-Our first guest tonight was the 2018 Democratic nominee
for governor of Georgia
and is the founder of the voting rights organization Fair Fight.
Please welcome back to the show our friend Stacey Abrams.
How are you, Stacey?
-I am doing quite well, thank you very much.
-I'm worried about your wellbeing because, obviously,
this seems like an endless presidential campaign
in which you are in Georgia working very hard
for voter turnout, which obviously is very successful.
But then in Georgia, of course,
it started up again with these two run-offs.
How are your energy levels right now?
-I am so looking forward to January 6th and taking a nap,
but until we get there, there's no sleep till Brooklyn.
We're on it. -A lot of people have credited
you with the voter turnout that helped flip Georgia.
And on Monday, you actually got to preside over
the electoral college and basically giving out
those votes. What was that like?
-It was thrilling. It was fantastic.
It was a little sweeter when I learned that there was
that alternate reality elector cabal happening right below us,
and it felt good.
It felt really good in a small, petty, and yet really patriotic,
"happy for our nation" way.
-I think it's very possible to be on the largest part
patriotic and then allowing yourself some small pettiness,
as well. I think we're only human.
You appeared at a drive-in rally this week
with President Elect Joe Biden
as well as Reverend Warnock and John Ossoff.
How was that?
How was the sort of drive-in rally treating you?
-It was good.
Look, in COVID reality, the honks,
they stand in very sub-adequately
for clapping and applause.
And there was occasionally this stray honk that you hope
was a punctuation of something smart you said
and not somebody accidentally leaning their elbow
on the steering wheel.
But we saw a lot of enthusiasm for John Ossoff,
Raphael Warnock, and of course the surge of applause
when President Elect Joe Biden came on stage.
People are ready for 2021.
We're ready for him to have a good team in the Senate
that's willing to work with him and get things done.
And we saw that happen yesterday,
and we believe we're gonna get it done in January.
-It was obviously a big win in Georgia,
but it was also a very close win.
There have been multiple recounts.
How do you build on the momentum
of what you accomplished in 2020?
-Sadly, people know what's at stake
because our current senators are arguing
over baseball names instead of fighting Mitch McConnell
to ensure that we get COVID relief packages.
They are making money and profit off of trades
instead of saving the small businesses
that are shutting down.
And we have crossed the threshold
of more than 10,000 people who've perished in Georgia
from COVID-19, and they are still planning to eliminate
access to health care.
We don't need anyone else on the ballot
except for the two of them to keep the energy up
because Georgians understand that the only way to make
what we've tried to do in 2020 work is to make certain
that Joe Biden has a balanced Senate
with two US senators from Georgia who are willing
to work with him to get good done.
-It does seem like Donald Trump's reaction to the election
has put senators Loeffler and Perdue in a tricky situation.
They're both supporting the president's
many legal claims about the outcome of the election,
but they also have to get voters
to believe in the electoral system
and turn out for them in this runoff.
Has it been interesting watching them
sort of do the acrobatics this requires?
-It's not just the acrobatics,
it's the appropriation of Donald Trump's ability
to lie without unity, to distract from their
inability to actually deliver, and, yes, they argue
that people should vote in a system that they don't trust,
and that they should do it now,
but not because it's actually going to work.
We have a very simple message.
We want to save America. Please vote.
And that has worked, I think, very well.
We sent people to GASenate.com
to help when Georgia.com, we're getting thousand of people
who want to help. And more importantly,
here in Georgia, we're seeing extraordinary turnout.
We've had two days of record turnout for early voting,
and we expect a third on Wednesday.
-There's been no shortage of surreal moments
in this election cycle, but one that's been added
to the list is at a recent debate
with John Ossoff and Senator Perdue.
Senator Perdue decided not to show up.
And then in a real passive- aggressive move that I applaud,
They still had a podium for him.
How do you think the podium did?
-I think the podium acquitted itself very well.
It had about the same amount to say about the future of Georgia
as the candidate himself would have.
David has made a career out of not showing up.
He has not held a single public town hall
in six years in the state of Georgia.
In fact, you have to contribute to his campaign
in order to get an audience with him.
If you are an average Joe,
I'm not sure how your supposed to meet with him.
to reflect on his successes.
And we need John Ossoff put in his place,
because you saw an animated and present possible US Senator.
-We've talked about this before on the show.
You never were a believer in the messaging
that it was really important to flip Donald Trump voters.
You believed it is far more important
to focus on non-voters and infrequent voters.
What is it that you think that President Elect Biden
has to do over the course of these next four years,
even in the course of the next two years
until the midterms, to bring out more of that voting block?
-I think the first thing, and I mean this very sincerely --
showing that he's concerned about everyone.
I am clearly a Democrat.
I believe in the values espoused by my party.
But I trust what he says, and I adhere to what he says,
which is that he may have been elected as a Democrat,
but he intends to be the president of everyone.
And when you have a US president who returns us
to those norms where he doesn't speak in terms of base
and siphoning off certain communities
as being enemies of our people, but instead talks about
how we together can defeat COVID,
how we, together, can recover our economy,
how we, together, can pursue racial justice.
That kind of language brings people in.
They may be reluctant, they may suspicious,
but at least they'll believe that they have a place,
and they're willing to have the conversation.
-The president has attacked
both your Republican secretary of state.
He's attacked Governor Kemp,
who you lost your race to in 2018,
and one of the things that I think is really scary
now is the reaction to this is that we will see more blocks
putting in place to have people vote.
Are you worried that, ultimately,
the Republican Party, it seems that when you listen
to Kemp and the secretary of state,
it seems like they're saying, "Look, we're gonna put in
more safeguards," and of course,
when you talk about the safeguards
they're talking about, it seems like it will lead
to less Georgians being able to vote.
-They're going to restore, if they have their way,
they're going to try to restore in Georgia
and around the country in Pennsylvania, in Wisconsin,
in Michigan, every place where we were able
to mitigate voter suppression.
When you hear the word "safeguard,"
what you should hear is "We're gonna stop those people
from voting again."
What we accomplished in 2020 across the country
through Fair Fight's work and the work of so many others
including Marc Elias and the leadership conference
and the NAACP legal defense fund, the NAACP itself,
the lawyers committee, it was a collective effort
to create access to the right to vote.
The problem for the Republicans is that when people vote,
when they have the right to vote, Republicans start to lose.
Newt Gingrich said it himself about Georgia.
If people can actually mail in their ballots and return them,
Republicans can't win.
Their fear is not that there is an assault on our elections,
their fear is that people are actually participating
and making smart choices.
I don't think any party should be guaranteed a victory,
but every American should be able to vote if your eligible,
and that's what they're afraid of, and starting in January,
here in Georgia led by Governor Kemp
and Brad Raffensperger, but across the country,
there will be marked and naked attempts
to pull back the right to vote
because when they control the power,
they control it best by silencing the people.
-I think now is an important time for all of us to work
really hard, but also to provide some self-care.
We talked in the past.
You enjoy to read a book, you enjoy to write a good book.
You enjoy television. Are there any shows right now
that Stacey Abrams is watching
that you want to give a shout-out to?
-So, love "The Queen's Gambit." That was fantastic.
And I have been saving up
my episodes of "Star Trek: Discovery."
That's what I get to do over Christmas break,
the, I think 28 hours my team is gonna give me to rest
over the holiday, that's what I'm gonna be binge watching,
getting it done.
And, of course, watching every episode
of "The Seth Meyers Show" that I've missed
during this campaign. -Thank you very much.
I was fishing for that, and I'm glad I got you on the line.
It is always a delight to see you.
Best of luck, and hopefully next time in person.
Look forward to it. Have a wonderful holiday.