Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms Friday accused Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp of overstepping his authority with his lawsuit against her and the Atlanta City Council over the city's mask law.
The Democrat mayor also told NBC's "Today" that Kemp filed his lawsuit just one day after she'd said President Donald Trump broke the law by not wearing a mask during his visit to her city.
Atlanta's order came after one in Savannah on July 1 and in Kemp's hometown of Athens on July 8, Bottoms pointed out, "then when Atlanta instituted a mask order — and I did it via executive order — he filed a lawsuit," Bottoms said. “I don't think its happenstance that this lawsuit came the day after Donald Trump visited Atlanta and I pointed out that he was violating city law by not having on a mask at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.”
Kemp filed his lawsuit Thursday and said Bottoms was the one who exceeded her authority, and that he was seeking a legal finding "on the behalf of the Atlanta business owners and their employees who are struggling to survive."
Despite the lawsuit, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said Georgia "continues to urge citizens to wear masks. This lawsuit is about the rule of law."
“This filing of a lawsuit is simply bizarre, quite frankly,” Bottoms, a Democrat, said Friday, adding that Kemp also is taking "exception with some advisory business reopening recommendations that were made by the city” and is “suing us personally — myself and the city council — because of the advisory recommendations.”
Bottoms, her husband, and one of their children are quarantined at home after recently testing positive for the disease. More than 3,000 people have died from the disease in Georgia and more than 100,000 people have tested positive.
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