Anti-Trump former Georgia official on getting kicked out of state GOP: 'What took them so long?'

Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan (R), among the party's highest-profile critics of President-elect Trump, responded to getting kicked out of the Georgia Republican Party on Thursday by asking what took so long.

“I mean, my first thoughts that came across my mind were what took them so long? There’s been a growing divide between myself and the Georgia Republican Party for years,” Duncan said during his Thursday appearance on “CNN This Morning.” 

“There’s been a growing divide amongst many Republicans in Georgia when the party started focusing 110 percent of their efforts on trying to defend a rigged 2020 election — in their words, not mine — and committing 100 percent of their financial resources, or a majority of their financial resources, to defending folks that were indicted for felony counts,” Duncan, a CNN contributor, told anchor Kasie Hunt. 

“And then the additional issues that continued to parlay from that point,” he added. 

Georgia GOP’s State Executive Committee announced Tuesday it had booted Duncan, who backed Vice President Harris during her unsuccessful 2024 presidential bid. 

Duncan received backlash after siding with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) over Trump during the certification of the state’s general election vote in 2020, when President Biden narrowly won the Peach State.

But unlike other Georgia Republicans who pushed back on Trump's election denial, Duncan has continued to publicly criticize the president-elect.

The anti-Trump Republican spoke during the 2024 Democratic National Convention in August, urging his party to “dump Trump” and arguing that by voting for Harris, independents and other Republicans were being “patriots.” 

On Thursday, he said the state party’s decision was another “badge of honor.” 

“And quite honestly, badges of honor come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, and this is one of those where I don’t want to be associated with a group that thinks that the best direction forward is chaos and confusion,” he said.