Gov. Brian Kemp, Stacey Abrams exchange words on AMC closure, healthcare at town hall

ATLANTA — Georgia governor’s race is heating up.

On Tuesday night, a back-and war of words between Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp ensued at a special town hall at Clark Atlanta University. The town hall aimed to get young black voters to the polls.

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“Under Brian Kemp, we have lost over six hospitals — six under one governor,” Abrams said.

Atlanta Medical Center is next on that list come Nov. 1.

Kemp fired back, saying everyone was blindsided by the decision and his plan to pump $130 million into Grady will help.

“We are funding the capital expansion of Grady to help the needs of the metro Atlanta community to deal with the closure of AMC and I’m very confident that they can do,” Kemp responded.

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Kemp says Abrams’ plan to expand Georgia’s Medicaid program is not the answer.

“If that was the silver bullet, it’s certainly not the problem. This is a broken government program. What Stacey Abrams is not telling you is that she’s going to have to raise your taxes for all of her plans,” Kemp said.

However, Abrams disagrees.

“If we expand Medicaid, thousands of those patients would have insurance. They wouldn’t have to go to WellStar every day before their diabetes won’t turn into an amputation,” she said.

The KISS 104.1 and Black Radio United for the Vote town hall was held on the campus of Clark Atlanta University.

KISS 104.1 host Frank Ski served as a moderator during the town hall.

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Jamie Beasley is a political science student at Clark Atlanta. She says hearing both sides is necessary, no matter who you vote for.

“We need more explanation and more education about structure and function of government. And I think they did a good job of that tonight,” Beasley said.

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