Mike Pence is “absolutely” a RINO, former Sen. David Perdue, who is running for governor in Georgia‘s Republican primary, said on the Todd Starnes Radio Show Tuesday.
Perdue, who is backed by former President Trump, slammed the former vice president for backing “embattled, embittered and endangered” Gov. Brian Kemp in Tuesday’s primary.
RELATED: Stacey Abrams Demeans ‘Her Own Race,’ Says Perdue, Defending Black Farmers
Host Todd Starnes asked the former Peach State senator if he thought Pence was a RINO.
“Oh, absolutely. Oh, there’s no question,” Perdue said.
Listen to the full interview with David Perdue on the ToddCast Podcast below:
Below is the transcript of David Perdue’s interview on the Todd Starnes Show:
Starnes: [01:27:27] Senator Perdue is on the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker Line right now. Senator, we appreciate your taking time on the campaign trail. How are things going so far today? [01:27:36][9.4]
Perdue: [01:27:38] Well, I think we’ve got the potential for a monster day. I mean, after 19 days of early voting, contrary to what Stacey Abrams has said, that we are a voter suppression state, we have very liberal allowances for people to vote. 19 days of early voting is one of the highest in the country. We had a record turnout. 500,000 people have already voted prior to this morning, Republican and half of those that had not voted in the 2018 primary, which is really tremendously encouraging for our side. [01:28:07][29.6]
RELATED: It’s Trump versus Pence in Georgia, Says Pollster Matt Towery
Perdue: [01:28:08] Let me say something about Stacey Abrams. I mean, what these the left woke mob liberal press is doing is trying to cancel me because I’m speaking the truth down here in Georgia. There are no fascist overtones in that. That is absolutely ridiculous. My dad integrated one of the first school systems in Georgia. I have a fantastic record in race relations in my career. This is nothing but the left trying to cancel a candidate here who is threatening the status quo RINO Republican candidate in Brian Kemp. We see it when Pence came in last night. Donald Trump had well over almost 40,000 people on a tele-conference last night in a tele-rally. And he said basically, look, guys, if you’re as tired, as I am, of the radical left and if you’re as tired of I am of the RINO career politician on the Republican side lying to you and not listening to you, now’s the time to stand up, go out and vote. And that’s what we’re telling people today, continually. [01:29:05][57.1]
Starnes: [01:29:06] Senator, we had Matt Towery on the program yesterday going over some of his polling. He is thinking there’s going to be a runoff between you and Governor Kemp. But he said one of the challenges was you didn’t put out as much advertising as Governor Kemp. What was your strategy there? [01:29:24][17.7]
Perdue: [01:29:25] Well, it’s not a strategy. It’s a reality when you run against an incumbent governor with a line item veto. He has browbeat everybody in the state and we were totally locked out of raising much money in the state because of appointments and hirings and contracts and all that you can imagine. And oh, by the way, the big left dominated corporate entities in Georgia can contribute to political campaigns. And guess what? They’re all locked in with the incumbent governor. So we weren’t able to raise as much money in-state. And so we managed that and invested that money early to encourage early voting. So we went up on TV and got out there at the early stages of early voting. And it manifests itself it rewarded us with early voting turnout in record numbers. And so that’s carrying through today. What we’ve been doing the last two weeks is spending most of our money on on the ground efforts to get the vote out. And it’s actually paying huge dividends. I’m a business guy. If you’re going invest money, you’ve got to get a good return on it. And with all the noise that the governor has been putting out there, the lies about my background and so forth, people know better. They’ve heard the lies from the Democrats in 2014. They heard them in 2020. They’re not buying it now when the governor is pushing those same Democrat lies that they used in those two other races. So I’m very gratified by the turnout today. I think it bodes well for tonight. We’ll just have to wait and see. [01:30:42][76.7]
Starnes: [01:30:42] Senator, I I’m curious how you see this race, how you frame this race. Towery said yesterday that this is really a battle between Mike Pence and Donald Trump. Is that how you see what’s happening today in Georgia? [01:30:55][12.8]
Perdue: [01:30:56] Well, I think, you know, Matt Towery is one of the two or three best pollsters in the country, but it’s hard to pick this dynamic up. I’ve been talking about this since December when I got in this race. We have an election fraud dynamic here that really has a lot of people a nerve. And then you have the Trump overlay. I don’t for a minute think that in Georgia right now this governor’s race is solely about Pence versus Trump. That’s ridiculous. They’re two different levels. I mean, my goodness, Donald Trump executed the best economic turnaround in U.S. history. He made America first. He made the world safer. What he did is push back on NATO, made us energy independent, helped 6 and a half million people pull themselves out of poverty. Mike Pence was a radio guy that basically turned into a congressman and a governor and then was selected to be the vice president. Basically, he’s just at a different level. I was shocked that he came down here, but it’s just another example of where the RINO incumbents around the country from Governor Ducey in Arizona to Chris Christie in New Jersey. Now to Mike Pence who came down to the rally behind our own RINO in Brian Kemp. Let me mention one other thing. The Republican Governors Association put five and a half million dollars in this primary against me to protect an embattled, embittered and endangered incumbent in Brian Kemp. That shows you how desperate they are and they know they’re in trouble. The reality is, we’re sitting here today at 2:00 on Election Day, and our governor, who is an incumbent sitting Republican governor, is struggling to get to 50%. That alone tells the world that I was right in December by saying that he is dividing the party and he cannot beat Stacey in the fall. [01:32:33][96.2]
Starnes: [01:32:33] Do you believe that Mike Pence is a RINO? [01:32:35][1.8]
Perdue: [01:32:37] Oh, absolutely. Oh, there’s no question. Look, the thing about America First agenda is not about Donald Trump. He’s the one that originated. People get confused. It’s about the agenda. We cut taxes. We became energy independent. We saved our community banks. And, oh, by the way, he had a plan to get out of Afghanistan without the debacle that Biden has created. And, oh, by the way, we secured the southern border. We put sanctions on Putin. We calmed down Kim Jong Un. We got out of the Iran nuclear deal. President Trump made the world much safer. And yet in one year, Brian, Brian Kemp has allowed Joe Biden and the radical side of the Democratic Party to undo much of the gains that we had made during the Trump administration. [01:33:22][45.2]
Starnes: [01:33:23] On the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker Line Senator David Perdue running for governor today in the Republican primary. Senator, I want you to. We get this question a lot, and most of it is from out of state, out of state listeners. And they go back to the Senate race that you lost and they say, why didn’t you fight harder? Why did you push back more after that contested race? [01:33:48][25.1]
Perdue: [01:33:50] Well, let’s talk about what the reality is. First of all, in May of 2020, when our governor allowed the consent decree to go through, I argued about that. I asked for a special session to reverse that. That’s against the law here in Georgia. When the governor allowed for seven and a half million absentee ballots to be mailed out, he allowed for drop boxes and he allowed for Zuckerberg to put $55 million. I argued against all of that. And then after the November election, when I did win by 90,000 votes, two points better than Democrat in every other state, but one thought I would have been reelected on its own merit. But in Georgia, we have the 50% rule, and the Democrats kept producing ballots three days after the election that pulled us just a few thousand votes below the 50% level. And then at that point in November, I filed three lawsuits several times officially for a special session. The governor denied it, even asked for the resignation of Brad Raffensperger. I didn’t stop there. I then helped a group of voters file a lawsuit against Fulton County. In that case in May of 21, the judge actually ruled that fraud happened. He ruled that the evidence of fraud was compelling, and he ruled to unseal the ballots in Fulton County. Then when that didn’t work, he dismissed that case because he said voters didn’t have standing, I filed my own case against Fulton County. And we now have been dismissed because they said I don’t have legal standing. I’m appealing that. I continue to fight it. And now I’ve stood up and run for governor to try to clean up this election mess. So I’d like for somebody to tell me what else we can do, honestly. [01:35:19][88.9]
Starnes: [01:35:19] Senator, I think you just delivered a home run answer right there. We are up against a hard break. We want to thank you for coming on the show. A lot of Georgia listeners, and I think you did a great job making your point for their vote today. Senator, good luck tonight. [01:35:34][14.6]
Perdue: [01:35:35] Hey, thanks, Todd. [01:35:35][0.5]