He only accepted one, a town hall debate from a very conservative media outlet. I showed up for that debate, and he was there, you know, I can't speak to his performance, but I can say, if he's doing this as a candidate, people should really think about what he would do if he were ever elected governor. He then take unscripted questions. He then do events, even with community members, where he gives people an opportunity to ask questions after he's done speaking, which is something I do adjust about every event that I attend, and this is not the time for us to elect cowards. If you are afraid to face the public, the people who you will serve if you are elected, then how in the world do we expect that he'll stand up to the Trump administration? - Yeah, you know, I think that so much of what we talk about gets a little, things get lost in the gamification of politics, who's up, who's down, and I'm just like, we have to just get serious. Like we have to add a baseline, be a serious country again, a competent country who elects sophisticated leaders, who are public servants. Like to me, once we start with that hierarchy, then we could have certain debates about, maybe it should be a little bit more like this or a little bit more like that, but my fear is that the behavior, just the behavior, the conduct, the lack of leadership by people like Rick Jackson and Trump and some of these mega people, it's just not serious behavior for leaders who are in positions to govern or seeking said positions to govern. What do you make of that? - Well, I mean, this is a guy who's a billionaire, so he doesn't have a problem with doing ads that he can put up on TV, $100 million worth of television ads, the vast majority of which had targeted negative ads, targeted toward me, my poster, Cornell Belcher said, "Never in the history of Georgia has a candidate or family, "had this much negative advertisement put up against them." But it really speaks to the strength of our campaign. We've been moving around the state, listening to people offering real plans and solutions, like relief from auto insurance and homeowners insurance, relief for grocery taxes, a vision to expand Medicaid in this state. And even with his $100 million that he's put up against me, $200 million plus throughout this campaign cycle, we are still tied. All of the polls have us neck and neck. And if the turnout that we've seen over the past few days of early voting is any indication, we are on our way to breaking records in Georgia. And I am convinced that Georgia will flip the governor's seat this year. Talk to us, we have just had these discussions now a few times over the course of these past 20 months or so, since the last election. And it just seems that every time we have these discussions, the country is more worse off and worse off because to me that's the nature of a Ponzi scheme economy that Trump and Rick Jackson are running into the ground. Wealth for them and everybody else are told, don't you worry, it's right around the corner. Just you see, 2025, we were setting it up. It's difficult. 2026 was going to be great, but then catastrophic war in Iran happened. They don't explain those Trump who decided this war of choice, this catastrophic war, tariffs against the world and then the Supreme Court did it. And it's Zelensky's fault and this person's fault and that person's fault and this person's fault. And it's just like, y'all just lie, I mean, just lie. Like the people of Georgia could see, here's what you promised. And here's just what's happening and it just seems it's getting worse and worse. What do you see in on the campaign, Drew? Well, the cost of living was the number one issue when we launched this campaign. I didn't need a poll to tell me that was top of mind for people. And I can tell you it's gotten even worse over the past year and a half, people are deeply concerned. We were already talking about the cost of healthcare when we launched this campaign because we've not expanded Medicaid and then the big ugly bill came. 600,000 people in the state have dropped their coverage. We were already talking about the cost of housing and now we're talking about the cost of gas and groceries and the tariffs. And it's every day brings a new challenge for people, not just in Georgia, but across the country. And I truly believe that's part of why we're seeing these high numbers in turnouts. And we were outspit by Republicans by $100 million and Democrats still outvoted them by 150,000 votes. So people are recognizing that their power is in their votes. And they're asking for leaders who aren't afraid to stand up to Trump and who can offer real solutions, not just negative advertising, not just mailers. I literally get three to five mailers a day from this guy at my house telling me not to vote for me. People are over that. They want to get to the polls. The voters want to express their desire to see a different course in Georgia and across the country. And I'm just excited with just a couple of more weeks to go until Election Day that we can finally turn the corner in this state. You know, on a fox poll that came out earlier in the morning, it said, the biggest issues on voters' minds, obviously, economy. The other one that was actually slightly above economy, but basically right around the same was corruption. And my view is that, well, they're actually inextricably intertwined. The economy has been devastating for 99%. And the corruption that has led to this massive wealth grab by people like your opponent and the Trumps and the Mar-a-Lago ballroom, Cotari jet crowd by taking and engaging in this corruption while the people suffer, it's both. And I think when I look at your campaign and Senator Assof's campaign, what I think you both do really good is saying, here's the condition of the economy. And here's the corruption story also. And they are related. And because people sometimes, there's so much corruption every day. Do you look at Don Jr. in the oligarch wedding? Do you look at the new press secretary who may have been some sort of lawyer in China, but didn't pass the bar? But then just every day, there's a thing. And it's-- but look, they want us to look here because they're screwing you over here in the pocket book. And I think you guys just do such a good job at that. Yeah, and you can't make this stuff up. It's unbelievable that this guy, given all that people are complaining about with the Trump administration, that my opponent would say he wants to be Trump with a southern tone. He wants to be Trump's favorite governor. There's not a single policy that he disagrees with Trump on. This guy got a no-bid, no-compete contract. Nobody else even knew the contract was up for grabs in 2020 for his health care staffing company. This health care staffing company that thrives because we've not expanded Medicaid in Georgia. $700 million. And he has multiple contracts with the state of Georgia. So then he extended another contract after he looked people in the faces and said, I'm going to undo all of my business with the state of Georgia if I am elected governor. He has extended that contract in the last month or so into 2027. And then we just found out that he registered a company in the Cayman Islands, I believe, over the last year or so. So this is a guy who didn't want to just be like Trump. He already is Trump. And it is not what people want. And I just must remind people, this race is tied. This is going to be about turnout. If people want to support our campaign, if you are sick of the policies of Trump, if you don't want to see Trump have a hold in Georgia, then please support us at KeishaforGovernor.com. I am on the ballot centered our office on the ballot. We have an opportunity to flip the house and an opportunity to flip every constitutional seat in this state. Where can people learn more about the campaign? anything else you want to tell our audience of nearly seven million subscribers, as we're basically two weeks away. We're right around that two week mark. So what can people do? What do you suggest anything else you want to say to our crew here, the Midas Mighty? You can support us at Keisha for governor.com. I've also leave you with the number, 21. 21 votes per precinct on average was the difference between the winner and loser in 2018. That was the first time that Stacy Abrams ran against Brian Kim. So even if you aren't in Georgia, you maybe know somebody in Georgia or you know somebody who knows somebody in Georgia. I just encourage you to use your social media platforms, your email threads, your text threads, whatever your best means of communication may be to encourage at least 21 people to show up and vote in Georgia. Early voting ends October 30th. My opponent, Slick Rick, has said the national guard will be called in during this election cycle. We don't want to wait and find out. So we are encouraging people to vote as soon as possible. And then of course, here's election day, November 3rd. Right. Slick Rick, the tough guy who was scared to debate you and is terrified of being on a stage next to you in a paid format. It's like, dude, why are you running it? It just baffles me. You know, I get it. It could be intimidating to go up against you. Then don't run. Don't run for the freaking office. I have to say this. The one debate he did show up with, we could have someone come and speak to us during the breaks. The person who came to speak to him and who wrote notes on his note pad was Nick Ayers. You know who Nick Ayers is. Nick Ayers is from the Trump administration. Well, literally getting his notes from Mar-a-Lago, Golden Ballroom, Katari Jettland, Keisha Lans-Bottoms. Thanks for, thanks for joining us. Appreciate you. Thank you. Everybody, hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million subscribers. Before you go, our book WTF America is available for pre-order now. It's the story of how we got here and how we fight our way back. To pre-order, scan the QR code or click the link in the description. Let's do this.