Jon Ossoff says he will give Donald Trump's nominees 'a fair shake'

Today’s newsletter highlights:

Gov. Brian Kemp event raises $1.2 million.
Attorney General Chris Carr backs Donald Trump’s FBI pick.
Rudy Giuliani is scheduled to be back in court.

In a few weeks, Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff will be in the exceedingly rare position of not only voting on the confirmation of his former Republican opponent in the 2020 race, but also two other GOP candidates from the wild election cycle that upended Georgia politics.

Ossoff told us he’s planning to keep an open mind during the hearings next year over Donald Trump’s nomination of former U.S. Sen. David Perdue as ambassador to China, former U.S. Rep. Doug Collins as Veterans Affairs secretary and ex-U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler to head the Small Business Administration.

Perdue, who was ousted by Ossoff in the 2021 runoff, is expected to sail through what will then be a GOP-controlled Senate. So are Collins and Loeffler, who each were defeated by Democrat Raphael Warnock in a Senate special election. Any opposition may be symbolic at best.

Credit: Screenshot

Credit: Screenshot

Still, Ossoff faces a test as he prepares to juggle their confirmation hearings with his goal of sharpening his bipartisan bona fides ahead of a tough reelection bid.

“I’m going to take the same approach for every one of the president’s nominees,” Ossoff said in his first public comments about the Georgia trio’s pending nominations.

“I’ll look at qualifications and most importantly understand how and whether their tenure can be a success for Georgia. I’ll give everyone a fair shake.”

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Credit: Jose Luis Magana/AP

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Here are four things to know for today:

Time magazine is expected to name President-elect Donald Trump as its person of the year. The announcement will come during the “Today” show on NBC. Trump is also scheduled to ring the bell to open the New York Stock Exchange.
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a likely candidate for governor in 2026, wants to create a new tax credit of $250 per child under age 7 to help families pay for child care expenses.
With a debate underway about mining at the Okefenokee Swamp, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff is backing a federal proposal to expand the amount of protected lands even as advocates push for more, Drew Kann and Tia Mitchell report.
Some Georgia lawmakers want to make caregivers eligible for Gov. Brian Kemp’s Pathways program for Medicaid, the AJC’s Michelle Baruchman reports.

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Credit: John Spink/AJC

TORT SUPPORT. On Tuesday, Gov. Brian Kemp put lawmakers on notice that rewriting Georgia’s litigation rules was a top 2025 priority. On Wednesday, he collected a pile of cash to push that proposal.

The Republican took in more than $1.2 million at a fundraiser at Canoe, the swanky Atlanta restaurant, that will funnel into his leadership PAC to advocate for the overhaul.

Attendees included hospital executives, small business owners, corporate heavyweights and others who back the decades-long fight to limit certain types of lawsuits and curb large jury awards.

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Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

CULTURE WARS. Jason Carter has an idea for fellow Georgia Democrats who will soon debate whether to ban transgender girls from competing in women’s sports.

Carter, the party’s 2014 gubernatorial nominee, was recently asked on the “Politically Georgia” podcast how he would advise his party to take on the issue after GOP leaders in both chambers support a ban.

“I just think the reason we have women’s sports is because there are biological differences. And so you’ve got to pay attention to the biology,” said Carter, the grandson of former President Jimmy Carter.

So does that mean he would support the restriction?

“I would. I don't know what it looks like though, because the problem that I have is it becomes about bullying … and there's no reason to bully that trans community. There's a lot of ways to be accepting of that community that I think we need to do. But I don't think it has to be in that one specific context of sports, because that's the whole point of women's sports for me."

- Jason Carter

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CARR FOR KASH. Chris Carr, a candidate for governor in 2026, was among two dozen Republican state attorneys general this week who signed a letter of support for Kash Patel, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI. The letter was sent to soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader John Thune.

The current FBI director, Christopher Wray, said Wednesday that he’ll step down from the role at the end of the Biden administration even though he still has three years left on his 10-year term.

Credit: Mark Schiefelbein/AP

Patel, a former public defender and staffer to then-U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes of California, has quickly become one of Trump’s most polarizing nominees. Along with embracing conspiracy theories in the past, he once wrote a trilogy of children’s books about Trump called “The Plot Against the King.” He also published a list of 60 members of the “Executive Branch Deep State,” including Wray. Patel said they represented “the most dangerous threat to our democracy.”

In the letter to Thune, the AGs called Patel “the leader that the Federal Bureau of Investigation needs.”

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Credit: Seth Wenig/AP

BACK IN COURT. Rudy Giuliani can’t seem to help himself.

A jury has already decided he defamed two former Georgia election workers and awarded them $148 million (Giuliani has appealed). Despite that, the former New York City mayor has continued to make false claims that the election workers committed fraud.

Giuliani, once a personal attorney for Donald Trump, is scheduled to be back in court today, where he could be found in contempt of an earlier settlement. That could cost him even more money.

“Giuliani created his own problem here,” Gerry Weber, an Atlanta attorney who specializes in First Amendment law, told the AJC’s David Wickert. “He’s made his own bed, and now he has to lie in it.”

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Credit: Bob Andres/AJC

RALSTON CENTER. The late Georgia House Speaker David Ralston made improving mental health care in Georgia the focus of his last two years in the General Assembly. On Sunday, the University of Georgia made Ralston the namesake of a new center to do just that.

The David Ralston Center for Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities at the UGA College of Family and Consumer Sciences will train future mental health care professionals. It was funded by a $1.5 million appropriation from the General Assembly this year.

The dedication ceremony Sunday included House Speaker Jon Burns, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and UGA President Jere Morehead, Ralston’s law school classmate. In his remarks, Kevin Tanner, commissioner of the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, said Ralston knew it would take years to properly address mental health reform — and that it should include UGA.

“Ultimately, I think he would see this center’s establishment as one more step toward success — a milestone on a long but worthwhile journey to improve the lives of Georgians,” Tanner said.

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Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

LISTEN UP. Today on “Politically Georgia,” you’ll hear a conversation with U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff about his reelection bid and his outlook of President-elect Donald Trump’s second term. Then, state Sen. Jason Esteves, D-Atlanta, discusses what’s next for him and Georgia Democrats ahead of the state legislative session.

Be sure to download the AJC’s Politically Georgia podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes are uploaded by noon each day, just in time to have lunch with us. You can also listen live at 10 a.m. EDT on 90.1 FM WABE. Have a question for the show? Give us a call at 770-810-5297.

On Wednesday’s show, the Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson talked about the anti-Trump movement inside the Republican Party. Then, immigration attorney Charles Kuck discussed Trump’s border and deportation plans.

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Credit: Nathan Posner for The AJC

NDAA MOVES. The National Defense Authorization Act is on pace to be approved this year, keeping the streak of annual renewal alive for the 64th year.

The U.S. House signed off on the bill Wednesday but with less bipartisan support than it could have received. Only 81 Democrats supported the measure compared to the 124 who did not after Speaker Mike Johnson inserted language at the last minute banning certain medical treatments for transgender children of service members if it could lead to sterilization.

Many of the Democrats who opposed the legislation said the ban on treatment for transgender kids was injecting a partisan “culture war” issue into what should be a noncontroversial defense policy package.

“Speaker Johnson has stuffed this legislation with harmful attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion programs and even medical care for transgender children — provisions that have no place in our defense policy,” Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Atlanta, said in a statement explaining her vote against the bill.

She also criticized the increase in defense spending, saying those federal dollars could be spent on housing, health care and education programs.

U.S. Rep. Austin Scott, R-Tifton, said after the vote that he is skeptical of the argument that the anti-transgender policy didn’t belong in the bill.

“I don’t understand why we would allow in this country any medical procedure that would render a child under the age of 18 sterile, much less why we would expect the taxpayers to pay for it,” he said. “So, psychiatric care and other things along those lines are still covered, as they have been.”

The Senate is likely to vote on the bill early next week.

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DISASTER AID. Congress faces a Dec. 20 deadline to fund the federal government, and it is likely that a disaster aid package of roughly $100 billion will be attached to the bill.

U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Athens, is among the House Freedom Caucus members who say they want any disaster funding to be offset by reductions elsewhere to federal spending.

He said during an interview Wednesday that he wants Georgia families and businesses impacted by Hurricane Helene to get the money they need, but he wants it to be done in a way he deems fiscally responsible.

“Absolutely it needs to be paid for,” the northeast Georgia Republican said. “It would be irresponsible for a person to vote for it and it not be paid for, especially when our own Georgia Constitution requires that government spending be paid for, that you have a balanced budget, that if you’re going to spend something, you’ve got to have revenue to cover it.”

While Georgia is required to have a balanced budget, the U.S. government routinely spends more than it receives in revenue. The federal government has only had a surplus four times in the last 50 years, most recently in 2001, according to the U.S. Department of Treasury.

Clyde has not taken a position on how he would vote if legislation containing disaster funding for Georgia lands on his desk without the offsetting cuts, saying he wants to see what is proposed first.

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Credit: Kenny Holston/The New York Times

TODAY IN WASHINGTON:

The House will vote on a bill to increase the number of federal district judgeships over a 10-year period to address a shortage.
The Senate has more confirmation votes lined up.
No Labels, the organization that floated the idea of a third-party presidential ticket, will hold a one-day conference in Washington.

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