Washington Merry-Go-Round

IMMEDIATE RELEASE 21 July 2026
WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND
Today’s Events in Historical Perspective
America’s Longest-Running Column, Founded 1932
The liftoff of Jon Ossoff
By Douglas Cohn and Eleanor Clift         
                                        
WASHINGTON – People, and politicians in particular, are defined by foes as well as friends, which is clearly the case for Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., the man who has become Pres. Trump’s nemesis number one.
Here he was in action: It was a simple question. “Who won the 2020 election?” he asked. All it would take was a yes or no answer. Yet repeated attempts by Sen. Ossoff to elicit a straightforward response failed as Trump’s nominee to become Director of National Intelligence (DNI), refused to say Biden won that election.
Ossoff did not get the answer he was after because the new DNI pick, Jay Clayton, like all the other Trump acolytes, doesn’t dare cross the boss and say out loud that Trump lost the 2020 election by 7 million votes.
What Ossoff got instead was a liftoff platform to showcase his political skills and frame the fight against Trump in the upcoming midterms where Georgia is ground zero. Trump cannot abide a red state in the heart of the once reliably Republican South with two Democratic senators
At age 39, Ossoff is running for reelection to a second six-year term against Trump-endorsed challenger Mike Collins, 59, a MAGA stalwart whose extreme views on abortion (no exceptions) were too much even for Trump, who delayed his endorsement in the race.
Now, thanks in part to Trump, Ossoff is already being mentioned as a potential presidential candidate, someone who can inspire young people the way Barack Obama did, and a generation earlier, John F. Kennedy did. A former documentary filmmaker, Ossoff has the gift of storytelling and the understanding of how to connect with his audience.
Call it charisma, that something that elevates some people above the crowd and inspires others to follow. Plus, he is a fighter, as he showed during his interrogation of the would-be DNI.
Ossoff routinely takes on President Trump where he is most vulnerable with voters – an unpopular war and a seeming indifference to the cost pressures people face while the First Family pockets billions. A Senate seat Republicans thought they could easily reclaim now looks like Ossoff is likely to win. Trump, straight from the sandbox and gutter, has called him a “pathetic failed DUMOÇRAT Senator,” and referred to him as “Os(jerk!)off.”
“I didn’t think it was his best work, as nicknames go,” Ossoff told MS Now, using the moment of media attention to launch a broader attack on Trump, describing him as “increasingly unstable,” and suggesting the instability “flows from the fact that he is globally humiliated by this failed war.”
Trump huffs and puffs, saying of Ossoff, “Nobody even knows who he is,” though such rhetoric makes him better and better known to the point that with foes like Trump, who needs friends to introduce a potential presidential candidate to the electorate?
Ossoff is young, he’s handsome, and he won in a state that hasn’t elected a lot of Democrats statewide since Jimmy Carter. Plus, he’s not just another standard-issue Harvard grad.
He checks all the boxes when it comes to policymaking, graduating from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and then receiving a master’s degree from the London School of Economics.  
Before his surprise win of a Senate seat in 2020, he led an investigative production company that exposed corruption and global injustices.
He’s deeply schooled in foreign policy while also immersed in the economic issues that motivate Georgia voters. Married with children and with a resume that stands up against the most rigorous vetting, he is someone with a future that could reach the Oval Office, and he has Donald Trump to thank for elevating his stature. 
The first millennial elected to the U.S. Senate, he is the tip of the spear as he steps out front to make the case that Trump is putting the nation at risk with his lashing out and erratic behavior. He is saying the quiet part out loud, and people are listening. Trump is listening and reacting, and we can almost hear Ossoff whisper, “Thank you, Mr. President.”
 
See Eleanor Clift’s book Selecting a President, and Douglas Cohn’s latest books The President’s First Year: The Only School for Presidents Is the Presidency and World War 4: Nine Scenarios (endorsed by seven flag officers).
Twitter:  @douglas_cohn
© 2026 U.S. News Syndicate, Inc
Distributed by U.S. News Syndicate, Inc.
END WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND