GA House Minority Leader Abrams on GA Democrats, Clinton, and a Racist Trump

I posted earlier about Sen. David Perdue’s thoughts from a CNBC interview that Georgia was not in play for Hillary Clinton. CNBC has also released a portion of an interview with Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams where she shares her belief that Georgia is winnable for Hillary Clinton. She began the interview by stating:

“To close the gap, we have folks on the ground. We have 13 field offices across the state. We’re running competitive State House races and State Senate races and we’re knocking the doors. We are getting all the field done that we can.”

She was asked about an apparent enthusiasm gap in Georgia:

“I don’t think it’s an enthusiasm gap. I think the people are mis-remembering our history. Barack Obama was a singular phenomenon, but if you think about the Kerry-Bush race, if you think about all previous races, you’ve got enthusiasm. Democrats in Georgia are excited about the opportunity and we’re working hard.”

The interviewer also asked her about the appearance that Clinton has given up on Georgia:

“I don’t think she has. I think that until you win an election, you haven’t won an election. And, so, for Georgia to be even receiving investment from the top of the ticket is huge. We’ve gotten six figure investment from her directly. We’ve gotten seven figures from her Super PAC. That’s the important piece. We aren’t quite at the tipping point stage because we haven’t won yet, but once we do, I think we’re going to be in the mix.”

She was also asked about the recent pay for play in the Wikileaks emails:

“I think pay for play is a really strong and I would say inaccurate language. People asked for access and they didn’t get it, but, more importantly, what’s happening in Georgia is that we understand that there’s a distinction between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Donald Trump has spent the entire campaign disparaging every major constituency in Georgia. Hillary Clinton, by contrast, has spent her entire life serving the people of Georgia. And, so, we believe and we trust in her values. We trust who she’s going to be as a leader and we want her to be the next President.”

Rep. Abrams was also asked if she though Donald Trump is a racist:

“I think he is a racist. Racism is about using your power to denigrate and disparage others to deny them access. We know that both in his business dealings and in his personal discussions about people of color, Donald Trump has shown absolutely nothing short of bigotry towards people and that has been consistent through this entire campaign. He began his campaign disparaging Mexican-Americans.”

She shared the following about her feelings about what it means in Georgia for 4 out of 10 Trump supporters to say they would not recognize a Hillary presidency:

“I think what it signals is a shifting of our politics that we are going to have to work together to shift back. The rancor that has pervaded this campaign, it’s disturbing and it is distressing, but it is also a fixable problem. The enthusiasm that we saw for Sarah Palin had a similar bent, but we eventually found our way back to being good citizens and I think we will do the same.”

Finally, she was asked if there a is difference between the voters closer to Atlanta than those further out and the ground game for reaching out to both:

“I think that Atlanta is certainly is ground zero for Democratic activity, but part of my responsibility as Minority Leader is to spend my time outside Atlanta. Most of our members that we are trying to elect are in other parts of the state and I am seeing enthusiasm as far south as Valdosta. We know that this is a win that is possible. We have an opportunity to pick up a few seats in the House and I think all of those things, especially with the 13 field offices that we have compared to the 1 field office that the Trump campaign has, signals that Georgia is really in play and that we have an opportunity to win.”