Georgia
Georgia officials react to Trump’s address on election security
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — Georgia officials and lawmakers are digesting a primetime address from President Donald Trump on Thursday, during which he made claims of unsafe election machines, noncitizen voting, and deep state cover ups all primarily tied to the country’s 2020 election.
The White House followed up Trump’s address with a large upload of documents purporting to show evidence of the president’s claims. The included reports from the nation’s national intelligence agencies on the topics the president touched on, but at times contradicted his sentiments.
Georgia officials were quick to respond.
Republican Congressman Mike Collins, who received Trump’s endorsement in his race against incumbent Georgia Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff, defended the president’s willingness to keep a watchful eye on the nation’s election systems.
“Our right to free and secure elections should be protected relentlessly, and every American should be alarmed by our enemies’ ability to disrupt our elections and jeopardize our right to vote,” Collins said in an online post. “There is no time more important than now to pass the SAVE America Act and safeguard democracy.”
Trump, at the end of his address, urged Congress to pass his “Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements” or SAVE Act, which would require proof of citizenship to cast a vote in the U.S. So far, it has stalled in the Senate.
“If you look at voting today it’s in such bad shape in so many states and we are committing to fix it,” said Trump. “Addressing this crisis of election security demands that congress must pass the SAVE America Act. How easy is that to do? Unless you want to cheat.”
Georgia’s Democratic lawmakers also were skeptical at best about Trump’s claims.
“The president is rehashing his demented fantasies about an election being stolen in 2020 as a pretext for interfering in the election in 2026,” said Sen. Raphael Warnock.
Gabriel Sterling was the COO at the Georgia Secretary of State office in 2020. He agreed with Trump that election security is extremely important, but said the president made claims he couldn’t back up.
“When it was done it was essentially, is that it” said Sterling of the president’s address. “He talked about how the vulnerabilities could be exploited. Well the vulnerabilities of any system could be exploited and every system has vulnerabilities. That’s why you have people, processes, rules and laws and training around it so that they won’t be exploited.”
But the real world effects of Trump’s address took shape Friday. In his own separate address, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said state’s that don’t conform to the White House’s plan for enhanced election security could risk losing funding and grant dollars.
“Meaning that if these states want grants and they want to be reimbursed to run federal elections, they’re going to have to implement security,” he said. “We’re not trying to get into anything else, but we’re saying that the machines had to be secured.”
Copyright 2026 WANF. All rights reserved.
LOS ANGELES – OCTOBER 19: The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood, a made for TV movie, originally broadcast May 19, 2000. Pictured is cast member Ben Jones (as Cooter Davenport). Image dated October 19, 1999. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images)
ATLANTA – Ben Jones, an actor known for playing Cooter Davenport in “The Dukes of Hazzard” before serving as a U.S. representative for Georgia, has died at 84.
What we know:
Former actor and politician Ben Jones died at his home from a heart attack, according to a Facebook post by his wife, Alma Viator.
“I lost the love of my life today. Ben passed from a massive heart attack. He was home resting in his favorite chair waiting for the Braves to come on and whoop the Yankees. Ben had the most amazing rich full life. He loved and was loved by so many. He will be missed. I loved him so so much,” Viator wrote.
Dig deeper:
Jones gained widespread fame for depicting Cooter Davenport, a lovable mechanic who ran Cooter’s Garage, on the hit television series set in fictional Hazzard County, Georgia.
He later mirrored his real-life political career by playing a congressman in the television movie “The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion!”
Following his television run, Jones entered politics and served two terms as a Democrat representing Georgia’s 4th District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1989 to 1993.
He acted in theater and appeared in the North Carolina-set 1968 film “Killers Three,” starring Robert Walker Jr., Diane Varsi and Dick Clark. He relocated to Atlanta in 1969, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Jones also appeared in several films before landing his famous TV role, including “Together for Days” in 1972, “The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings” in 1976, “Smokey and the Bandit” in 1977, “The Lincoln Conspiracy” in 1977 and “They Went That-a-Way & That-a-Way” in 1978.
What we don’t know:
It is not known if any public memorial services or funeral arrangements have been planned for Jones at this time.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered from Alma Viator, who posted a statement on social media, as well as The Hollywood Reporter (linked above) and Congress.gov.
The Georgia Bulldogs have plenty of questions surrounding their wide receiver group this season. Georgia coach Kirby Smart offered a feisty response to a question about how he would assess the Georgia wide receiver room entering the 2026 season.
“Keep questioning them, because the more you question them, the more it helps me motivate them,” Smart said. “So everybody says they don’t listen to you guys. The wide receiver are listening, so they’ll have a new challenge issued based on your question.”
Bleacher Report’s David Kenyon named college football teams that “badly need” a No. 1 wide receiver and Georgia was one of six teams to make the list. Kenyon notes that Georgia has a “serious void to fill” at wide receiver, which is fair. The Bulldogs lost their all-time single season receptions record holder in Zachariah Branch, who is now with the Atlanta Falcons.
Branch is not the only experienced Georgia receiver to depart over the offseason. The Dawgs lost six of their top seven receivers from the 2025 season. Georgia’s No. 1 leading receiver Branch is gone. The second-leading receiver, Colbie Young, is in the NFL. Georgia does return third-leading receiver London Humphreys. However, Georgia also lost wide receivers Dillon Bell (No. 4) and Noah Thomas (No. 6) along with tight end Oscar Delp (No. 5) and running back Cash Jones (No. 7).
The No. 1 receiver is probably the biggest question on Georgia’s offensive depth chart. Georgia’s top candidates to be a WR1 are London Humphreys, Georgia Tech transfer Isiah Canion and Talyn Taylor.
Kenyon makes a good point that Georgia will “need a receiver to emerge in clutch moments” this fall. The Bulldogs prioritize running the football, but having a receiver that can consistently win one-on-one matchups will be huge for Georgia if the Bulldogs are going to make a run in the College Football Playoff.
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Fall Camp week one is in the books for Georgia Tech.
The Yellow Jackets will return to the field next week as the season opener against Colorado continues to get closer and closer. With the first week in the books, what have we learned about Georgia Tech’s offense so far?
1. Offensive line taking shape
While nothing is set yet, Georgia Tech’s offensive line is starting to come together after this first week of fall camp.
When talking with the media earlier this week, Yellow Jackets head coach Brent Key talked about how they have seven players up front that they have been pleased with so far, and he mentioned Ethan Mackenny, Kevin Peay Jr, Joseph Ionata, Malachi Carney, Jameson Riggs, Markell Samuel, and Jordan Floyd have separated themselves so far.
Mackenny, Peay, and Ionata seem to have locked things down (no surprise) so far, while Carney and Samuel are battling for the right guard position. Will Jameson Riggs be the starter at right tackle or could the loser of the right guard position slide out and start? If Samuel ends up being the starter, Carney played all of last season at right tackle and graded out well there on Pro Football Focus.
The battle for the depth positions is going to be something to watch, but things are starting to iron out for the Yellow Jackets up front.
Alberto Mendoza taking charge
During the spring, Alberto Mendoza was battling for the starting position at Georgia Tech and trying to beat out Grady Adamson, Graham Knowles, and Cole Bergeron. Now, Mendoza is entering fall camp as the starter for Georgia Tech and he he has taken charge of the position, though Key reiterated this week that they are working on not putting too much on the young quarterbacks plate.
Key mentioned that when he spoke to Mendoza before fall camp, he felt that this was the first time that this felt like “Georgia Tech’s” Alberto Mendoza:
“Yeah, I mean, he’s developing every day. You know, I talked to him for a long time today. Yesterday and today. And honestly, it felt for the first time it was Georgia Tech’s Alberto Mendoza. And we talked about it. I mean, shoot. Anytime you come from somewhere else, I mean, what are you always doing? You’re always thinking about what happened this time last year. So there’s always a natural comparison to whatever you did to your previous, whether you were a freshman, you were comparing it back to high school, right, transfer, or you were here comparing it back to last year at this time. That’s human nature. I’ve been excited to see his progression. Leadership, I think that’s one of the most overused words right now in all of football, all of sports, probably in life.
You try to force a square peg in a round hole a lot of times with this leadership thing, and you don’t truly allow the guys that are leaders to rise up and lead in moments when they need to. If you had 100 leaders on the team, you’d probably go 100 different directions and have no success. So I want him to be him. I want him to understand that we’ve got a full offensive toolbox to be able to go use.”
Georgia Tech is hoping that an elite running game, elite kicker, and an improved defense will make things easier for Mendoza in his first season as a starter and that he can be a leader in his effective way.
Running Backs Living Up To The Hype
Georgia Tech’s running back room entered fall camp as a much hyped unit and they have lived up to that so far.
At ACC Media Days, it was Justice Haynes and Malachi Hosley front and center representing the Yellow Jackets and they are going to be the top 1-2 punch on this team.
But this week has been about showcasing the depth of this unit.
Chad Alexander and Trelain Maddox have gotten a chance to speak to the media this week, and for the first time since the spring, running backs coach Jimmy Smith did as well.
Smith did not hold back when talking about the kind of player that Haynes is and how he wants to be great, which he imparts on the rest of the running back room as well:
“He doesn’t relax. Like, he doesn’t say, I got it already, so I don’t need to work as hard right now. I don’t need to do this right here. I don’t need to study this hard. I don’t need to have my iPad today because we already went over this one time. Nah. He comes in on day four, the same installation. If he’s doing the same installation, he know everything ain’t making a mistake. He won’t have his iPad right now and everything like he never saw it before. So it makes them, they can’t have an excuse. You can’t say, Coach, I got it. Nah. You made a mistake on that. He write it down and he make a mistake on that at all.
So, he’s… He’s the type of kid where you’re blessed to have him in your room, type of kid who don’t take a playoff, don’t want an opportunity to say, okay, I already got it. He’s going to practice. He’s going to do everything in the meetings, everything at a high level, as high level as he can every time. He wants to be great. Good ain’t good enough for him, and he makes everybody do that. With Chad and Malachi and Tre and Shane and all the guys, that’s something we see every day.”
We still have to see this unit on the field, but it is hard to not be optimistic still about where this group is at this point in fall camp. ]
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