Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia used a Sunday address at Berean Christian Church in Stone Mountain to accuse the Trump administration of surrounding itself with loyalists willing to lie, drawing a parallel to the biblical King Ahab, who imprisoned the one prophet who warned him against a disastrous war.
“The price of admission to the president’s service seems to be proof that you’re willing to lie for him,” Ossoff told the congregation, according to a video of the July 26 address that he posted. “Maybe you saw Jay Clayton, the president’s nominee to lead our intelligence services, refuse again and again while he was under oath to affirm Donald Trump’s defeat in 2020. Or Pete Hegseth before the Senate this week, refusing to recant his lies about the war.”
Ossoff was referring to Clayton’s July 15 confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, of which Ossoff is a member. When Ossoff directly asked Clayton, “Who won the 2020 election?” Clayton replied, “I’m not gonna do this with you,” according to an official release from Ossoff’s Senate office. Clayton told the committee he was “not an election denier” and that Joe Biden “was certified” as president, but declined throughout the roughly two-hour hearing to say Biden had won. The Intelligence Committee advanced his nomination on a 9-8 party-line vote on July 21.
Ossoff argued the pattern extended to the Iran war. “There’s something uniquely despicable about lying a nation into war,” Ossoff said. “Treating citizens as fools, and the selfless patriots who serve as pawns. Remember earlier this year, they claimed there was an imminent nuclear threat. After last year, they told us the Iranian nuclear program had been obliterated. Both times lies.”
The “obliterated” claim traces to a White House statement issued after June 2025 strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. “Experts Agree: Iran’s Nuclear Facilities Have Been Obliterated,” the administration’s official release declared, quoting Hegseth saying the bombing campaign “obliterated Iran’s ability to create nuclear weapons.” Less than a year later, the administration launched the current war on Feb. 28, citing the need to prevent Iran from obtaining a weapon.
Ossoff cited specific timestamps from the current conflict. “On day 12 of this war, the president said, quote, ‘We won,'” Ossoff said. “On day 14, Hegseth said Iran’s military was, quote, ‘destroyed.’ Five months later, we’re still bombing. Americans are still dying. Iran still has its uranium. Hormuz is still closed. I challenge anyone to defend it, a war built on lies told by a White House utterly absent figures of integrity to dissuade the president from his delusions.”
Ossoff was referencing Hegseth’s July 21 testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee, where Hegseth sought approval of a supplemental funding request for the war and faced questioning over his earlier statements that Iran’s military had been made “combat ineffective.” During that hearing, Hegseth defended the campaign’s overall impact without directly retracting his earlier claims, describing damage done to Iran’s navy, air force and industrial base.
Ossoff then turned to the Book of Kings, comparing the administration to King Ahab of Samaria. “Ahab too surrounded himself with yes-men, and it led him to reckless war and to his downfall,” Ossoff said. “As he weighed going to war, King Ahab consulted his 400 court prophets, and they assured him unanimously of victory. Just one man spoke truth to power, the prophet Micaiah, who warned the king against war, and for it Ahab imprisoned him.” Ossoff quoted Ahab’s words about Micaiah from 1 Kings 22:8: “I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me.”
Ossoff closed by contrasting ancient Samaria with the present day. “Now, in the kingdom of Samaria 3,000 years ago, those living under Ahab’s misrule had little recourse,” Ossoff said. “But in the United States today, the power of the presidency is nothing compared to the power of the people. Nothing.”
Berean Christian Church is a multi-campus non-denominational congregation based in the Atlanta metro area, with its main campus in Stone Mountain and additional locations in Gwinnett and Henry counties.
Ossoff, who is up for reelection in 2026 in a state Trump carried in 2024, has increasingly incorporated religious and moral framing into his public criticism of the administration, a pattern consistent with his appearance at Berean and his prior remarks on the Senate floor regarding the Iran war and election integrity.
Neither the White House nor Hegseth’s office has issued a public response to Ossoff’s remarks.