Jon Ossoff calls Trump's election victories sign of ‘disease’ in America

Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., branded President Donald Trump's political rise part of a "deeper disease" during an appearance on CBS' "Late Show with Stephen Colbert" Wednesday, calling the president a product of a "rigged" system.

Ossoff told Colbert he ran a business that helped expose "official corruption, war crimes, abuses of power all over the world," and said, "We worked with people who smuggled the truth out of repressive societies with authoritarian governments. Places where opposition figures were rounded up and arrested. Places where journalists critical of the government faced official persecution. Places where television hosts had to deal with official censorship."

The comment was met with applause as the camera panned to Colbert. 

"Donald Trump's America reminds me of those places and those societies and that should chill us all to the bone," he told the late-night host. "But as for why, I think Donald Trump's rise — Donald Trump himself — is a symptom of a deeper disease in our society. I mean, how is it that a demagogue who promised to tear it all down was twice elected to the presidency on false promises? And it's because the system really is rigged."

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Ossoff is the only Democratic U.S. senator up for re-election this year in a state Trump won in 2024, making him a top target of Republicans trying to hold their Senate majority. Ossoff ousted Republican David Perdue in the closely watched 2021 runoff Senate race in Georgia, which went for Trump in 2016 and former President Joe Biden in 2020.

Ossoff argued that Trump was "re-rigging" the system.

"He's not unrigging it, he's re-rigging it for himself," he said, pointing to the 2010 Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court, which he said was deeply destructive.

Colbert replied that the Citizens United ruling said that "a corporation should be able to pour unlimited money into political action committees to influence elections."

"Corporations, the ultra-rich, unlimited money, and in secret. And so that bent Congress against the public interest and toward narrow private interests," Ossoff said. "That is one of the reasons that even though the American economy has been in drive, life for the working class and the middle class has been in reverse. It's one of the reasons that wealth and power have become more and more unequal in our society, and that is what gave rise to someone like Donald Trump."

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The White House responded in a scathing statement.

"Senator Jon Ossoff is a total phony who pretends to be a moderate while pushing extreme positions like the lie that men can become women, unrestricted taxpayer-funded abortion, the mutilation and sterilization of innocent children, and allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports while invading their locker rooms. And for four years, Senator Ossoff did nothing as the Biden Administration weaponized the federal government against people of faith, concerned parents, and the pro-life community," White House spokesperson Allison Schuster told Fox News Digital.

Colbert made headlines this week after saying CBS prohibited him from airing an interview he did with Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico. The network denied that claim in a Tuesday statement, and the late-night host called the denial "crap."

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"I’m just so surprised that this giant, global corporation would not stand up to these bullies. Come on, you’re Paramount! No, no, no, you’re more than that — you’re Paramount Plus! Plus what? I guess we’re all going to find out pretty soon. And for the lawyers to release this without even talking to me is really surprising. I don’t even know what to do with this crap," the liberal late-night host said.

Colbert then picked up a dog poop bag, grabbed the piece of paper with the statement on it, and crumpled it into the bag before tossing it away.