(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump has not said what he will say in a Thursday night national address to the nation but Georgia’s two senators anticipate it will have something to do with the 2020 election.
U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff addressed a social media post from the Washington Reporter that says Trump will say Ossoff and U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock are “illegitimate” because of election fraud in the 2020 contest. The post did not cite an official source but said it was a “well-placed” source in Georgia.
Trump was not specific, but mentioned elections in comments to reporters at the White House on Tuesday.
“Our country has to shape up,” Trump said. “What we’re going to be talking about Thursday, if you don’t have free and fair elections, you don’t have a country.”
Warnock said in a late Wednesday-afternoon social media post that the issues are not about 2020 but about 2026. Warnock defeated Republican Kelly Loeffler in a January 2021 runoff to serve out the remainder of the late Johnny Isakson’s term after Isakson resigned. He later won a full term in 2022, defeating Republican and former University of Georgia football standout Herschel Walker.
“He is trying to sow doubt on the integrity of our elections in Georgia so that he can create their next pretext to interfere in 2026,” Warnock said.
Trump has said repeatedly that the election was “stolen” and that he won Georgia’s electoral college votes in 2020. Former President Joe Biden defeated Trump 306-232 in the Electoral College. Georgia contributed 16 electoral votes to the Democrats’ win, not enough by itself to reverse the 74 votes needed to overcome Biden.
Ossoff focused on the 2020 election in the confirmation hearing for Jay Clayton, Trump’s nominee to serve as director of National Intelligence.
Ossoff asked Clayton who won the 2020 presidential election during Clayton’s confirmation hearing on Wednesday. Clayton said, “I’m not going to get into that with you.”
“You refuse to answer a basic question about who won a presidential election, but you ask to lead America’s intelligence community,” Ossoff said. “Isn’t it humiliating to be unable to answer this question, to have to indulge the president’s delusions? We know, you know, everybody in this room knows the truthful answer to that question. Why can you not give it?”
Ossoff defeated Republican U.S. Sen. David Perdue in a January 2021 runoff with just over 50% of the vote, according to results from the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office.
“If the president calls Georgia’s senators illegitimate, he is calling Georgia’s voters illegitimate,” Ossoff said on social media. “Donald Trump tried to commit voter fraud in Georgia when he badgered Brad Raffensperger to ‘find’ him the exact number of votes he needed to win in a state he had lost.”
The FBI is investigating the Fulton County Department of Registration and Elections after seizing records in a January raid. MS NOW, formerly MSNBC, reported that the FBI has hundreds of analysts examining ballots from the 2020 election.
“We cannot comment on status of investigation or any potential steps being taken,” FBI spokesman Tony Thomas wrote in an email to The Center Square.
A Wisconsin official thinks Trump could discuss her state in Thursday’s speech.
Ann Jacobs, the former head of the Wisconsin Elections Commission and current commissioner, wrote in a thread on social media, “Ahead of whatever the claims are going to be Thursday night claiming some sort of voter ‘fraud,’ I want to remind everyone that in Wisconsin, there is a paper trail for every vote cast. There are no ‘electronic only’ votes cast. We have found all machines to be tallying the votes correctly! As have the previous audits conducted.”
Trump will address the nation at 9 p.m. EDT on Thursday.