Jon Ossoff – The Perception VS. The Reality

With early voting for Georgia’s 6th district special election beginning today, many in the district will cast their vote for someone the public knows next to nothing about, Jon Ossoff. For a candidate who’s only 30 years old, Ossoff’s campaign makes a lot of bold claims. His supporters should know that a number of these claims conflict with reality.

Personally, I don’t think the truth about Ossoff and his family will matter in the minds of his supporters. I believe most of them support Ossoff only because they hate Donald Trump. Their rabid hate is so strong that they won’t care that Jon Ossoff’s campaign is deceiving them by mis-representing the truth. With that said, here are some of Ossoff’s claims, followed by the reality.

CLAIM – Jon Ossoff is a small business owner, executive, and entrepreneur, an investigative documentary filmmaker who exposes political corruption. He knows what it means to grow a company, meet a payroll, and balance budgets. 

This creates the perception of a candidate who has endured the entrepreneurial struggle, who knows how to build and maintain a successful business.  

REALITY – Ossoff graduated from the London School of Economics in 2013. That same year he became CEO of Insight TWI, the documentary film company he “runs.” Ossoff didn’t endure the entrepreneurial struggle to build this company. He bought 50% ownership of an already established company using part of his inheritance. 

…..Ossoff comes from a wealthy Atlanta family, a fact that shouldn’t hurt him in the well-heeled Sixth. When his grandfather died, Jon Ossoff found himself with an inheritance……….“I thought [my grandfather] would be proud for me to use some of those resources to invest in growing a company whose work I believed in.”

To relate Ossoff’s family wealth to that of the average person in the 6th distract is misleading. The average family in the sixth district doesn’t pay the $20,000 – $23,000 tuition per year to send their kid to the Paideia School, nor do they ride around the world in their private yacht. The substantial Ossoff family wealth, which is more Donald Trump like than it is 6th district like, is another subject for another time.

To call Insight, the company Ossoff invested in, a “growing company” is also misleading. This makes it sound like Ossoff was taking a risk with an unknown company. The company had been around since 1991. It’s founder was Rob McCullagh, a well-known and award winning, BBC journalist. He still owns 50 percent of the company. Long before Ossoff ever got involved, the company had already produced a number of Emmy award winning documentaries. This wasn’t a risk for Ossoff. This was a well-established company, with a well-known founder, that had already achieved substantial success. Plus Ossoff is only 50 percent owner, so he only shoulders a portion of what little risk there might be.

Ossoff didn’t build this company. He threw some play money into a company that produces investigative documentaries that expose corruption. In other words, he made a low-risk investment in exchange for a title that looks good on his political resume.

This isn’t an example of someone who took risks and endured the entrepreneurial struggle. It’s an example of how the privileged child of an elite used old money to buy unearned credibility.

To present Ossoff as an entrepreneur who knows how to build a business is intentionally deceitful. Plus, you don’t suddenly become an investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker overnight despite having no education or experience with either.

CLAIM – His experience will help him create jobs and turn ATL into an economic powerhouse. Jon will work to level the playing field for small businesses so they can grow and create jobs that will empower Georgians. 

REALITY – The company Ossoff bought into is located in the United Kingdom. If he wanted to turn Atlanta into an economic powerhouse then why didn’t he invest his inheritance into an Atlanta based company? Why didn’t he stimulate Atlanta’s economy and help create jobs there? Why did he choose instead to stimulate the economy of the United Kingdom by buying a foreign company? Why should anyone believe that Jon Ossoff is going to do anything to help Atlanta’s economic system when he was already in a position to do so and instead, he choose to help a foreign country’s economic system?

Here’s another interesting fact about the company Ossoff partially owns. A month after Ossoff bought Insight News in 2013, his dad founded a non-profit in Atlanta called The World Investigates. Insight News was then renamed to Insight TWI (The World Investigates). This is interesting for a few reasons. One is that it associates Insight with an Atlanta address. This enables Ossoff and his campaign to create the false perception that he’s an Atlanta business owner. Another is that Stafford Publications, the company Ossoff’s dad runs, teaches corporations and non-profits how to master the tax code. His dad, Richard Ossoff, has founded a long list of corporations and non-profits in Georgia and around the country.

Donald Trump famously spoke about being able to, within legal bounds, game the tax system. The Ossoff family appears to at the very minimum have the skills, knowledge, and resources to do this better than even Trump.

CLAIM – Jon will work in Congress to reduce the tax burden on small businesses and simplify small business tax filing.

REALITY – As previously mentioned, his dad’s company, Strafford Publications teaches seminars to help corporations and non-profits “master the tax code.” If Jon Ossoff simplified the tax code, he’d undermine one of the core income drivers of his dad’s company.

CLAIM – “I’ve got 5 years of experience as a national security staffer in the U.S Congress. I held a National Security clearance.” 

REALITY – Ossoff held the security clearance for only five months. He obtained the clearance because he was otherwise prevented from attending briefings with Hank Johnson, his boss. In other words, he wasn’t granted clearance to fight corruption like his ads claim.

This is a classic case of lying by omission. When Ossoff makes this claim the way that he makes it, he is well aware of the false perception that it creates in the minds of those who hear it. This is no accident. This is what politicians do so that when they are accused of lying, they can claim that they didn’t lie. These lies of omission are the most insidious kind. 

CLAIM – The Washington Post Debunked Allegations that Ossoff inflated his resume in regards to his statements about his national security clearance. In the linked video, starting at the 3:24 mark, Ossoff is asked about accusations that he inflated his resume. Ossoff responds by saying that the claims have been debunked by the Washington Post.

REALITY – Ossoff is either knowingly lying, or someone misinformed him as to what the Washington Post concluded because they did not debunk this claim. The Post clearly wanted to debunk the claim…but they couldn’t. Here’s what they ultimately concluded.

“Would an ordinary viewer understand that Ossoff’s clearance was for less than half a year? Not very likely. Moreover, declaring himself a “senior national security staffer” is also bit too much résumé puffery. Technically, Ossoff walks a very careful line. But the overall impression is misleading enough to merit a Pinocchio. One Pinocchio.”

That’s hardly a debunking.

CLAIM – Jon will introduce legislation to reform campaign finance laws and reduce the toxic and corrupt impact of money in politics. He is opposed to the Citizens United decision allowing unchecked, anonymous money in politics.

REALITY – His mom is president of NewPowerPAC, a super pac.

What are the odds that Jon Ossoff is going to implement policy that goes against the interests of an organization his mom is president of? Are we to believe that Ossoff is going to implement policy that undermines not only his dad’s company, but also his mom’s company?

If you buy that, I’ve got a bridge I’d like to sell you.