According to an excerpt from "Flipped: How Georgia Turned Purple and Broke the Monopoly on Republican Power" by Greg Bluestein, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) was adamant in his decision to not bow to Donald Trump's demand he overturn the 2020 presidential results and was forced to meet with fellow Georgia Republicans who were angry with him for not heeding the former president's wishes.
According to the book, Kemp was under attack from Trump and his aides who insisted that he throw out the results that showed Joe Biden won the state's 16 Electoral Collge votes that all but assured Trump's re-election bid would fail.
"At the time, Trump told aides the governor owed him. He urged Kemp to use 'emergency powers' to block the certification of the results and demanded that the governor call a special session to overturn the election results and name a slate of Republican electors to award him the state’s 16 electoral votes," Bluestein wrote. "Each time he was rebuffed, Trump leveled a new wave of vicious attacks at Kemp on Twitter and to aides, ultimately calling for the governor to resign. And each time Trump’s advisers cautioned him to tone it down, he kept going back to the November 2018 rally that he headlined for Kemp."
In an interview Kemp stated, "I understand why he’s frustrated. He’s a fighter. But at the end of the day, I’ve got to follow the laws of the constitution of this state and that’s exactly what I’m doing.”
Regardless of the laws, some members of Trump's inner circle kept the pressure on Kemp, the book asserts.
"A former state election official, Kemp knew he lacked the legal power to overturn Trump’s defeat, and he didn’t want to leave any wiggle room for the president and his allies to think otherwise. Some of Trump’s aides urged the governor to 'grow up' and cede to the president’s demands," the book states.
You can read more behind-the-scenes details here.
