Fox News "The Ingraham Angle" - Transcript: Kemp responds to Abrams' claim he 'cooked up' hacking charge

Interview

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INGRAHAM: The Georgia gubernatorial race has been one of the most hotly contested races this cycle. The race has been rocked with charges of racism and voter suppression, with celebrity and political power players descending on the peach state throughout.

Joining me to react, Georgia secretary of state, Republican candidate for governor, Brian Kemp. Mr. Secretary, thanks for being here tonight. This is how Stacey Abrams responded to your campaign's charges of hacking. Let's watch.

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STACEY ABRAMS, D-GA., GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: I think he cooked up the charge because he realizes once again he has left 6 million voters information vulnerable, and he recognized that if he got caught two days before the election having exposed so many Georgians, he would lose. And so he did what he does always, blame someone else for his mistake.

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INGRAHAM: Your response?

BRIAN KEMP, R- GA., GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: Look, we got this information over the weekend, immediately called Homeland Security, FBI, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigations. After meeting earlier today, the Georgia Bureau of Investigations has opened a criminal investigation into this matter. Their cybercrime center will be investigating that. So it's not in the hands of my office. We have passed the information along to them. They believe it to be credible enough to open a criminal investigation. And that's where we are right now.

INGRAHAM: Can you give us any more, though, Mr. Secretary? Can you give us anymore?

KEMP: I really can't.

INGRAHAM: Is there one person, two person, five people? Overseas? In the country?

KEMP: Laura, I understand, look, this is a criminal investigation, very serious matter. We've handled this like we always do cyber incidents in the office of secretary of state or any other investigation. When it's criminal we go to the proper authorities. We've done that with the GBI. They found it to be credible enough to open a criminal investigation. And we'll let them take the lead on that. I would refer questions to them at this point.

INGRAHAM: Mr. Secretary, people from Jimmy Carter and, of course, other supporters of Stacey Abrams have said, well, you can't be impartial in dealing with any claims of voter suppression or challenges to the final vote once they are all cast tomorrow. Your response to that has been, well, a bipartisan commission is involved in looking at any such charges, and there's no worries. But do you see why Democrats would be concerned? And if that she was on the other foot, wouldn't Republicans be saying kind of the same thing?

KEMP: Anybody that knows how the system works in Georgia wouldn't be saying that. That's a ridiculous claim. It's our county elections offices and superintendents that actually hold the election. They are counting the votes. Their local election board certifies the elections. The press and the public can go watch that.

All this nonsense of voter suppression is absolutely ridiculous. Minority participation is up 23 percent in the great state of Georgia. There's a million more people on our voter rolls now than when I took office. I created an online system when Georgians can register to vote 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Stacey Abrams voted against that legislation. And if you look back, every two years these same things, these same type of charges have happened from her local groups that are supporting her extreme agenda. She's trying to distract from the record that she wants people who are here illegally to vote for her and be part of the blue wave. They even sued us over that. When we called them out in the lawsuit as to how ridiculous that was, they withdrew the complaint, and then they were suing us to do something that we already do.

This is the 11th hour tactics of them. I am doing my job, Laura. I have a duty to keep elections in Georgia secure, accessible, and fair. And that's exactly what we are doing.

INGRAHAM: So President Obama comes into town, Mr. Secretary, Oprah comes into the town. And it was all star power all the time. And they come in, they can draw huge crowds. Are you concerned that the star power will translate into votes and people just say, well, I like President Obama. He's great person, we liked him as president. And Oprah, we love her show. We love her magazine. So we're going to turn out to vote for Abrams. But two historic African-American success stories urging people to make history once again in the state of Georgia?

KEMP: President Obama didn't win Georgia. I think everybody, including President Trump, thinks highly of Oprah Winfrey. But Georgians are going to vote for the best person to move their state forward. I talked about that last night at the rally, that they had the support of their celebrities, and I had the support of the president, the vice president, coach Vince Dooley and Herschel Walker, the goal line stalker, and a lot of other great Georgians.

I think that's what Georgians want. They want a governor that's going to build off of us being the number one state for business in the country six years in a row. That was announced today by Governor Deal. I'm proud to have the governor's support as well as former Governor Sonny Purdue. We've had a great run of Republican leadership over the last 16 years. I want to keep that same direction and move it to a new level. Stacey Abrams wants to take that completely different. Raising taxes, having bigger government, a radical government takeover of health care.

INGRAHAM: Georgia's economic revival has been something to watch. And people wanting to turn that back and say no because Oprah came into town? God bless her, but you can't argue with success. Mr. Secretary, we'll be watching very closely tomorrow. We really appreciate you giving us time today for a very busy night tonight before voters go to the polls tomorrow. Thanks so much.

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