SEN. JON OSSOFF: Hello, Atlanta! Atlanta! Atlanta! Atlanta, give it up for our Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock. Atlanta, you look beautiful. You look beautiful.
SEN. JON OSSOFF: These are serious times, Atlanta. With open contempt for the law, this President has launched a power grab unprecedented in our history, abusing his power and trying to poison our democracy with fear and intimidation.
SEN. JON OSSOFF: In his first 100 days, he set free criminals who did violence on his behalf. He purged independent watchdogs across the government who investigate corruption and abuse. He stacked the most powerful offices with personal loyalists and then called on those same loyalists to investigate and prosecute his opponents. He’s undermined the freedom of the press, he’s retaliated against lawyers who have opposed him in court, he’s defied and threatened federal judges, and he’s given massive and unaccountable power to the richest man in the world, who spent 300 million dollars to elect him president of the United States.
SEN. JON OSSOFF: Now, Atlanta. Atlanta, this is not a drill. Atlanta, this is not a bad dream. As citizens, this is the test of our lifetimes.
SEN. JON OSSOFF: So, tell me, Atlanta, are you ready to fight? Let’s go. Are you ready to fight, Atlanta? It is truly wonderful to see you all here. And I’d like to ask, first of all, every veteran in the building, please raise your hands and be honored by all of us here. Thank you for your service. Thank you.
SEN. JON OSSOFF: And please know that Raphael and I are both so grateful for every one of you, for your hard work over so many years. So many years we’ve been working together. Take a moment and turn to your neighbor. Turn to your neighbor. Introduce yourself for a moment. Say to your neighbor, say, “We’re in this together.” Say, “We’re in this together.” Say, “We’re in this together.” Say, “We’re in this together.”
SEN. JON OSSOFF: We’ve been in this fight a long time together. And, you’ll recall, five years ago we faced a different sort of crisis. It was the deadliest pandemic since 1918. Thousands died per day. Tens of millions were out of work. The lines for the food banks, do you remember? They ran for miles. And Donald Trump was president then, too. Thinking out loud about whether we should inject ourselves with bleach. You remember that?
SEN. JON OSSOFF: And at that moment of crisis, we held here in Georgia one of the most consequential Senate elections of all time. It was two for one. Two for one.
SEN. JON OSSOFF: It was the Jewish kid and the Black pastor, running together, with all of you alongside us. They said we couldn’t win. Do you remember? But we built one of the most powerful movements in Georgia’s history, and you picked me up, and you picked Raphael up, and you carried us on your shoulders.
SEN. JON OSSOFF: And now it is our deepest honor to represent you in the Senate. Do you all remember how it felt to fight and to win, Atlanta? You remember, Bentley?
SEN. JON OSSOFF: Look, maybe right now you feel surrounded by darkness. You might be a little numb. You might be wondering if there’s a way out.
SEN. JON OSSOFF: But, Atlanta, we don’t have the luxury of despair. Because there are so many counting on us: children and pregnant women who rely on Medicaid, veterans who have earned their care and benefits, children in our public schools, cancer patients counting on the next big breakthrough, an entire world hoping the United States hasn’t given up on freedom, my little girl, my little girl and all our children who deserve to grow up in a kind and fair and decent country.
SEN. JON OSSOFF: And the truth is, beyond personal revenge, there’s not much to this president’s agenda. It’s tax breaks for the rich and rounding up immigrants. That’s the whole program. We’ve seen the bill, paid for by blowing out the deficit, cutting Medicaid, and trying to close the new factories we helped open that make chips and solar panels and electric vehicles. That’s the whole agenda.
SEN. JON OSSOFF: Let me ask you, yes or no, will your family’s life improve because we borrow trillions of dollars to cut taxes for the wealthiest people in the country? Will your family’s life improve because our military bases become prison camps for immigrants?
SEN. JON OSSOFF: When Medicaid covers nearly half of the births in our state, two thirds of all seniors in nursing homes, 40% of children, will your family’s life improve because they gut Medicaid?
SEN. JON OSSOFF: See, part of the shame of this useless spiral into chaos and revenge is that we really face so many urgent challenges, and there are so many problems we can solve. Our prisons are full of violence and abuse. Women die needlessly from pregnancy and childbirth, especially here in Georgia. Hospitals continue to close. Seniors can’t afford glasses and hearing aids, because Medicare won’t cover them. Veterans can’t get VA coverage for dental care. Families live paycheck to paycheck, the federal debt keeps growing, but top earners wind up paying less than firefighters and public schoolteachers.
SEN. JON OSSOFF: Now, look, I’m not saying these problems are cheap and easy to solve, but we could solve them, and we must solve them. And none of this is on this administration’s agenda. They just do not care. They do not care. Trump’s cabinet is worth like 60 billion dollars, that’s not even including Elon. They are literally the elites they pretend to hate.
SEN. JON OSSOFF: The president is not at his palace in Florida thinking about whether you can afford day care for your daughter or how to stop insurance companies from denying your claim or anything that matters to our daily lives. When is the last time you even heard Donald Trump talk about health care or child care? He’s talking about invading Greenland. He’s handing your data over to Elon Musk.
SEN. JON OSSOFF: By the way, I’m all for government efficiency. And government programs aren’t sacred — they have to work.
SEN. JON OSSOFF: But when you randomly fire tens of thousands people, no matter what role they fill, no matter or how well they’re performing, and then you have to scramble to hire them back, because you accidentally fired the people who run the veterans crisis line, and you accidentally fired the people who watch out for Ebola at the CDC, and you accidentally fired the people who fight bird flu on our poultry farms and the people who protect our nuclear weapons. When you shut down research into Alzheimer’s treatments and cures for childhood cancer, that’s not efficiency. That’s just cruelty and chaos.
SEN. JON OSSOFF: See, and then, on top of the chaos, you have the corruption. It was just reported that dinner with the president at Mar-a-Lago is on sale for just 5 million dollars.
SEN. JON OSSOFF: And really, the whole royal family is cashing in. Don Jr.’s setting up a new business empire. Jared’s investment firm got 2 billion dollars from the Saudi royal family. Like, Hunter Biden should have been more ambitious! 2 billion dollars from the Saudi royal family.
SEN. JON OSSOFF: The president was already selling those bibles made in China, but now they have their own memecoins. Did y’all see that? They literally stopped enforcing the law that prohibits bribery of foreign officials.The secretary of commerce is pumping up Tesla stock. The White House has been converted into a Tesla showroom, while Elon’s money — Elon’s money is what keeps Republican senators in check.
SEN. JON OSSOFF: But the truth is that corruption in America runs a lot deeper than Donald Trump. He’s not just a beneficiary of it; his rise is a symptom of it. Citizens United was the most destructive court decision in modern American history. The entire political system is just overrun by outside money. Members of Congress live in fear of these super PACs. It’s not just Elon. Senators get threatened with 5, 25, 50 million dollars of opposition over individual votes on a whole range of issues.
SEN. JON OSSOFF: And see, this is why things don’t work for ordinary people. It’s not because of trans kids or woke college students. It’s not because of our new archenemy, Canada. The corruption is why you pay a fortune for prescriptions. The corruption is why your insurance claim keeps getting denied. The corruption is why hedge funds get to buy up all the houses in your neighborhood, and Congress doesn’t do anything about it.
SEN. JON OSSOFF: See, this is why so many have lost faith in our system. Because the system really is rigged, but Trump’s not unrigging it; he’s re-rigging it for himself.
SEN. JON OSSOFF: But right now, even more corrosive than the chaos and the corruption is the fear. This administration is trying to poison our democracy with fear and intimidation. His goal is not just revenge. He wants to use the government to crush the opposition. And this is actually something we have never faced before, not like this.
SEN. JON OSSOFF: Before you elected me, I led a team that exposed corruption and war crimes. We exposed the truth in places where criticizing the government is dangerous, where whistleblowers and witnesses will only meet in secret, where protest carries the risk of prosecution.
SEN. JON OSSOFF: And the atmosphere in America under Donald Trump reminds me more and more of those places. I’ve heard it in my office, from some of the most powerful to some of the least. They say, “We don’t need a federal investigation.” They say, “We’re not sticking our necks out right now.” They say, “We don’t want any trouble.”
SEN. JON OSSOFF: See, Americans are now living in fear of their own government.
SEN. JON OSSOFF: And it’s not just here at home — people from around the world who want to do business and research and tourism here are now being advised by their governments not to visit the United States, because civil rights and civil liberties are eroding here so swiftly.
SEN. JON OSSOFF: When I first ran for Congress, eight years ago, it was because I saw the election of someone so unfit for the presidency as a danger to the country. And you all got behind me because you saw the same thing. And when we won the Senate, it was because we still understood together the urgency and the necessity of the moment, and we knew Georgia could lead the way.
SEN. JON OSSOFF: And now, each morning when I look at my beautiful three-year-old girl and her sweetness and that magical, hopeful innocence and potential, I realize we have no choice but to keep going, Georgia. We have no choice. Because I don’t want my little girl to grow up in a hopelessly divided country, where citizens fear their own government, which has become an instrument of repression and revenge. I don’t want her to grow up in a world where freedom is in retreat.
SEN. JON OSSOFF: I want her to grow up in an America that continues to lead the free world, where diversity is celebrated instead of mocked, with leaders who bring us together and inspire us to be honest and decent and kind.
SEN. JON OSSOFF: The measure of our success is not how many of the poorest and most vulnerable families we hunt down and shackle and imprison and deport. The measure of our success is whether each generation achieves greater health and prosperity than the last and whether we live up to the promise of equal justice for all.
SEN. JON OSSOFF: Senator Warnock and I are on your team. We’re pushing back every day. When they cut HBCU scholarships, we fought back, and we won. Republicans in Congress are already feeling the heat on Medicaid. We are pushing back every single day. We understand the assignment. And please trust us when we assure you that if we all do our part as citizens, we will overcome this. We will overcome this.
SEN. JON OSSOFF: In my Senate office, just over my desk, there’s a portrait of Congressman Lewis. And I promise you his spirit is with us in this place right now. Right now. The power is still with the people, Atlanta. Atlanta, are you ready to get in good trouble? Atlanta, Atlanta, are you ready to speak out? Atalanta, are you ready to organize? Atlanta, are you ready to march?
SEN. JON OSSOFF: Georgia will bow to no king. And Georgia will lead the way again. Thank you all, thank you Georgia. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.
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