Stacey Abrams rages against GOP rival Kemp as polls show her falling behind in governor's race

Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams railed against her Republican rival, Gov. Brian Kemp, likening him to former President Donald Trump.

Abrams made the remarks on the "On With Kara Swisher" podcast, per Fox News. "He's getting this cloak of mainstream niceties, when he is as vicious and as callous and as aggressively opposed to our freedoms than every iteration of Donald Trump. In fact, he was Trump before Trump was," she said.

"He's emblematic of the Trumpist, MAGA themes," she said. "He has done everything that Donald Trump wanted. The only thing he didn't do was commit treason but neither did any other governor." Abrams' reference to "treason" reflects her view of former President Donald Trump's efforts to contest the results of the 2020 presidential election, which Kemp did not endorse.

Kemp previously defeated Abrams in his initial 2018 gubernatorial bid. Prior to that, he served as Georgia's secretary of state. The pair's rivalry has long been particularly brutal, given the close final tally in 2018 and Abrams' refusal to concede. In the aftermath, Abrams became a vocal proponent of claims that Kemp, in his capacity as secretary of state, had engaged in voter suppression to win the race.

The Georgia Democrat was dismissive of Trump's own claims of voter fraud in the state and refused to credit Kemp for not going along with them. "No, he did his job," Abrams said, per Fox. "When people ask that question, my follow-up question is 'what was the alternative?' The alternative was committing treason. This was not an act of courage. He simply refused to commit treason."

Her comments come as Kemp appears to be widening his lead on his two-time opponent, with a recent Trafalgar Group poll showing the Republican with a 9-point lead.