Dem
54
GOP
46
No, we don't mean that Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) marched through Georgia, burning and pillaging everything in his path. We are referring to what happened when Ossoff and Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) debated again on Tuesday. It was nasty. With early voting already underway, Ossoff is leading by about 10 points, so Collins needed to shake things up. But the most significant part of the debate wasn't about some policy issue they disagree on. It was about Ossoff's future. When asked if he pledged to serve a full term if elected, Ossoff said: "Yes, I will. I have zero interest in running for president. I'm not running for president. I'm running for reelection to the Senate." That sounds very definitive. If he were to run anyway, this would come back to haunt him. Sure, he could say: "I had no plans to run and I didn't want to run but so many people told me only I could save the country, so I jumped in." Still, under these circumstances, most politicians would hedge their bets and say something like: "I haven't thought about 2028 for one second. All my energy is on my reelection campaign. In politics, you never know what the future will hold," and leave it at that. He didn't.
If someone promises to serve a full term and then reneges, is that curtains for him? Maybe ask Barack Obama. In Jan. 2006, he promised that he would not run for president or vice president in 2008. Then he broke his promise. How did that work out?
Ossoff's full Sherman wasn't the only interesting takeaway from the debate, though. When the moderators asked Collins who won the 2020 presidential election, he refused to give a straight answer. He merely said that Joe Biden entered the Oval Office. He didn't say whether that was legitimate or not. Ossoff continued to press Collins on that during the debate.
The candidates also clashed over Jeffrey Epstein. Collins said that billionaire Reid Hoffman paid for some of Ossoff's ads, and since Trump ordered an investigation of Hoffman (a major Democratic donor), somehow Ossoff must be tied to Epstein, which Ossoff vigorously denied. Ossoff came back attacking Collins for voting to cover up the Epstein files because Trump's name comes up there repeatedly.
Ossoff also said that judicial reform is needed, including binding ethics rules for the Supreme Court. And he didn't rule out expanding the Court. (V)