Pro-Trump Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) slammed members of the Democratic caucus who voted against a resolution to honor the life of slain right-wing youth activist Charlie Kirk — only to quietly delete his social media post after it became clear that he hadn't even shown up for the vote.
According to The Daily Beast, "After a late-night vote on House Resolution 719, which condemns Kirk’s assassination and honors his life, Republican Rep. Mike Collins posted on X to call out the 58 Democrats who voted against the bill. 'Shameful,' Collins wrote, at about 1:45 a.m. on Friday."
But shortly afterwards, reporters and conservative activists realized that Collins hadn't voted on the bill at all — one of only four Republicans to skip it.
"Rep. Mike Collins just called out 58 Democrats for voting against The Charlie Kirk Resolution," wrote Debbie Dooley, a MAGA personality who helped organize some of the Tea Party protests. "Talk about hypocrisy. Guess who was the only member of the Georgia Republican House Delegation that didn’t bother to show up to vote on it? No Show Rep. Mike Collins."
Following this takedown, Collins scrubbed the post from his X account, with his top comment now being "a post commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Unabomber’s manifesto being published," per The Beast.
A spokesperson for Collins says he did show up for the vote, but accidentally left early believing he had already had his vote tallied.
Collins, who is currently running in the Georgia GOP Senate primary to take on Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, has a history of getting into hot water. In February 2024, he suggested unauthorized immigrants should be thrown out of helicopters. A month later, he reposted, and then disavowed, an antisemitic attack on a Jewish journalist.