Senator Ossoff Calls Out Trump’s Attack on America

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Speaker 1 Terms apply. I'm joined by Georgia Senator John Ossoff.
Senator, welcome to the Midas Touch podcast.

Speaker 1 Hey, people seemed pretty fired up at your first kickoff speech of the 2026 campaign season in Atlanta. What were you seeing out there? What's the reaction of the people right now?

Speaker 2 It was a great event, and we did not even do that much promotion. We had thousands of people come out.

Speaker 2 It just speaks to the energy that there is in opposition to this attack on the rule of law and our Constitution.

Speaker 2 And it was an opportunity for not just Democrats, but folks across the spectrum in Georgia to speak out together against what this administration is doing to our country.

Speaker 1 Look, Georgia turned red this 2024 election. They voted for Trump this time around.

Speaker 1 What are you hearing, though, from the people? Are you hearing that there's regret? Are people pissed off? Or what's going on?

Speaker 2 That's actually one of the reasons I think it's so important to go right at him.

Speaker 2 First of all, we have this spiral toward strongman rule and authoritarianism in the United States.

Speaker 2 In his first few months, he's purged the government of independent watchdogs, filled the most powerful offices with personal loyalists. He's commanded them to go after his opponents.

Speaker 2 We're seeing the use of fear and intimidation against the political opposition, unlike anything, I think, in our republic's history. And he's so consumed by

Speaker 2 his efforts to secure revenge and to crush his enemies and, you know, conquering Greenland that he's doing nothing for the people who elected him.

Speaker 2 His entire domestic agenda is tax breaks for the wealthy, rounding up immigrants, revenge, and

Speaker 2 centralizing as much power as he can in the presidency.

Speaker 1 And what are people saying about this hostile government takeover by Elon Musk, this unelected billionaire and doge coming in with a wrecking ball, dismantling the federal government, attacking veterans, taking people's private data, social security data, medical records, and saying, trust me, bro.

Speaker 1 We're billionaires. We ain't going to do anything bad with them.
We just want to look at them. What are people saying in Georgia?

Speaker 2 It's incredibly unpopular. I think that there's even a significant amount of the MAGA movement that hates what Elon Musk has been empowered to do.

Speaker 2 You know, you got the richest man in the world who spent $300 million to elect this president, being given the keys to the kingdom, unfettered access to sensitive personal information of Americans, and the incompetence of firing tens of thousands of people and then realizing that they fired the folks who protect the nuclear weapons and they fired the folks who protect us from Ebola and they fired the folks who manned the Veterans Crisis hotline and they're scrambling to rehire them.

Speaker 2 So it's this combination of corruption, of incompetence,

Speaker 2 and elitism, right? The point I made in the speech at the rally is like, You've got the richest cabinet ever. You've got the richest man in the world doing whatever he wants.

Speaker 2 Their agenda is tax breaks for the wealthy. They're not even talking about anything that matters to ordinary people, health care or child care.

Speaker 2 They are the elites that they pretend to hate.

Speaker 1 Take a look at this. I think it exactly proves your point.
Howard Luttnick, commerce secretary, he's a billionaire. And he said, look,

Speaker 1 if you complain about not getting your social security check one month, the fact that you're complaining probably means you're the fraud that we should be going after.

Speaker 1 He's like, my mother-in-law, she's 94. If she missed a social security check for a month, she would be like, whatevs, it's going to come the next month.

Speaker 1 So people are afraid that they're going to go after Social Security and they're seeing social security offices shut down. Let me just show you what Lutnick said and let me get your response to it.

Speaker 2 Let's play it.

Speaker 1 Let's say Social Security didn't send out their checks

Speaker 1 this month.

Speaker 1 My mother-in-law, who's 94,

Speaker 1 she wouldn't call and complain.

Speaker 1 She just wouldn't. She'd think something got messed up, and she'll get it next month.

Speaker 1 A fraudster

Speaker 1 always

Speaker 1 makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling, and complaining. When you hear that, what do you say to it?

Speaker 2 I mean, his mother-in-law's son-in-law is a billionaire and one of the richest and wealthiest people in the country. So maybe she would be okay.

Speaker 2 But seniors in Georgia who would have to cut their pills in half or turn off the air conditioning in summertime, you know, or go without groceries because they didn't get their social security check would be in deep trouble.

Speaker 2 And it is really alarming that they talk about social security in this way in particular, you know, and Musk talking about it as a Ponzi scheme because it betrays that they are

Speaker 2 serious about going after social security. I mean, Musk posted on his website just a couple of weeks ago plans to shut down like five social security offices in Georgia alone.

Speaker 2 And again, that's it, like

Speaker 2 they are

Speaker 2 the richest and most elitist and most powerful people in the history of the planet. And they have this like anti-elite populist shtick, but what are they doing? Again, it's...

Speaker 2 The whole agenda is tax breaks for the wealthy, rounding up immigrants, revenge, and power.

Speaker 2 And that does nothing for my constituents, for my constituents who voted for Trump, for my constituents who voted against Trump. They're doing nothing for the people.

Speaker 1 And to your point there, you have the richest man in the world,

Speaker 1 Elon Musk, posting a meme of Donald Trump at a cemetery in front of a grave, which is just ghoulish in and of itself, kind of mocking the grave.

Speaker 1 But the grave is for the Department of Education, and it's spelled wrong. Department is spelled without the T at the end of it.

Speaker 1 And they're mocking the fact that they're gutting the Department of Education and Donald Trump's putting out an executive order to get rid of it.

Speaker 1 I mean, things like this, Senator, it's going to make a horrible impact on your state, right? I mean, the Department of Education getting gutted, that's going to hurt Georgia.

Speaker 2 Well, and it's the way that they post about it and talk about it and treat treat it all like it's a game, right? Like

Speaker 2 these federal agencies are their playthings and they're mocking the concerns about what happens when they act recklessly. You know,

Speaker 2 disabled students and the parents of disabled students in Georgia are calling my office every single day saying, what's this going to mean for me? What's this going to mean for my child?

Speaker 2 And, you know, they're like posting about it online to own the libs.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 it just reveals the total lack of concern for ordinary people.

Speaker 2 And these are not folks, you know, these again are the wealthiest, richest, most powerful people in the world mocking the concerns of the American public who are asking what's going to happen to public education.

Speaker 1 And Senator, what do you make of Donald Trump and his administration, I call regimes,

Speaker 1 kind of consistent

Speaker 1 going going out of their way to praise Putin.

Speaker 1 We believe what Putin's saying, but then when it comes to Zelensky, they try to humiliate him in the Oval Office and consistently say, you know, just spread Russian propaganda.

Speaker 1 They had Steve Witkoff, the special envoy to Russia and Ukraine, go on the weekend shows. And here's what he had to say about Putin.
He goes, We should trust Putin. Why wouldn't we trust this guy?

Speaker 2 Here, play this clip.

Speaker 1 I've been asked my opinion

Speaker 1 about

Speaker 1 what President Putin's motives are on a larger scale. And I simply have said that I just don't see that he wants to take all of Europe.
This is a much different situation than it was in World War II.

Speaker 1 What do you make of the way Donald Trump's been ⁇ he promised that there would be peace in Ukraine on day one. That's obviously another lie.
What do you make of all that?

Speaker 2 Two thoughts on that. The first is that

Speaker 2 it's hard to overstate how alarmed alarmed the rest of the free world is

Speaker 2 that the United States seems to be not just abdicating its leadership of the free world, but aligning itself with the most brutal authoritarians on the planet.

Speaker 2 Second thought is that, you know, the president's affinity for the Kremlin and his apparent admiration of

Speaker 2 President Putin.

Speaker 2 When you think about it in the context of what Donald Trump is is trying to do domestically,

Speaker 2 which is to wield the power of government to crush his political opposition, something that we have never seen in American history, not even at the height of McCarthyism, it's really chilling, right?

Speaker 2 I mean, he is

Speaker 2 trying to use every instrument of state. to entrench his and his political party's power.

Speaker 2 And I have never seen fear and intimidation used like this in American politics, and certainly not in modern American history has it been used like this in American politics, where the message from our own government is pay tribute, do not criticize us, or face retribution.

Speaker 2 And that is something that should send a chill down the spine of every patriotic American, regardless of our political affiliation.

Speaker 2 because it is an affront to the basic values of political freedom that animate animate our republic and that are embedded in our Constitution.

Speaker 2 You even see right now that other countries around the world are advising their nationals not to travel to the United States because the erosion of civil rights and civil liberties in our country is happening at such an alarming rate.

Speaker 1 Senator, what's your reaction to the breaking news on Monday that there was this group chat with all of the top national security

Speaker 1 DOD, Vance? Vance, they were all there discussing war plans in a group chat with emojis and text messages and discussing all the sensitive compartmented information over text message.

Speaker 1 And now they're attacking the reporter from the Atlantic, who they apparently accidentally invited to this chat. That's how it's been uncovered.

Speaker 1 You've seen a lot, Senator, but what do you make of this?

Speaker 2 This is what happens when you have Fox News personalities cosplaying as government officials. I mean, this is the most clownish,

Speaker 2 amateurish. It honestly would be funny, except that it is deadly serious, right? They're talking about the execution of lethal military operations, international diplomacy, intelligence information.

Speaker 2 And these are people who absolutely should know better.

Speaker 2 It is an embarrassing and dangerous,

Speaker 2 reckless, and amateurish demonstration of just

Speaker 2 how they lack any commitment to conscientiously doing their jobs.

Speaker 1 Senator, your message as you kick off this

Speaker 1 campaign season for 2026. Wow, time flies.
I remember when you were running in 2020.

Speaker 1 What's your message to the voters in Georgia and your message just generally to Americans who are just worried and nervous right now?

Speaker 2 Well, look, first of all, I want to remind folks that I am the only Democratic senator running for reelection in a state that Donald Trump won. And I will win, and we will win in 2026 in a landslide.

Speaker 2 And we need to get into that mindset. But I'm going to have huge amounts of money, probably from Elon Musk, coming in against me.
And I would appreciate support at electjohn.com.

Speaker 2 And my message to the public is,

Speaker 2 first of all, we have to reject this un-American attack on our Constitution and our core values and the rule of law. But we also have to recognize how we got here.

Speaker 2 How is it that a demagogue like Donald Trump, who threatened to burn down the whole system, was elected twice? And I think we have to look deeper than Trump.

Speaker 2 It's about corruption in American politics that predates him and that gave rise to him.

Speaker 2 The way that money in politics, since the Citizens United decision, has corrupted policymaking in the United States, has caused people to realize that, yes, the system is in fact rigged.

Speaker 2 Members of Congress live in fear of super PACs. That's why public policy doesn't serve the needs of ordinary families.

Speaker 2 That's why there's such cynicism and resentment of the ruling class in this country. And that is what gave rise, in large part, to Donald Trump.
But Trump is not trying to unrig a rigged system.

Speaker 2 He is trying to re-rig it for himself, for his political party, and for his cronies.

Speaker 1 Senator, where can people find out more information about the 2026 campaign?

Speaker 2 It's electjohn.com, electjon.com, and I'd be grateful for support.

Speaker 1 Senator John Osoff's first time on the Midas Touch Network. We hope you come back and keep us updated as you tour Georgia and you hit other districts there and other constituents there.
We'd love to.

Speaker 2 Come on the road, man.

Speaker 1 Maybe I'll take you up on that. Well, to be continued.
Thanks, Senator. Thanks for having me.
Thank you. Everybody, hit subscribe.
Let's get to 5 million subscribers. Can't get enough Midas?

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