Kemp Ends Attempt To Have Special Session To Oust Fani Willis: There Will Be No ‘Political Theater’
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp shot down an attempt by a Republican state lawmaker to hold a special session to remove Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis over her prosecution of former President Donald Trump.
Kemp’s remarks come after state Senator Colton Moore suggested that a civil war would break out if Trump goes to trial.
Moore officially called for an emergency session to review Willis after the former president was charged with 13 felonies in a racketeering case over his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
“I did want to take just a few minutes to speak to some history that’s trying to repeat itself over the last few days here in Georgia,” Kemp said at the start of the press conference. “Many of you will recall that in the final weeks of 2020, I clearly and repeatedly said that I would not be calling a special session of the General Assembly to overturn the 2020 election results because such an action would have been unconstitutional. It was that simple.”
“Nearly three years later, memories are fading fast,” he continued. “There have been calls by one individual in the General Assembly, and echoed outside of these walls by the former president, for a special session that would ignore current Georgia law and directly interfere with the proceedings of a separate but equal branch of government.”
Kemp said that he has repeatedly expressed his concerns with the Fulton County District Attorney’s handling of this case and said that it was a bad idea for prosecutors to “move forward with highly charged indictments and trials in the middle of an election.”
“Simply put, it sews distrust and provides easy pickings for those who see the district attorney’s action as guided by politics,” he said. “But let me be clear. We have a law in the state of Georgia that clearly outlines the legal steps that can be taken if constituents believe their local prosecutors are violating their oath by engaging in unethical or illegal behavior.”
Kemp said that the prosecuting attorney oversight commission ultimately will be the governing body responsible for deciding if Willis has done something wrong.
“In my mind, a special session of the General Assembly to end run around this law is not feasible, and may ultimately prove to be unconstitutional,” he said. “The bottom line is that in the state of Georgia, as long as I’m governor, we’re going to follow the law and the Constitution regardless of who it helps or harms politically.”
“Over the last few years, some inside and outside of this building may have forgotten that, but I can assure you, I have not,” he concluded. “The oath I took with my hand on the Bible that’s right behind me in January of 2023 is the same Bible that I took in my inauguration in 2019. And in Georgia, we will not be engaging in political theater that only inflames the emotions of the moment. We will do what is right. We will uphold our oaths as public servants and it’s my belief that our state will be better off for it.”
WATCH:
No comments