Stay ConnectedJoin us for the most relevant news and analysis that define the world of politics. From the Gold Dome to the White House, we’ve got you covered. Hosted by Georgia’s best political team: The AJC’s Greg Bluestein, Tia Mitchell and Patricia Murphy.
Call in with your questions on the Politically Georgia Podcast Hotline at (770)-810-5297, and our hosts will answer them on future episodes. Learn more on the AJC Politically Georgia Podcast page.
Copyright: © 2021 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. All Rights Reserved.
First up on "Politically Georgia": We’ll dive deeper into Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign with South Carolina-based Associated Press reporter Meg Kinnard.
Plus, Republican lawmakers made U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath’s reelection to the House more difficult. But what if they've actually made her a stronger candidate down the road?
Then, a federal jury will soon consider how much Rudy Giuliani should pay for spreading pernicious lies about the 2020 presidential election.
And it’s Friday, so we’ll dip into the listener mailbag to answer your questions and share who we think is up and down this week.
Have a question for the show? Call the 24-hour Politically Georgia Podcast Hotline at 404-526-AJCP. That's 404-526-2527. We’ll play back your question and answer it during the Listener Mailbag segment on next Friday’s episode.
Links to today's topics:
Nikki Haley wins backing from powerful Koch network as she aims to take on Trump
Ruby vs. Rudy: Giuliani faces Fulton defamation trial next week
OPINION: What if Republicans just helped McBath by targeting her again?
Subscribe to the AJC: If you aren’t a subscriber to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, click here to get unlimited digital access to the AJC.
Listen and subscribe to our podcast for free at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also tell your smart speaker to “play Politically Georgia podcast.”
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
First up: A look at an Atlanta Journal-Constitution exclusive: Tamar Hallerman joins the podcast to discuss the list of potential witnesses Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis may call in the election conspiracy case against Donald Trump. Former members of the Trump administration on the list obtained by the AJC include Vice President Mike Pence and Attorney General Bill Barr, plus state GOP leaders including Gov. Brian Kemp, Attorney General Chris Carr and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
Then: Cobb County Commissioner Jerica Richardson joins the podcast to discuss her plan to run for the U.S. House. Richardson declared her intentions to run for the 6th District seat long before the Legislature drew the new congressional map, which, if approved by the court, may make it difficult for a Democrat to win the district. She answers a key question about whether she’d shift her focus and run in a district already held by a Democratic incumbent.
Plus: Greg, Patricia and Bill share their observations about the GOP presidential debate in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Links to today's topics:
Former Top Trump aides, AJC exclusive: Georgia GOP leaders on Willis' witness list
Jerica Richardson announces run for Congress
Greg Bluestein on GOP Alabama debate
Have a question for the show? Call the 24-hour Politically Georgia Podcast Hotline at 404-526-AJCP. That's 404-526-2527. We’ll play back your question and answer it during the Listener Mailbag segment on next Friday’s episode.
Subscribe to the AJC: If you aren’t a subscriber to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, click here to get unlimited digital access to the AJC.
Listen and subscribe to our podcast for free at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also tell your smart speaker to “play Politically Georgia podcast.”
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
First up: A brief look at a breaking story:
Dissension controls to roil GOP members of the U.S. House continues as Marjorie Taylor Greene accuses her Georgia colleague Rich McCormick of a “physically aggressive” confrontation with her. Greene has reported the incident to the Speaker of the House, who will investigate. McCormick says he touched Greene on the shoulders as a friendly gesture but apologized in any case.
Then: An overview of the issues continuing to embroil Georgia’s redistricting session in controversy. How can the creation of two new majority Black senate districts actually decrease Black voting power? Are the maps drawn by the GOP-controlled legislature likely to create a legal path that could end up in the U.S. Supreme Court? And could one of the only remaining planks in the Voting Rights Act be at stake? UGA Professor Charles Bullock and Bobby Kahn, who was chief of staff to Governor Roy Barnes in 2001, for the last redistricting to be under the control of a Democratic majority in the house, senate and governor’s office address questions about the new maps.
Plus: A preview of tonight’s GOP presidential debate in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Four candidates – Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie and Vivek Ramaswamy will be on the stage. AJC Politically Georgia co-host Greg Bluestein is in Tuscaloosa and will join the podcast tomorrow with a report.
Links to today's topics:
Will tonight's GOP debate change the 2024 race?
Physical contact continues to enflame tensions between Rick McCormick and Marjorie Taylor Greene
Have a question for the show? Call the 24-hour Politically Georgia Podcast Hotline at 404-526-AJCP. That's 404-526-2527. We’ll play back your question and answer it during the Listener Mailbag segment on next Friday’s episode.
Subscribe to the AJC: If you aren’t a subscriber to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, click here to get unlimited digital access to the AJC.
Listen and subscribe to our podcast for free at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also tell your smart speaker to “play Politically Georgia podcast.”
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
First up: Jake Orvis, senior advisor to Congresswoman Lucy McBath talks about the complications that could emerge from the new congressional map drawn by GOP legislators under a federal court mandate to create a second Black majority congressional district. Orvis believes that since the new map doesn’t actually create a second majority-minority district, it may be rejected by the federal court. But he also acknowledges that if the map stands it could force Congresswoman McBath to decide to move to a new district to run for re-election. Hand he agrees that in a new district, McBath could have to compete against many other minority candidates seeking a seat in the U.S. House.
Then: AJC Atlanta city hall reporter Riley Bunch shares updates on the controversial Atlanta police and fire training center. Bunch reports that the city has already spent $1.3 million on lawyers representing the city in lawsuits over the center as well as for consultants offering insights about process of dealing with petitions collected in opposition to construction of the center.
Plus: Republican legislators hold Democrats’ feet to the fire in a vote on condemning the “evil” attacks by Hamas on Israelis.
Georgia House votes to condemn "evil" Hamas attacks, putting Dems on the spot
And, a preview of tomorrow night’s GOP presidential debate in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Links to today's topics:
New congressional map maintains GOP power and may defy court order
Georgia House votes to condemn "evil" Hamas attacks, putting Dems on the spot
Have a question for the show? Call the 24-hour Politically Georgia Podcast Hotline at 404-526-AJCP. That's 404-526-2527. We’ll play back your question and answer it during the Listener Mailbag segment on next Friday’s episode.
Subscribe to the AJC: If you aren’t a subscriber to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, click here to get unlimited digital access to the AJC.
Listen and subscribe to our podcast for free at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also tell your smart speaker to “play Politically Georgia podcast.”
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On today's epsiode of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Politically Georgia podcast,AJC Washington reporter Tia Mitchell describes why Georgia Rep. Nikema Williams became one of only two Democrats in the U.S. House to vote against expelling Rep. George Santos. And discusses the reasons five members of the GOP Georgia delegation voted to keep Santos in office.
We'll also explain how the new Georgia congressional map drawn by Republican legislators seems to defy federal Judge Steve Jones' order that they create an additional Black majority congressional district. The map threatens the tenure of Democrat Lucy McBath and could force other Democratic incumbents to run in different districts than those in which they now serve.
Plus, The lawyer representing Donald Trump in the Fulton County election conspiracy criminal case makes his first appearance in court. Steve Sadow argues that the proposed August start date for trial is “election interference,” since Trump is likely to be running for the White House at that point in time. He also asserts that Trump had a Constitutionally-protected right of free speech to claim the 2020 election was fraudulent.
Links to today's topics:
How Georgia Reps voted on George Santos expulsion...and why
New congressional map maintains GOP power and may defy court order
Trump. lawyer argues Fulton County trial dates would be "election interference"
Have a question for the show? Call the 24-hour Politically Georgia Podcast Hotline at 404-526-AJCP. That's 404-526-2527. We’ll play back your question and answer it during the Listener Mailbag segment on next Friday’s episode.
Subscribe to the AJC: If you aren’t a subscriber to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, click here to get unlimited digital access to the AJC.
Listen and subscribe to our podcast for free at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also tell your smart speaker to “play Politically Georgia podcast.”
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Republicans are moving at a rapid pace to finalize new legislative districts. Democrats say GOP lawmakers are using “smoke and mirrors” to create a false impression they are complying with a federal judge’s order.
Meanwhile, we’re waiting to see how Republicans have drawn a congressional map to meet the judge’s order to create one additional majority-minority U.S. House district.
Then, Govs. Gavin Newsom and Ron DeSantis clashed on Fox News in Alpharetta last night in a most unusual debate.
Plus, an update from Washington D.C. as Marjorie Taylor Greene returns to her outsider tactics. And embattled Rep. George Santos is expelled from Congress minutes after the show goes off-air.
And, we answer your questions from our listener mailbag, which you can call anytime with your question. The number for the 24-hour Politically Georgia podcast hotline is (404)526-AJCP . The team also shares our picks for ‘who’s up and who’s down’ this week.
Links to today’s topics:
Capitol Recap: Georgia redistricting may not give Dems the gains some expected
DeSantis and Newsom clash in messy ‘red vs. blue’ Georgia debate
Marjorie Taylor Greene returns to outsider roots
House expels New York Rep. George Santos. It's just the sixth expulsion in the chamber's history
Subscribe to the AJC: If you aren’t a subscriber to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, click here to get unlimited digital access to the AJC.
Listen and subscribe to our podcast for free at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also tell your smart speaker to “play Politically Georgia podcast.”
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
With the redistricting session ordered by a federal judge now under way at the state capitol, Politically Georgia hosts Patricia Murphy, Greg Bluestein and Bill Nigut welcome John Porter, a top aide to former Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan to the podcast. Porter offers an inside look at the pressures that weigh on legislative leaders as they draw new maps, rewarding some incumbents, and punishing others. Porter was deeply involved in drawing the maps that came in the aftermath of the 2020 census, and which federal judge Steve Jones ordered be redrawn to give Black voters fairer representation.
You'll also hear are wrap up of the emotional three-day celebration of the life of Rosalynn Carter, who was laid to rest in the family burial ground in Plains yesterday.
Plus, we'll give you a look at the state senate’s passage of a resolution offering unqualified support for Israel in the war against Hamas and a preview of tonight’s unusual debate between GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis and California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom.
Links to today's topics:
Lawmakers begin fight over redrawing Georgia legislative maps
State senate map rewards Republicans but creates 2 majority Black districts
A look at new state house maps
Rosalynn Carter's journey comes to and end in her beloved Plains
‘Red vs. Blue’: Why DeSantis and Newsom are facing off in Alpharetta
Have a question for the show? Call the 24-hour Politically Georgia Podcast Hotline at 404-526-AJCP. That's 404-526-2527. We’ll play back your question and answer it during the Listener Mailbag segment on next Friday’s episode.
Subscribe to the AJC: If you aren’t a subscriber to The
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, click here to get unlimited digital access to the AJC.
Listen and subscribe to our podcast for free at Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also tell your smart speaker to “play Politically Georgia podcast.”
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this episode of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Politically Georgia podcast, hosts Bill Nigut, and Tia Mitchell discuss the moving service for Rosalynn Carter at Glenn Memorial Church in Atlanta. Former state representative Calvin Smyre joins the podcast to reflect on his early memories of meeting Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter in the years leading up to the 1976 presidential campaign.
Then: Republican insider Brian Robinson and Georgia State University professor of law Anthony Michael Kreis talk about the new political maps being drawn by the state legislature as lawmakers work to comply with a federal order to give Black voters fairer representation in state elections.
Plus: A look at the strategy Donald Trump defense attorney Steve Sadow plans to use when the Fulton County election conspiracy case begins: it’s all about free speech, Sadow says.
Links to today's topics:
Glenn Memorial service: Jimmy Carter's 75-year-old love letter to Rosalynn
Redrawn GOP house maps target rising Democrats
Senate map creates 2 Black districts but targets Democrats
Trump attorney plans First Amendment defense
Have a question for the show? Call the 24-hour Politically Georgia Podcast Hotline at 404-526-AJCP. That's 404-526-2527. We’ll play back your question and answer it during the Listener Mailbag segment on next Friday’s episode.
Subscribe to the AJC: If you aren’t a subscriber to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, click here to get unlimited digital access to the AJC.
Listen and subscribe to our podcast for free at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also tell your smart speaker to “play
Politically Georgia podcast.”
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this episode of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Politically Georgia podcast, hosts Greg Bluestein, Bill Nigut, and Tia Mitchell discuss the upcoming special redistricting session. Former Congressman John Barrow provides insights on the proposed maps. During his tenure, Barrow moved from Athens to Savannah, and then to Augusta as his districts were redrawn.
Then, former President Jimmy Carter will attend his wife’s Rosalynn Carter’s memorial service at Emory University in Atlanta this afternoon. This marks his first trip out of Plains since going into home hospice earlier this year. The AJC's Martha Dalton also updates us from Sumter County as tributes pour in for the former first lady. Dalton tells us how Gen Z is remembering Carter at her alma mater Georgia Southwestern State University.
Plus, host Tia Mitchell explains why U.S. Rep Buddy Carter is the latest member of Georgia’s congressional delegation to endorse Donald Trump.
Links to today's topics:
New Georgia Senate map targets Democrats and protects Republicans
Rosalynn Carter’s influence is deeply felt at her college alma mater
Georgia U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter endorses Donald Trump for president
Have a question for the show? Call the 24-hour Politically Georgia Podcast Hotline at 404-526-AJCP. That's 404-526-2527. We’ll play back your question and answer it during the Listener Mailbag segment on next Friday’s episode.
Subscribe to the AJC: If you aren’t a subscriber to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, click here to get unlimited digital access to the AJC.
Listen and subscribe to our podcast for free at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also tell your smart speaker to “play
Politically Georgia podcast.”
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this episode of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Politically Georgia podcast, Bill Nigut and Patricia Murphy preview three days of services and memorial tributes to Rosalynn Carter. Two veteran Georgia Journalists talk about their memories of covering Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter, from their days in the governor’s mansion to the White House and to the post-presidency work at the Carter Center. John Pruitt, former WSB-TV reporter and anchor, and Charlie Hayslett, former Atlanta Journal Washington correspondent, join the podcast.
Then Eric Tanenblatt, national fundraising chair for GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley talks to the hosts about her rise in the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire and describes how he believes she can wrestle the nomination away from Donald Trump or other Republican candidates.
Plus, Murphy and Nigut look at the recent Georgia Supreme Court ruling which blocks the new GOP-backed state law that created a commission to punish so-called rogue district attorneys.
Links to today's topics:
Live updates of Rosalynn Carter tributes
Is Nikki Haley's momentum sustainable?
Have a question for the show? Call the 24-hour Politically Georgia Podcast Hotline at 404-526-AJCP. That's 404-526-2527. We’ll play back your question and answer it during the Listener Mailbag segment on next Friday’s episode.
Subscribe to the AJC: If you aren’t a subscriber to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, click here to get unlimited digital access to the AJC.
Listen and subscribe to our podcast for free at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also tell your smart speaker to “play Politically Georgia podcast.”
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
