Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and Secretary of State Brian Kemp clashed Friday over a tweet sent by a national reporter who claimed he witnessed Kemp making sexist comments while reporting a story about how lobbyists court election officials.
The tweet came late Thursday from Robert Faturechi, an investigative journalist with ProPublica who encountered Kemp and several other secretaries of state at a hunting lodge in Downs, Kansas in 2016 and didn't disclose he was a reporter.
They also watched the second presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, which came two days after the disclosure of the recording in which Trump boasted of his celebrity success with women.
Although the vignette didn't make it into his story, here's what Faturechi wrote on Twitter after Trump's endorsement of Kemp on Wednesday:
"I watched the post-Access Hollywood presidential debate with Brian Kemp at a Kansas hunting lodge. (He didn't realize I was a reporter.) He joked "Trump should have gone over there and groped her!" to a room of corporate donors and other secretaries of state."
The tweet by Faturechi, who didn’t immediately respond to requests for additional comment, quickly gained traction online -- and the attention of rival Casey Cagle’s campaign. Kemp spokesman Ryan Mahoney was dismissive:
"Is anyone surprised that a liberal reporter who aims to destroy politically incorrect conservatives like Donald Trump and Brian Kemp is making wild accusations just days before the July 24 election? It's absolute nonsense."
On the campaign trail Friday, Cagle called it an "inexcusable statement" and "disgusting remarks" and drew a parallel to Kemp's criticism of Cagle's candid words on a secretly made tape.
“Beyond the fact that these comments are incredibly offensive,” said Cagle, “Brian has staked his campaign on the fact that he does the right thing ‘when no one is looking.’”
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