Stacey Abrams continues to claim she never denied legitimacy of Georgia's 2018 elections

Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams this week suggested during a media interview that she has never denied the legitimacy of the 2018 governor's race she lost, a claim belied by several years of rhetoric from the Democratic candidate. 

Since losing the 2018 race, Abrams has repeatedly argued or implied that the outcome was unfair, that Gov. Brian Kemp is an illegitimate governor, and that she in fact won the race that year.

Asked by CNN's Erin Burnett this week if there were "any scenario under which you would concede that you lost, publicly, in 2018," Abrams responded that in 2018 she "acknowledged that I am not the governor, that Brian Kemp won the election."

"What I said is that the process denied access to too many voters," she argued further, claiming that "I have never denied the outcome. I have always questioned the process and the access."

Abrams, who is once again squaring off against Kemp in the gubernatorial race in Georgia, has in recent weeks been fighting off criticism over her conspiracy theories regarding the 2018 election. As with this week, she has repeatedly insisted that she never denied the election results.

Her claims to that effect were fact-checked by the Washington Post last week, which found that Abrams "played up claims the election was stolen" until relatively recently. 

The Post noted that, in the months and years following the election, Abrams refused to describe Kemp as a legitimate governor and claimed that the race was "not a free and fair election," that Kemp's team "cheated" during the election, and that she herself "did win my election, I just didn’t get to have the job."

As late as 2021, Abrams was still arguing that the 2018 election was "stolen."