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TMZ Confronts Rising Dem Star With NSFW Question

Jon Ossoff looked both flattered and shocked on Friday.

Georgia senator Jon Ossoff revealed that he knows what “BDE” is—but won’t admit to having it.

TMZ’s Charlie Cotton caught Ossoff, 39, by an elevator on Friday, where the Australian co-editor folded his NSFW question into a compliment.

“A lot of people have been saying you’ve got BDE,” Cotton told the senator, brazenly suggesting the rising Democratic star had “big d--- energy.”

Ossoff didn’t seem to need any explanation for the acronym as he laughed at the comment.

Cotton explained, “You walk with confidence,” and “carry yourself” in a BDE way.

Ossoff replied with a smile, “Only an Aussie would ask me that question,” before offering a kind goodbye. The senator’s mother was born and raised in Sydney, Australia before immigrating to the U.S. in her early 20s.

The Democratic senator has been credited with showing the bite some left-leaning voters crave in the Party as a response to the Trump era—and the internet likability to keep the attention of the youngest voters. When he was running for office in 2021, Vogue declared that Ossoff “bears a resemblance to a grown-up Timothée Chalamet” and suggested he “start a fundraising OnlyFans” of him “just buttoning his shirts and rolling up his sleeves.”

Ossoff won his special election seat alongside Democratic senator Raphael Warnock during that year’s historic double run-off in the Senate. He’s up for re-election in 2026—but key forecasting shows the odds may be in his favor, as swing voters bail on Trump.

Trump has upped the ante on slamming Ossoff as the senator’s popularity grows, saying more than once that he reminded him of “Pee-wee Herman” (though he couldn’t quite remember the entertainer’s name the second time around).

The senator has consistently called out the president’s failings and matched his insults, calling Trump “the world’s most famous sore loser” ahead of his doomed election fraud speech earlier this month.

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“It’s Donald Trump who tried to defraud Georgia voters in that election,” Ossoff told the press ahead of Trump’s primetime speech to amplify his 2021 election fraud claims. “Donald Trump who tried to commit election fraud when he called Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger—and it was caught on tape, and you should play the tape to your viewers today—and badgered and bullied Georgia’s top election official to ‘find him the votes’ that he needed to win in a state where he had lost.”

Last month, following one of Trump’s late-night posting sprees in which he shared AI-generated images celebrating himself, Ossoff slammed him again. “The president attacked the pope. He posted his own face on Mount Rushmore and a made-up Trump peace prize. He announced three times, ‘America’s back,’ and he assured an increasingly concerned public he’s in excellent health.”

“He’s doing these things now because no one will honor him when he’s gone,” Ossoff continued, to applause. “He’s a failed president and a national disgrace.”

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Eboni Boykin-PattersonEntertainment Reporter

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