Ossoff says he has "zero interest in running for president" in heated Georgia Senate debate with Collins

Incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff and his Republican challenger, Rep. Mike Collins, continued trading both personal and political attacks on Tuesday night as the politicians fought over the war with Iran, rising costs and the 2020 election results in a heated debate for who will represent Georgia in the Senate.

Ossoff — whose national profile has surged in recent years, leading to speculation that he could seek the White House — also confirmed once again that he has "zero interest in running for president" in 2028.

The debate, part of the Atlanta Press Club Loudermilk-Young Debate Series, is the second and last exchange between the two Georgia lawmakers ahead of the midterm elections and comes on the same day as early voting started in the state.

Both parties see the race as a pivotal election for who controls the Senate starting next year. Ossoff, the only Senate Democrat running for reelection in a state that President Trump won in 2024, is attempting to show that his 2021 runoff victory against then-incumbent Sen. David Perdue wasn't simply a temporary blue wave in the Peach State.

Both candidates continued the messaging in the first debate, with Collins repeating his allegation that Ossoff is an out-of-touch politician who cares more about online attention than everyday Georgians.

"This is a race between Georgia and Georgetown. Somebody that has created jobs and opportunities right here in Georgia on this red clay versus a globetrotting trust fund kid who got to the Senate and then at every turn has voted to make our life less safe, more expensive and worse off," Collins said.

Ossoff criticized the Republican lawmaker for what he called "widely documented and completely disqualifying ties to white nationalism and neo-Nazi ideology," and called Collins "an example of the Washington establishment."

"Congress is full of congressmen's sons who are only in Congress because their daddies were congressmen, just like Mike Collins, who are perfectly happy to send other people's children to die in war," he said. (Collins' father, Mac Collins, represented Georgia in the House for six terms ending in 2005.)

Collins responded by saying that the only thing his parents gave him "is the opportunity to go to work."

"Jon Ossoff, the only thing he knows about work is working the ATM machine, getting his granddaddy's money out of it," he said.

If Ossoff is reelected and the Democrats take control of the Senate, there is a possibility that the party pushes another attempt to impeach Mr. Trump.

Asked if he would support an impeachment effort, Ossoff did not give a specific yes-or-no answer, but he said that Mr. Trump's "misconduct, abuse of power and corruption already exceed any prior standard for impeachment."

"If the U.S. House does send us articles of impeachment, I will consider them on the merits as a juror in the Senate," he said.

When asked about being a presidential contender in 2028, Ossoff said he isn't planning on running and committed to a full six-year term. Ossoff also said in August that he isn't interested.

Collins argued that Ossoff would run for the 2028 election, and that he would be the "DSA candidate," referring to the Democratic Socialists of America. (Ossoff is not a member of the group.)

Both candidates attacked each other over Jeffrey Epstein. Collins brought up that Ossoff's campaign has drawn support from Silicon Valley investor Reid Hoffman, a major Democratic Party donor who had meetings with Epstein. (Hoffman has said he "only knew Jeffrey Epstein because of a fundraising relationship with MIT, which I very much regret.")

In response, Ossoff argued that Collins voted to cover up government records on Epstein during his time in Congress, referring to a set of unsuccessful votes to release the Epstein files in the summer of 2025. A bill to release the files ultimately passed late last year by a near-unanimous margin after Mr. Trump backed the legislation.

"When we took those votes, we knew that 14- and 15-year-old had been raped and trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplices. He wouldn't vote to release those files until Donald Trump gave him permission," he said.

Collins said that he did vote to release the files, emphasized Ossoff's connection to Hoffman again and said the "call's coming from inside the house."

When pressed by Collins to condemn Hoffman, Ossoff said that Mr. Trump was named "a thousand times in the Epstein files," and repeated that Collins voted to cover up the files.

Collins has never backed off his false claims that former President Joe Biden's win in the 2020 election was rigged, an argument he featured when he first ran for Congress in 2022.

"You count the legal votes that were cast in the state of Georgia, Donald Trump won this state. Period," he said in one ad, in which he held a long gun and bemoaned the "federal hijacking" of the 2020 election. He concluded with shooting a mock voting machine.

When asked if he still believed that Mr. Trump defeated Biden, Collins said simply that "Joe Biden went into office, and boy, Georgians paid for it," before pivoting to criticizing the former president's economic policies.

When pressed by Ossoff later, he said that "everybody [has] seen my views on that. They know my views on that."

"There was a lot of doubts on that," Collins said. "Yes, Joe Biden was the president."

Collins was asked about reports that former members of his staff had connections to white nationalists.

Ossoff has called for Collins to release all communications between Kip Talley, Collins' former chief of staff, and a group that included white nationalists Nick Fuentes and Richard Spencer. The senator had continued that line of questioning in the first debate, calling him a "bigot" and saying that his words were "disqualifying to be a U.S. senator."

When asked directly if he was a white nationalist, Collins firmly denied the label, saying that he condemned all hate speech.

"I've fired people when things happen. Fired them," he said.

The Republican lawmaker then repeated his accusation that Ossoff had connections with Hoffman, Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, left-wing activist and streamer Hasan Piker and the Democratic Socialists of America, saying that the senator had not condemned them.

Ossoff in return said that Collins hadn't even been able to stop neo-Nazi propaganda from being produced in his own house, referencing allegations that his son-in-law shared hateful content.

In the last debate, Ossoff said that he had believed that Israeli forces violated humanitarian law in the Gaza Strip, but said calling the situation a genocide was a question for the International Criminal Court.

In December, Ossoff voted to block some shipments of U.S. arms to Israel, a topic that was criticized by some Jewish groups in Georgia.

On Tuesday, Ossoff said that the security of those living in Israel and in the Palestinian territories mattered to him, and he stood by his previous votes.

"When it comes to selling weapons or giving weapons to a foreign government, we should assess in every case whether that foreign government is acting consistent with our interest, our laws and our values," he said. "Israel had every right to go to war with Hamas after the despicable terrorist attack. I also believe it's the right of U.S. senators to ensure American laws and international laws are being respected by those who fight with our weapons."

With three weeks before the election, both parties are pushing to get their supporters and undecided voters out to the polls. On Friday, Mr. Trump will rally with Collins at Dalton Municipal Airport in Whitfield County. Former Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to appear with Ossoff at campaign events in October as well.

Unseating Ossoff is looking like a challenging task for Collins. The Cook Political Report and the University of Virginia's Center for Politics have both rated the Georgia Senate race as likely Democrat. Ossoff has consistently led in the polls.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.