Rising Democratic Party star John Ossoff pulled no punches as he eviscerated Donald Trump Jr. over his links to a murky Russian oligarch.
It was revealed earlier this week that the president’s son had a little help paying for his lavish Bahamas wedding celebration from a billionaire with close ties to Vladimir Putin.
A bombshell report from ProPublica outed Umar Kremlev, a gambling magnate who heads the International Boxing Association (IBA), as the man who paid for the post-nuptials bash.
But Donald Trump’s MAGA shills have gone on the defensive, saying it was a mere gift from a friend. “The president doesn’t know who this person is. I think other members of the family don’t know who this person is ... When you say, am I investigating. Am I investigating what?” Attorney General Todd Blanche barked at reporters on Tuesday during a White House press briefing in the Rose Garden, appearing annoyed at the suggestion that Don Jr. might have done something wrong.
“Blanche is a joke and a hack,” Ossoff, a Democratic senator from Georgia who is vying for re-election in November, responded on The Briefing with Jen Psaki later that evening.
He then turned his fire on Don Jr. “Here are some questions I have. Is it the case that Kremlev was in China with Putin just days before he attended the wedding and gave what appears to have been a lavish gift to the president’s son? And what are his ties to Russia’s security services? I mean, this is just another day in Donald Trump’s America.”
The 39-year-old, who is being mooted by some as a potential 2028 presidential contender, added: “These folks are not just corrupt, they’re clowns. Here you have a Kremlin-connected Russian oligarch giving massive cash gifts to the president’s son. You’ve got this war spiraling out of control in the Middle East. My constituents in Georgia paying all-time record prices for diesel, while 300,000 of them have lost their health insurance so that the president’s allies in Congress could fund yet another tax giveaway for the rich and corporate America.”
He wasn’t done. “Total tariff chaos. It costs more now than ever before in American history to stock your fridge, to power your home, to buy school supplies for your kid. They throw a two-day party in Texas and claim this is a golden age. It’s a disgrace, and we have the opportunity in a month and a half to change the course of history.”
Kremlev did not attend the small wedding ceremony in May, but he and several associates were among about 50 guests who joined the Trumps for their wider celebrations in the Bahamas.
A spokesperson for Trump Jr. previously told ProPublica that Kremlev was a “personal friend of Don” and “not someone he has a business relationship with.”
Trump Jr.’s wife, who now goes by Bettina Trump, also confirmed in a statement on Instagram that the couple’s “dear friend Umar very generously hosted two incredible nights of celebrations for us AFTER our wedding.”
“It’s unfortunate that something so personal and happy can be recast as something political or sinister simply because of who someone is or where they come from,” she wrote. “Friendship doesn’t require a political motive.”
Ossoff, meanwhile, has made attacking the president and the first family over corruption allegations a pillar of his midterm campaign.
He has also commented on elder Trump’s closeness with a far younger aide, 35-year-old Natalie Harp, in remarks that went viral last month and prompted furious backlash from the White House.
