Remember Jon Ossoff? He’s Back, And Swinging Punches At Trump

Jon Ossoff

By Nathan Guttman October 5, 2017

After his failure to win a Republican-leaning Georgia congressional district in June, Jon Ossoff stayed away from politics, trying to make sense of his loss. He had run in the most expensive House race in history, one that had Democrats hoping would herald a wave of anti-Republican backlash.

Now, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports, Ossoff is back in the spotlight and is considering another run. And this time, Ossoff believes that he learned an important lesson from his failed race: Never stop attacking President Trump.

During the final weeks of his campaign, Ossoff chose to tone down his anti-Trump rhetoric in hopes that could win him votes among suburban Atlanta moderates. Now, he’s going full force against the President.

Ossoff described Trump as an “incompetent POTUS,” adding that the president is a “weak and dishonest man.” Ossoff said that after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, Trump acted with “contempt for the victims and inability to see beyond one’s own ego and vanity that is so disgusting.”

Ossoff’s return did not go unnoticed by his conservative rivals. The right-wing America Rising PAC issued a statement describing Ossoff as robot who is resetting “to factory settings.”

Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO