In the days leading up to President Donald Trump’s speech to the nation last week, speculation about what bombshells it might contain veered predictably from Venezuela to, of course, Georgia.

First, it was rumored online that the imprisoned Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro had cut a deal with the administration and would testify that his government had conspired to manipulate U.S. voting machines in the 2020 election. In return, Maduro and his wife would serve out their time as neighbors of Ghislaine Maxwell in a minimum security prison in Texas.

Trump did say in his speech that the Maduro regime had plotted to do a “big number” and used voting machines to rig its own elections in 2020, but the juicy parts of the Maduro rumor didn’t show up in the speech.

As that rumor faded, another took its place. Trump was going to open up that can of worms called Georgia, and claim to have evidence that the state’s two Democratic senators, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, had both been fraudulently elected in 2020.

Having hit Democratic fundraising gold, Warnock and Ossoff were almost jubilant in their public denials of the rumor. If he and Warnock were illegitimate, Ossoff said, then the president was calling the voters of the state illegitimate.

This sounded from the start like a pretty wild rumor, but it picked up a little wind on the day of the speech when Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama said in an interview that “we probably have four or five senators that didn’t legally win,” without saying who those were.

Then this rumor turned to smoke as well. In a nearly half-hour speech on voter fraud, Trump did not say the word “Georgia” once.

There was nothing in Trump’s speech, as it turned out, that there might have been any rumors about, although Trump presented a lot of it as ominous and new. There may yet be more serious revelations, but so far the documents the president declassified to strengthen his claims have backfired.

Warnock and Ossoff are among those who have warned that the purpose of the speech was to set the stage for some kind of takeover of this year’s elections. The way the speech didn’t live up to the rumors that preceded it, as if there were something being left unsaid, amplify those concerns.

Ossoff finds himself in a sensitive position at this point in the campaign. On the one hand, the news could hardly be better. He’s led his Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, in three polls conducted this year, something you haven’t been able to say about a Georgia Democrat in a long time. He’s even picked up the endorsement of conservative radio host Shelley Wynter.

Collins has so far been unable to get out of his own way. Recently he’s been dealing with the fallout over his son-in-law David Alan Scheer II, a white nationalist media influencer who’s been accused of anti-semitism and Nazi leanings.

On the other hand, we’re still nearly four months away from the election, and a lot of things can change over that time. Ossoff has been so effective in his Senate hearings and campaign appearances that he is frequently mentioned now as a 2028 presidential candidate. Some enthusiastic admirers have even suggested a ticket made of both Georgia senators.

When he was coach at Alabama, Nick Saban complained that the adulation the Crimson Tide was getting through the media was “like rat poison.” Much the same could be said about any temptation for Ossoff’s team to look past this year’s election.

Ossoff’s North Star in this campaign has been a steady focus on Trump and the “Epstein class” around him. One might say that’s the focus of Democrats generally this year, with Trump’s poll numbers in the tank. But Ossoff has made himself the Democrat of the hour, nationally and in Georgia.

With that comes a certain amount of credit and a certain amount of risk. The Democratic brand has its own polling problems. So far, Ossoff has done a great job of avoiding party distractions and aiming all his ammunition at Trump. With help from a rumor mill that never managed to deliver the goods.

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