June 28, 2018

Stacey Abrams Schools Republicans on Guns During a Pointed Interview with Seth Meyers

“As someone who learned how to shoot when I was growing up in Mississippi, the first thing you learn is you don’t do that.”

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Brian Kemp, who is vying to be Georgia’s next governor, really wants everyone to know he is a hardcore Republican and he really likes guns.

But that doesn’t mean he knows how to actually handle them—at least, he doesn’t according to Stacey Abrams, the Democrat running against him (and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle until a Republican run off next month).

Kemp has made something of a national name for himself thanks to a series of over-the-top TV ads. One features him playing up the biggest tropes of Trumpian conservatives: threatening to catch migrants at the border in his pick-up truck, promising to take a “chainsaw to government regulation,” and posing with a small arsenal of pistols and shot guns.

Another notorious ad features Kemp playing the all-American protective dad confronting a poor dude named Jake, a clean-cut white guy who has designs for one of his daughters.

In the ad, Kemp points a gun at Jake as her nervously sits in a chair next to him—a theme the candidate returned to in another ad featuring Jake that was released this week.

But Abrams, on Late Night With Seth Meyers Tuesday, couldn’t help but point out how ridiculous his behavior is, and not necessarily in the way you’d think. Unlike Kemp, Abrams is a staunch advocate of gun safety, aiming to limit access to assault rifles and expand government regulation over the sale of other firearms. But, unlike Kemp, she says, she also knows how to behave with a gun.

“As someone who learned how to shoot when I was growing up in Mississippi, the first thing you learn is you don’t do that. That Firearm 101 is you don’t do that,” Abrams told Meyers. “That Firearm 101 is don’t point it at people, because Firearm 102 is you go to prison.

“So you keep it pointed down … it is an interesting approach to try to convince people they can trust you with their lives.”

Watch the whole hilarious exchange here:

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

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