Jon Ossoff Taps Into Something People Want

Summary

Bulwark Takes: Jon Ossoff Taps Into Something People Want
Release Date: March 24, 2025

In this episode of Bulwark Takes, hosts Tim Miller and Sam Stein delve into Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff's recent political maneuvers, analyzing his strategies and messaging that position him as a formidable contender in the upcoming 2026 Senate race. The discussion navigates through Ossoff's critique of the Trump administration, his approach to cultural issues, the leveraging of elite narratives, and the broader implications for the Democratic Party's strategy.

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1. Jon Ossoff’s Critique of the Trump Administration

The episode opens with Tim Miller introducing a clip from Jon Ossoff, where he sharply criticizes former President Donald Trump's cabinet and administration practices.

Notable Quote:
Jon Ossoff (00:41):
"Trump's cabinet is worth like $60 billion. That's not even including Elon. They are literally the elites they pretend to hate."

Ossoff emphasizes the disconnect between Trump's focus on grand, often trivial endeavors—such as invading Greenland—and neglect of pressing domestic issues like healthcare and childcare. He highlights the chaos resulting from administrative inefficiencies, citing the mass firing of government employees responsible for critical functions like the Veterans crisis line and disease prevention at the CDC.

Sam Stein (02:21):
"The messaging was spot-on, especially for a state that's difficult like Georgia. It wasn't overly liberal, it wasn't overly progressive. It was just exactly the themes that you and I have been harping on."

2. Addressing Cultural Issues with Nuance

Ossoff's approach to cultural hot-button issues, such as immigration, is discussed as being strategically effective for Democrats in Georgia. Instead of adopting a strictly anti-deportation stance, Ossoff frames his critique in a way that questions the administration's handling of resources.

Sam Stein (02:21):
"He... did it in this way that is more effective for Democrats. He's like, does it make sense to turn our military bases into prison camps for immigrants?"

This nuanced approach allows Ossoff to address contentious topics without alienating moderate voters, positioning himself as a pragmatic alternative to more polarized figures.

3. Leveraging Trump’s Obsessions for Democratic Gain

Tim Miller discusses how Ossoff strategically uses Trump's fixation on issues like Greenland to shift the conversation towards more pertinent local concerns.

Tim Miller (04:28):
"There is a way to leverage his bait in your favor... Ossoff went along with this, and now it highlights what's truly important to the constituents."

By highlighting the administration's preoccupation with irrelevant matters, Ossoff effectively contrasts it with his focus on addressing voters' real-life challenges, such as healthcare and childcare.

4. The Influence of Elon Musk and Elite Vulnerabilities

The conversation shifts to the mention of Elon Musk as a significant vulnerability for the Democrats. Ossoff's reference to Musk underscores the influence of billionaires in politics and the broader elite's detachment from everyday concerns.

Tim Miller (07:35):
"Elon is a real vulnerability. Ossoff's joke was pretty funny, where he's like, the cabinet's worth 60 billion, and that doesn't even include Elon."

They humorously estimate the combined wealth of Trump's cabinet and affiliated elites, emphasizing the vast disparities that fuel voter discontent.

5. Anti-Elite Messaging Across the Democratic Spectrum

A central theme of the episode is the alignment of various Democratic figures, from AOC and Bernie Sanders to Jon Ossoff and Wes Moore, in their anti-oligarchy and anti-elite rhetoric. This collective stance is seen as a strategic effort to unify the party around a common grievance against entrenched power structures.

Sam Stein (10:07):
"They are all positioning themselves... as anti oligarchy, anti elites. Like the system is broken, we got to fix the system."

This messaging resonates with a broad spectrum of voters who feel marginalized by the existing power dynamics, allowing Democrats to present a unified front against perceived corruption and self-interest within the elite class.

6. Challenges in Defending Democratic Institutions

The hosts touch upon the inherent challenge Democrats face in advocating for strong institutions amidst widespread skepticism. Balancing the defense of democracy while addressing distrust in those institutions requires nuanced communication strategies.

Tim Miller (10:07):
"They have to co-opt it now. Democrats got caught in a trap... How do you defend democracy and institutions when people are skeptical or hostile to the institutions?"

This dilemma underscores the delicate balance Democrats must maintain in promoting institutional integrity without appearing disconnected from voter anxieties.

7. Conclusion and Upcoming Events

The episode concludes with a light-hearted exchange between Tim and Sam, highlighting their camaraderie and teasing an upcoming live event featuring Bill Kristol. The hosts encourage listeners to subscribe and stay tuned for future discussions.

Sam Stein (12:21):
"That's anti-Semitic."
Tim Miller (12:23):
"I hope not. I think I... I'm honoring you and your experience."

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Key Takeaways:

• Strategic Messaging: Jon Ossoff effectively critiques the Trump administration by highlighting its inefficiencies and misplaced priorities, resonating with Georgia's diverse electorate.

• Nuanced Approach to Cultural Issues: Ossoff addresses sensitive topics like immigration in a way that aligns with Democratic values without alienating moderate voters.

• Unified Anti-Elite Stance: A range of Democratic figures are consolidating their anti-oligarchy positions, presenting a united front against entrenched elites.

• Challenges in Institutional Defense: Democrats must navigate the complexities of defending democratic institutions while addressing voter skepticism and distrust.

Overall, this episode of Bulwark Takes provides an insightful analysis of Jon Ossoff's political strategies within the broader context of Democratic Party dynamics and electoral challenges in Georgia.

Transcript

[Tim Miller]

Hey, guys. Tim Miller from the Bulwark here with managing editor Sam Stein. We popped on over the weekend to talk about the Bernie AOC Fight Oligarchy tour. And I'm intrigued that some of the themes that we covered there were also covered by Georgia Senator John Ossoff, who's, you know, maybe not as far on the progressive end as Bernie and AOC in what was kind of essentially a kickoff for what's going to be a very important Senate race there in Georgia in 2026. So, Sam, I want to play for everybody this clip of Ossoff, but do you have any top line thoughts on him first?

[Sam Stein]

No, no. Play the clip.

[Tim Miller]

All right, here we go. Let's take a look at Jon Ossoff in Georgia over the weekend.

[Jon Ossoff]

Trump's cabinet is worth like $60 billion. That's not even including Elon. They are literally the elites they pretend to hate. The president is not at his palace in Florida thinking about whether you can afford daycare 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 childcare? He's talking about invading Greenland. He's handing your data over to Elon Musk. By the way, I'm all for government efficiency, and government programs aren't sacred. They have to work. But when you randomly fire tens of thousands of people, no matter what role they fill, no matter how well they're performing, and then you have to scramble to fire 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.

[Tim Miller]

All right, there you go. He tweeted the clip with yesterday, Atlanta roared. Georgia will bow to no king. We're just getting started. What did you make of ass off?

[Sam Stein]

Well, I think the back, the background here is that he's probably the most endangered Democrat up for a cycle in the Senate this year. Really could be bad for him if the state's governor, Brian Kemp, decides to run. We don't know if that's going to happen. I thought, you know, I was listening to it. I thought the messaging was like spoton, frankly, especially for a state that's difficult like Georgia. It wasn't. It wasn't overly liberal, it wasn't overly progressive. It was just sort of like exactly the themes that you and I have been harping on, which is like, these people are not for government official efficiency. They're for chaos. They're in it for themselves. This is corruption. There were a few things that were kind of interesting that, that really piqued my interest. So he did actually talk about, he didn't, like, go away from addressing some of the hot button cultural issues, like immigration, for instance, but he did it in this way that, again, I think is more effective for Democrats. And he was like, he's like, does it make sense to turn our military bases into prison camps for immigrants? That's not a, that's not a, that's not a anti, necessarily strictly anti deportation or anti enforcement messaging. It's like kind of a couched version of it in which you basically say you're going about it the wrong way and you're, you're screwing up our other resources. And so I thought that was kind of interesting. And the other thing was he was, you know, we could talk about the corruption stuff because that was the primary focus. And I think that's, that it's where he wants the attention anyway. But the other thing that was interesting was that he talked about all these side pursuits that the, the, the Trump White House is obsessed with. And he's like, does it make any sense for you to have a president who's more focused on acquiring Greenland than ensuring that we have good health care? And that's the stuff I think Democrats probably need to really get into. It's not just Greenland. It's this idea that this man in the Oval Office is obsessed with trivial, weird vendettas and insults. And there's real world problems that are going unaddressed because of it. If you can harness that message, I think people will really latch onto it, regardless of where they fall on that ideological spectrum.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah, I thought it was really compelling. He's at his palace in Mar a Lago. He worried about Greenland. Right. I think he's. Have you ever heard him talk about your healthcare? Have you ever heard about them, talk about your childcare? Do you think he cares about that? I was harping on this during the 24 campaign that, like, there is a wrong conventional wisdom that is don't take the bait. Don't talk about Trump's stupid stuff. He wants you to talk about the Haitians and the cats and the Greenland and whatever it was at the time. And I say during the campaign, essentially, people should do It. Ossoff did. There is a way to leverage his bait in your favor, right? Which is, like, he wants to talk about this stupid shit. He's obsessed over stuff that doesn't matter to you at all. You know, like, you want somebody that actually cares about you and cares about your problems and cares about the real interests and wants to fix them, not somebody that's obsessed with. Insert. Whatever Trump's latest stupidity is. I think that's just a much. A much better frame than ignoring it or than trying to go at it on the merits and be like, well, Denmark actually does, you know, 2.5% in NATO. Right. Like, I would agree with that. I will talk. Talk about that as a pundit, but as a politician, I think this is the right frame.

[Sam Stein]

Right. You don't want to be like, oh, we shouldn't offend the, you know, Denmark and the King and the Queen. No. Like, people are like, yeah, I. I'd be fine acquiring Denmark, whatever. But the problem is, is, like, Denmark.

[Tim Miller]

I don't know.

[Sam Stein]

I don't know.

[Tim Miller]

If anything, you're the first person to propose acquiring Denmark.

[Sam Stein]

I want Denmark. Trump's shooting too low.

[Tim Miller]

No, Copenhagen is beautiful.

[Sam Stein]

Exactly. No, I'm gonna refocus. I think the problem is. And he's. He's right. Is focus on the lack of attention, on the stuff that matters. I will. Let me just tell a little story about this, because this is a perpetual argument within Democratic politics that you've touched on. I remember a conversation I was having. I'm not going to name the official that. I'll try to get his permission during the heat of, like, the summer of 2016, when it looked like Hillary was doing really well, but it was kind of getting closer. Remember that point? True. And I was talking to this Democrat who has been on a bunch of these campaigns, and he was beside himself because she was picking all these fights. Like, he shouldn't have the nuclear codes. He's crazy. Saying all these wild things. He's, you know, bad for. He's, you know, marginalizing these communities. And this guy was like, all you should say is, this guy's a phony populist. He makes his fucking ties in China. He's like, just go after him for making his ties in China. Like, that's it. Like, he doesn't care about you. He just wants to make a buck. Like, he's a phony.

[Tim Miller]

Skipped his own contractors.

[Sam Stein]

Like, just focus on that. He's just a phony. And they never really could do it, or they never chose to do It. And look, I don't think Austin's doing that per se, but it's much closer to that than what Hillary was doing, and I guess a little bit to what Kamala Harris was doing. And I think, you know, it also has the benefit of roping in Elon. And we could talk a little bit about Elon because he focused a lot of that speech on Elon and Doge and the chaos that it sowed.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah, let's talk about Elon. And then I want to talk about one other thing that I think has been interesting that ties the AOC rallies, this John Osso thing, and my interview with Wes Moore from last week, but we'll end with that. But on the Elon side, Elon is real vulnerability. And the joke. Osso's joke was pretty funny, where he's like, the cabinet's worth 60 billion, and that doesn't even include Elon. Right. And so you see the numbers.

[Sam Stein]

60 billion. Wow.

[Tim Miller]

I mean, Besant is 22 billion. Just.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah.

[Tim Miller]

And Linda McMahon. I mean, she's got that wrestling fortune.

[Sam Stein]

And, yeah, Lutnick. And we're getting up there.

[Tim Miller]

Wyckoff isn't even in the cabinets. Yeah, you're right. Yeah. I mean, it's. It gets. It gets. They probably. You probably get the number up to a trillion. Some. Some researchers should do some math around that. But it does. Again, I get it feels like Elon is probably a bigger vulnerability, particularly, as you mentioned this in Georgia, you know, in potentially very tough ways. With Brian Kemp, Trump won Georgia. Right. So you're in the midterm. You already have a little bit of an uphill battle. Kemp is popular, but the stuff that Elon is doing, you know, cutting government work, there's a lot of military there, a lot of CDC employees, potential vulnerability there, I think.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah. And again, he did it in a way that's like. I don't want to call it, like, triangulation, because it's not that, but it's sort of like a bit of a bank shot where he's like, look, I'm off for efficiency. I. I want to, like, cut down on government. I want to get the deficit down, but I don't want to accidentally fire people, like in the, you know, nuclear weapons, you know, containment and working on infectious disease research and helping contain the bird flu. Like, that's stupid. And so it really comes down to. And I think he said it was efficiency versus cruelty and chaos. And if that's the frame, I think people will. People will be happy with that. I mean, I I, again, we talked about this over the weekend. I think something's happening here. I'm not sure what it is, but like there's so much pent up frustration and anger and fear all around the country and they just are looking for ways to channel this stuff. And so you have the Tesla part that's put them aside. The, the AOC Bernie stuff is real. Is real. And then you have Ossoff go on for this rally and you know, he's not, he's a good order and he, and he, and he had a good audience but like the virality of those clips or people are just looking for something that can make them feel like there's someone making sense or at least pushing back on this in the moment. And I think, you know, that works for him, obviously.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah, I think the other thing that works so I want to close is that he is how he's framing this as. You know, they're the elites that they pretend to hate. We're going at the elites too because I think that if you, I think ideologically, you know, probably if you put them on a spectrum, you'd have AOC and Bernie close. Bernie furthest to the left and AOC a little bit closer. And then Ossoff goes to the middle and then West Moore, who I interviewed, like closer to kind of the center left of the party. But all of them are saying the same thing. Well, it's like all of them are positioning themselves, I think correctly as like anti oligarchy, anti elites. Like the system is broken, we got to fix the system. And I just think that that is going to them. Yeah, right, exactly. They have to co opt it now. And I think that the Democrats got caught in a trap that was a really hard trap. I've talked, we've talked about it a bunch, which is how do you defend democracy and institutions when people are skeptical or hostile to the institutions? Right. It's tough to be like we're going to protect the thing. You either don't care about that much or don't trust. Right. And Wes, I thought was the strongest part of his interview with me last week. And you see Ossoff doing it here, obviously that's going to be central to the Bernie AOC thing. I just think that that kind of thread going sort of across the spectrum within the party is pretty notable.

[Sam Stein]

Totally, totally agree. Nothing to add on to that. I think that's the nugget. It's like if you can be the anti elite, usually that works. But it's hard because Trump kind of forced the frame in the other direction. Trump's made it easier by hiring literally every billionaire under the sun to serve for him and then having dumb, dumb Howard Lutnick go out there, be like, they can live without a week of Social Security. You know, I think that makes it a little easier. But.

[Tim Miller]

But yeah, your impersonation is much better than my wit cough. People, keep an eye out. Our live event with Bill Kristol, which is coming up on the YouTube page here. I did a dramatic reading of the Witcoff Tucker Carlson interview. Oh, God, I did do their voices. I thought my Tucker was pretty good. My Witkoff did a little work. You're you coming from. You haven't. You have that little northeast sort of Jewish experience. Gets you a little better.

[Sam Stein]

That's anti Semitic.

[Tim Miller]

I hope not. I think, I think, I don't think so. I'm honoring you and your experience. All right, everybody, subscribe to the feed. Sad Sam Stein. We'll be back soon.