MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas interviews Georgia Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff on the start of his 2026 campaign and his powerful first speech shredding Trump and MAGA in Atlanta. Visit https://meidasplus.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What sparked the energy at Jon Ossoff's campaign kickoff?
I'm joined by Georgia Senator John Ossoff. Senator, welcome to the Midas Touch podcast. 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?
It was a great event, and we did not even do that much promotion. We had thousands of people come out. It just speaks to the energy that there is in opposition to this attack on the rule of law and our Constitution. 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.
Look, Georgia... turned red this 2024 election. They voted for Trump this time around. What are you hearing, though, from the people? Are you hearing that there's regret? Are people pissed off? What's going on?
That's actually one of the reasons I think it's so important to go right at him. First of all, we have this spiral toward strongman rule and authoritarianism in the United States. 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 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
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. His entire domestic agenda is tax breaks for the wealthy, rounding up immigrants, revenge and centralizing as much power as he can in the presidency.
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, 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?
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. 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
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Chapter 2: How are Georgians reacting to Trump and MAGA's recent actions?
They are 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 the whole agenda is tax breaks for the wealthy, rounding up immigrants, revenge and power.
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.
And to your point there, you have the richest man in the world, 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. 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.
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. 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.
Well, it's the way that they post about it and talk about it and treat it all like it's a game, right? Like these federal agencies are their playthings and they're mocking the concerns about what happens when they act recklessly. 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? And they're posting about it online to own the libs. It just reveals the total lack of concern for ordinary people. 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.
Senator, what do you make of Donald Trump and his administration, I call regimes, kind of consistent going out of their way to praise Putin? 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.
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?
Here, play this clip. So about what 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 Two.
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