Following a brutal GOP gubernatorial debate Monday, billionaire Rick Jackson is facing questions and scrutiny of his disastrous debate performance, which comes after months of dodging events.
The AJC reported Tuesday that “Jackson struggled through parts of the hourlong showdown, facing attacks not only from Jones but from other rivals eager to puncture his outsider image.” Fox News also reported on Jackson’s stumbles throughout the debate Wednesday.
The AJC’s Patricia Murphy said this morning that Jackson’s response to a question posed by Jones about his hiring practices was “[o]ne of the truly bad answers in recent debate history” that will come back “to haunt Rick Jackson in Georgia.”
And here’s what was said on the AJC’s ‘Politically Georgia’ podcast Wednesday morning about Jackson’s performance:
- Greg Bluestein: “Rick Jackson really stumble[d] several times in the debate.”
- Patricia Murphy: “Rick Jackson in particular, I felt like all of his money has kept the door open for him for this race. […] He needs to start closing the door as we get closer to our primary day, and this debate performance, I feel like it did not do that.”
- Patricia Murphy: “The way [Jackson] answered that shows a larger underlying issue […] that he did not seem prepared for that question and did not have an answer for it.”
- Patricia Murphy: “Jackson I think just didn’t meet the bar he needed to, because he’s making a first impression for so many voters, and he was stumbling over things, including even his closing statement.”
This debate was a mess for the GOP, and the AJC reported that Trump-endorsed Jones “also didn’t escape unscathed.” Throughout the course of the debate, Jones “faced sharp accusations of his own” including allegations that he is “demanding six-figure donations from lawmakers and using his influence to scuttle legislation from anyone who backed his rivals.” Carr went as far to say that “if he weren’t running against Jones, he would likely launch a state investigation.”
###