“We’ve had some negative reactions from outside Brantley County.”
Brantley County Republican Party leader Ronald Ham has received feedback after CNN visited and broadcast the report of Elle Reeve across the world.
“It is what it is,” said Ham during this interview Monday. “We had a good time and gave our best answers. They (CNN crew) talked to a lot of people.”
Ham said CNN reached out to him after seeing Brantley County was a (Donald) Trump supporter with more than 90 percent of the county voting for former president in the 2020 election.
“We had the highest percentage of Trump support of any of the swing states,” said Ham. “After reaching out to me on Facebook, I was a little hesitant. I did some research on the reporter, the best I could, and agreed to meet.”
Ham and Reeve met at the Farmers Market in Nahunta. Reeve then visited several other places while compiling her story.
Reeve was invited to meet an independent and of the few Democrats in the county the next morning over breakfast at the Gold House.
“I ain’t going to vote for a criminal,” said Corbet Wilson, an independent. “People would kill for him, I think. I don’t understand it. I don’t even try.”
He said the January 6, 2021 insurrection should have been a disqualifier, and his friend Donald Lewis agreed.
“He’s anti-American,” Lewis said. “He’s trying to overthrow our government.”
Trump supporters are not impressed by Kamala Harris’ proposals for improving the economy, especially her plan to change the tax code so wealthier people would pay more to go toward education and health care, and they were suspicious of the big jobs report last month.
“Government numbers,” said Bill Middleton, a retired union boilermaker.
David Herrin said he didn’t believe President Joe Biden or anyone in his administration deserves credit for the improved economy.
“You can’t take that and give credit to Washington, D.C.,” said Herrin. “You give credit for that to the American people who go to work every day, even when they’re down, even when it’s against them, even when it’s going uphill.
“We get up and we continue to work, we continue to fight, and we’ve made this country better. Ain’t nobody in Washington got a right to take credit for what the American people have done.”
“They can vote any way they want to vote,” Wilson said, and Herrin chimed in: “And we’ll still eat breakfast again.”
Ham said Trump is genuine in what he says.
“He made promises and kept those promises,” said Ham. “He has a long list of items that have checkmarks beside them. While he was in office gas was cheaper, food was cheaper and we had more money at the end of the month instead of more month at the end of the money.
“There’s not a lot of respect for us across the globe. We’re allowing aliens to come across the border and lives are being lost. We had a grandmother and granddaughter lose their lives to a drunk alien.”
