Gov. Brian Kemp on the Border Crisis Causing Tragedy in Georgia: “We’re All Border States”

Brian Kemp, Georgia’s 83rd Governor, joined the Guy Benson Show today to discuss the recent murder of UGA student Laken Riley by an illegal migrant. Gov. Kemp discusses how Biden’s border policies might have led to the potential for deaths like this to happen. The UGA murder comes in the wake as Biden and Trump make dueling visits to the southern border. Kemp and Benson also discuss the Fani Willis case in Georgia as more and more people are seeing the case as politically motivated. Listen to the full interview below.

Full Interview:

Listen to the full podcast:

Gov. Kemp had this to say on the Fani Willis examination:

“She’s in the big leagues now, and and apparently she didn’t have her I’s dotted and her T’s crossed, and, you know, she’s the one that’s being examined now. And I told people this thing’s turned into a soap opera down here, but I believe judge McCarthy will make a good decision.”

Full Transcript:

GUY BENSON, FOX RADIO HOST: We begin in Georgia with the governor down there, Brian Kemp. And Governor, it is always good to have you on the show. Welcome back.

GOV. BRIAN KEMP (R-GA): Hey, thanks for having me on, Guy. I’m so glad you’re having Dave McCormick on, man. He’s a great guy. We need to win that race.

BENSON: Yes, absolutely. He’s coming up an hour from now. That’s the Keystone State. Let’s talk about your neck of the woods. Just one of the most heartbreaking stories you will see coming out of Athens, Georgia, I know a town near and dear to your heart. You’re a huge Bulldogs fan. This student, 22 years old, Laken Riley, murdered on campus, the first on campus murder at that school in 30 years.

And the perpetrator, according to authorities and quite a lot of evidence, is an illegal immigrant, who not only was here against our laws in this country, but had apparently committed multiple crimes and infractions in multiple states before this murder occurred. Now, he’s finally behind bars. Governor, your reaction?

KEMP: Well, Guy, it’s just heartbreaking. You know, Marty and I have a daughter that’s a junior at the University of Georgia. She has worked out in that same area where Laken was killed and, you know, we played intramural sports right there when Marty and I both are at the University of Georgia, and it’s just heartbreaking.

I was talking to a guy in the office here at the Capitol today and his daughter was a sorority sister of Laken’s and knew her well. And I mean, it’s just devastating for that community, obviously, for her friends her family. I’ve talked to her parents, and it’s just devastating for our state. But I will tell you, the whole country is in mourning over this case, but they’re also really upset over what happened and why, and just had enough.

BENSON: I’m sure. I mean, to me, it — I keep using the term a compounded outrage because this brutal crime would be an outrage no matter who it was committed by. And we learned yesterday, and we reported horrifyingly that the beating, the bludgeoning was so severe of this young woman that the perpetrator reportedly disfigured her skull. I mean, this is a really grisly crime.

If that were anyone who did it, people would be up in arms and disgusted. The fact, apparently that this was someone who came into the country illegally, and then just all the other red flags along the way. Arrests on multiple charges in New York, released. Comes down to Georgia to a sanctuary jurisdiction. Shoplifting citation, released. Court date, doesn’t show up. Arrests, you know, a bench warrant put out there, never fulfilled, and then a murder. It just feels like this crime was preventable at multiple different stages, and yet it was not prevented.

And I don’t like to make this overly partisan or overly political, but there are policies and political decisions that had very serious consequences here.

KEMP: Well, listen, the White House right now is trying to say, oh, the Republicans are being political and they’re trying to put the blame on Republicans because some piece of legislation didn’t pass here in the last 30 days or whenever it was.

I have been at the border, Guy, five times. You and I have talked about this.

A group of governors was down at the border, you know, two years ago saying how bad it was, urging the administration, sending them a letter with 10 different things that they could do to reverse policies and stop this mass migration that we have. We sent another letter in September urging the president to secure the border.

We all went down there again to Eagle Pass in support of Greg Abbott, because we’re all border states, as I’ve said I don’t know how many times. And for them to pass the buck on this issue is absolutely ridiculous.

If you will remember, I was at the World Economic Forum over a year ago, not this year’s —

BENSON: I do.

KEMP: Not this one, but the one two years ago. And I was on a panel, and Senator Sinema was talking about this bipartisan bill they were working on, and Manchin and Coons were both on this panel, along with a couple of congresspeople. And I told them — I said, look, it’s great, you all are working on a bipartisan border bill and an immigration bill. But I said, you’ve been doing that and people have been doing that for a decade or two decades. So, while you’re doing that, let’s secure the dang border.

I mean, that was over a year ago, and the White House did nothing. And now, they’re barely reacting to this. I mean, it’s just — it’s infuriating for people that are, you know, center right, center left, and, you know, anywhere toward the right, people are just outraged at this. And I think the president’s going to pay a steep political price for it.

BENSON: That’s the national picture. More locally, you have the mayor in Athens. I don’t know if you saw his performance the other day, where he tried to pull Donald Trump into the conversation, in the Charlottesville incident. Like, totally unrelated. I know he got an earful from some of the residents there.

Then you’ve got the local D.A. who campaigned on leniency for illegal immigrants. Someone who has developed a very poor track record as D.A. in terms of actually winning cases that she tries. And now, I saw the news today that she is stepping down from this case, the D.A., whose policies at least bear some responsibility. This is a sanctuary jurisdiction.

I mean, stepping down from the case is one thing. Do you think this individual should resign? What’s the appropriate course of action here?

KEMP: Well, it’s my understanding, Guy — I don’t know that she’s stepping down from the case, but she is allowing a special prosecutor to prosecute this capital murder case, which I’m so glad because Sheila Ross, that’s going to be prosecuting, is a great prosecutor.

I think the district attorney is doing this because of the pressure that was on her and her track record, which is not much of one, in handling issues like this. Myself, state legislators, the public at large was really concerned about her messing this up. And so, I am thankful she took that step and I feel a lot better about the prosecution.

But listen, these policies of these liberal politicians are coming home to roost. And you know, it’s just insanity when you have the mayor saying he’s deeply sorry, but the responsibility rests solely with the perpetrator. You know, the responsibility is on people that allowed this person to enter our country illegally, number one.

Number two, you know, why a person that committed a crime in New York City, that’s in our country illegal, was allowed back on the streets and then to travel to Georgia, commit more crimes and not be picked up and deported is a failure of the system and of these individuals that encountered this person. And that is — while right now, we are working on legislation.

I know Representative Houston Gaines has been on FOX here recently talking about his bills and other things to figure out how we can make the law more clear than it already is to circumvent the word smithing that’s going on with politicians like Kelly Girtz.

BENSON: Yes, it’s also pretty amazing to see the mayor say, well, let’s not do a political blame game, but then also try to blame Donald Trump, almost in the same breath. That really involves quite a contortion.

One more question on this story, and it’s back to the federal level in the White House. Two days ago, there was a press briefing at the White House where this young woman, Laken Riley, her murder was not mentioned at all. No one asked about it.

The White House didn’t say anything about it. They had to pull like a two-sentence written statement out of them. One of our colleagues asked a question. They didn’t want to talk about it.

It did come up at the briefing yesterday. Here’s an exchange with Karine Jean-Pierre. Cut 15. Listen to this.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

QUESTION: Karine, has the president spoken to the family of Laken Hope Riley, the young Georgia student who was murdered allegedly at the hands of an undocumented immigrant?

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: So, first of all, I do want to extend our deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of Laken Hope Riley. Given this is an active case, I’m going to be really careful about speaking to that case more specifically. I would have to refer any — anything specific to that to that case to law enforcement, and obviously ICE.

And I — the president — I don’t have anything regarding to the president speaking to the family, but it is heartbreaking. I can’t even imagine what the family’s going through. And so — but anything else specifically, I would have to refer you to ICE and law enforcement.

QUESTION: Just to be clear, when you say you don’t have anything else in regards to them speaking, so we can assume that they haven’t spoken to this point at least?

JEAN-PIERRE: I just don’t have anything to read out to you.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BENSON: All right. So, she doesn’t want to comment too much. She’s very sad. Refer it to ICE. I mean, you know, Governor, that when this White House wants to comment on something, even if they’re pulling it right out of their rear-end, like we saw, you know, the voting rights bill in your state, they’ll comment on it if they feel like it. They don’t want to comment here.

But it sounds like President Biden, who likes to demonstrate his empathy, in certain cases, hasn’t tried, it would seem, from that answer, to contact this family. What do you think of that? Do you think it’s his role to talk to this grieving family or would that make things potentially worse?

KEMP: Well, I’ll let them answer that question, Guy.

I mean, I know I’ve talked to the family. I’ve spoken to the family and been to all of the funerals for two fallen state troopers that we lost in the line of duty just in the last two or three weeks, the three service members that we lost in Jordan to the drone attacks. And you know, it’s just the right thing to do when you’re a leader. But you know, if that’s his decision and he can sleep at night or not over this instance.

But I tell you, for the White House to have a press conference to talk about crime and not —

BENSON: Yes.

KEMP: — talk about Laken Hope Riley, not talk about the crime that’s coming to our country because of a poor southern border, because of the policies that these presidents — or this president, whether it’s, you know, the fatalities that we’ve seen — or the murders, rather, that we’ve seen, like Laken Hope Riley and what we’ve seen in Colorado and places like Maryland and Louisiana as well, and the amount of fentanyl that we have, the human trafficking and other things, it’s just — it’s just absolutely ridiculous.

And that’s why the American people are just not buying him ignoring this problem. They know the buck stops with him. They know this has happened on his watch. People have been warning.

And that’s why I’m so frustrated, Guy. You know, I have been, along with a lot of other governors, begging for the president to take action for over two years now. And now, we have this poor, helpless young woman that we have lost because nobody acted.

BENSON: Yes, you’re right. They had a presidential event on crime and just ignored this issue completely. It’s remarkable.

Very quickly, less than a minute, Governor. I know your time is also limited here. The meltdown, it would seem, of Fani Willis and that whole controversy in that prosecution where she’s basically on the stand now and rampant allegations of not just misconduct, but potentially lying under oath.

I’m sure you’ve been following that to some extent. But what’s your reaction to the revelations of the last few days?

KEMP: Yes, the politics in that case have flip-flopped. I got to be careful about what I say — what I say because I was subpoenaed by her special grand jury.

But you know, when you play a high-stakes game like that, and it’s political to start with, if you don’t have your i’s dotted and your t’s crossed, things like this potentially can happen.

And she’s in the big leagues now. And apparently, she didn’t have her i’s dotted and her t’s crossed. And, you know, she’s the one that’s being examined now.

And I told people, this thing’s turned into a soap opera down here. But I believe Judge McAfee will make a good decision. And you know, we need to let him do that and let that process play out. And you know, then we can see where we go from there.

BENSON: It’s probably a wise answer. Very kind, I would say, in your characterization of the D.A. down there, but I get it. Governor Brian Kemp, Republican of Georgia, our guest on “The Guy Benson Show.” Governor, always a pleasure. Thank you.

KEMP: Thank you, Guy. Give Dave McCormick my best. Tell him to keep working hard.

BENSON: We’ll do that. That’s coming up in the next hour here on “The Guy Benson Show.” We’re just getting started on this Thursday. Keep it right here.