'Only one man committed fraud in 2020' Jon Ossoff shreds Trump's claim of election tampering

After President Donald Trump made sweeping claims about the safety of American voting systems in a White House address, lawmakers from Georgia have slammed his renewed attempt at undermining the legitimacy of the voting system. Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff strongly pushed back at the president's comments, claiming that it was only him who tried to commit voter fraud, citing the alleged scandal where Trump tried to force Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to overturn the 2020 election results in the state.

Ossoff fiercely defended Georgia's voters and election system in an appearance on CNN, claiming it was only Trump who committed election fraud in the state in 2020. "If there's one person who committed election fraud in Georgia, it's Donald Trump, when he dialed up our state's senior-most election official, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger," he said, referring to the infamous phone call between Trump and Raffensperger, who has denied altering any records at the request of the president. "He [Trump] tried to bully him in a recorded phone call to, quote, 'find' the exact number of votes Donald Trump needed to win in a state that he had lost," Ossoff added, referring to the historic win of former President Joe Biden, who became the first Democratic Presidential candidate to win the state since 1992.

In another post on X, Ossoff shared a clip of him speaking about the same issue. In the video, he accused Trump of diverting the nation's focus from the war that, according to him, is spiralling out of control and the rising prices in the country.  "He forces the rest of us to help him process his shame. As always, he centers his own fear of the accountability that he will face when we win decisively this fall," Ossoff said. He again brought up the controversy, adding that the Jan 6. 2021 riots stemmed from Trump's scrutiny of elections in Georgia, as per Brennan Center for Justice. 

The infamous call Ossoff referred to became a key piece of evidence in the criminal investigations into Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election. In a call recorded on January 2, 2021, Trump invoked several false claims of widespread voter fraud to pressure Raffensperger to reverse the state’s election results. His allegations at the time ranged from lies about out-of-state voters and dead voters to conspiracy theories about drop box stuffing and compromised election equipment, all of the claims he made in his recent national address. "So we have to expect that, once again, he will try to throw out our votes, that once again he will attack elections and voting rights here in Georgia," Ossoff added. 

The Democratic lawmaker warned Trump that he was making a mistake and his Party's answer will be massive and decisive. "We won't just restore checks and balances for the next two years. We will rebuke him so decisively that no president will dare try this kind of brazen corruption and abuse again for centuries," he stated. 

Meanwhile, the Republican secretary of state Raffensberger, who rejected Trump's request after the 2020 election to overturn Biden's victory in Georgia, also criticized Trump's recent claims of election fraud. In a statement, the Secretary of State said Georgia has already undergone extensive audits, recounts and legal reviews, none of which found any evidence of widespread voter fraud. "The system is tried and proven," Raffensperger said, adding that Georgia's upcoming elections will also be "free, fair and fast," ABC affiliate WJCL reported.