He and Abdul El-Sayed are showcasing the kind of aggressive spirit Democrats need to adopt in the new Congress.
Victory speeches from winning candidates usually follow a similar script: Thank the family, staff and volunteers; riff on how inspiring the campaign was; remind people of the hard work ahead; and extend good wishes to the defeated rival, in the spirit of generosity.
But not all Democratic winners did that on Tuesday night. In Michigan, Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed was not going to let bygones be bygones. Addressing his opponent, Mike Rogers, he said, “So, Mike, enjoy your retirement. I know you got a house in Florida and two yachts. See, you chose hate, and Michigan chose hope. May we never have to see the likes of you in this state again.”
El-Sayed wasn’t done. He moved on to Vice President JD Vance, who had described the Democrat as a “psychopath” and “very, very evil.”
“Habibi,” El-Sayed said with a smile, using an Arabic term of endearment. “There is this delicious irony in the fact that you’re constitutionally obligated to swear me in in January.”
Down in Georgia, Sen. Jon Ossoff didn’t even bother mentioning his opponent, Rep. Mike Collins — though he did say that “the American people have rebuked the depravity, corruption and incompetence of the failed lame-duck president, Donald J. Trump.”
He voted to fund defensive munitions, ie air to air missile/drone interceptor, and he voted against providing more offensive weapons in 2024. He continued to vote against the sales of rifles, bulldozers, and 1,000 pound bombs in 2025 and 2026.
He refused in debate to call the conflict in Gaza a genocide, instead he listed off war crimes being committed in Gaza and said he would refer to the international court’s determinations. Specifically he said "There is no doubt in my mind that Israeli forces prosecuting the war in Gaza violated the law of armed conflict and international humanitarian law.”
Seems like ideologically he is opposed to the genocide in Gaza and has blocked material support for Israel. I think he’s toeing the line of calling it what it is since he represents Georgia. Georgia the first time was a hard win for him, the conservatives held that state for nearly 20 years before he and Warnock took the Senate.
Of those the media have called as possible 2028 presidential candidates, he’s definitely not the worst. If he moves to the national statge I hope he’s brave enough to call it what it is, but even if he toes the line his record shows he will decrease funding and support to Israel.
Overall not my ideal, but pragmatically not the worst option.
I don’t think it makes sense to separate these defensive munitions from “offensive” munitions, especially when talking about a belligerent state like this. Contributing either supports their offensive agenda.
If those munitions are so defensive why don’t we give them to the Palestinians and Iranians and Yemeni and Somali and etc.? Also, any aid we’re giving them is freeing up money they’d otherwise have to spend on those things to spend on offensive genocidal weapons instead
Yep, and this is a massive tell. He’s controlled by people who won’t let him say that. They’ll let him ramble out a convoluted meaningless cop-out sentence that everybody can hear what they want to hear in (e.g. the left can hear him saying “violated the law” and think he’s going to try to do something about it, but genocide supporters hear “Israeli forces” and can tell themselves it’s just a few bad apples and they were justified anyway because they were “prosecuting a war” and not just genocidally shooting fish in a barrel), but he can’t just say “genocide” like everyone else does because the point is to disrupt and disorganized resistance to Israel’s genocide.
So it actually seems like ideologically he is totally OK with the genocide in Gaza and has worked to disguise the material support he’s provided for Israel to make that material support more politically durable.
Yeah, I’m sure conservatives in Georgia just love spending money on foreign wars on behalf of a Jewish state /s
Supporting Israel is about not pissing off donors or ending up on the bad side of the national security state, who can and will do opposition research and counter messaging against politicians who threaten their interests. Voter preferences aren’t part of the equation.
Well that’s fucking easy. It takes a multi-billion dollar system that we also maintain for them. We shouldn’t be giving it out to anyone the cost is outrageous. But those missiles can only be fired at incoming projectiles from said system.
I mean deferring to the international court does mean you will agree to call it a genocide eventually. Like I said not perfect.
No literally, remove the /s. There’s an unfunny number of people that support Israel for religious reasons. Even the cooler more moderate sects that are fine with abortion and homosexuality also often support Israel. It’s nuts, but that’s the South
And yet he has managed to do just that.
I swear people like you are the enemy of good. His actions and votes prove that if he wins the presidency it would result in less money for Israeli war crimes. Does he go as far as I want? No, but he’s done a lot more than many democrats.