ATLANTA — U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff is speaking out ahead of President Donald Trump’s planned address Thursday night, which many believe will center on claims of irregularities in the Georgia election that put Ossoff into office.
Amid reports that President Trump may declare Ossoff’s election victory six years ago illegitimate, Georgia’s senior senator criticized the president.
“He fears defeat in the midterms and that explains his spiral into conspiracy theories,” Ossoff said.
Ossoff also argued that questioning the legitimacy of Georgia’s elected officials is an attack on the state’s voters.
“When the president calls Georgia elections illegitimate and if he calls Georgia’s senators illegitimate, he is calling Georgia’s voters illegitimate,” Ossoff said.
The White House has not commented on whether the president’s address will specifically focus on Georgia’s election results.
President Trump has said his address Thursday night will focus on election security and voting machines, calling it a “big announcement.”
Ossoff accused the president of remaining focused on the 2020 election.
“The President of the United States tried to commit voter fraud in Georgia when he badgered Brad Raffensperger to quote ‘find him the exact number of votes’ he needed to win in a state he had lost in 2020,” Ossoff said.
He also said the president’s comments would encourage voter participation.
“All this does is motivate Georgians to vote. All this does is galvanize the determination of Georgia voters to defy the cynical efforts to instill fear and intimidation,” Ossoff said.
Ossoff further criticized the president’s continued claims about the 2020 election.
“He is reheating debunked conspiracy theories and launching bizarre new lies,” Ossoff said.
President Trump has repeatedly raised concerns about the 2020 election in Georgia. Earlier this year, the FBI seized documents related to the election in Fulton County.
So far, there has been no credible evidence of wrongdoing.
WSB Radio will carry the president’s speech live at 9 p.m. Thursday.
WSB Radio’s Jonathan O’Brien contributed to this story.
