Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) has been hit with another white supremacist scandal involving a former staffer, and other Republicans are worried his troubling associations will cost them a Senate seat.
The Georgia Republican is challenging Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) in November's election, but the Washington Post reported Thursday that former intern Preston Parra, 24, shared images of a swastika on his X account and an AI-generated image of himself in Ku Klux Klan robes, and he told the newspaper he believes "the white race contributes more to the world."
Collins himself has been accused by critics of posting racist and antisemitic content on social media, and his former chief of staff, Brandon Phillips, was dismissed over a vulgar post about a rival campaign operative, and a subsequent chief of staff, Kip Talley, was replaced last month over a report that he joined a group chat with white nationalists Nick Fuentes and Richard Spencer.
Ex-aide William Paul, son of Sen. Rand Paul, was also caught on video hurling antisemitic insults at Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) at a bar, and Collins's son-in-law David Alan Scheer II shared Nazi imagery online, including polling followers on a video titled "why Gen-Z doesn't hate Hitler."
That adds up to an unmistakable pattern, according to critics – including fellow Republicans.
"Swastikas and the Klan," stated Ossoff. "Another week, another scandal for the bigot Congressman Mike Collins and his collapsing Senate campaign."
"Ladies and Gentlemen, the problem is this is an ongoing pattern with those Mike Collins has hired and he has tended to keep them until it becomes too politically inconvenient," declared Georgia-based conservative pundit Erik Erikson.
"Weird how Collins just keeps having people all over his campaign and family who are outright Nazis," pondered The Dispatch's Mike Nelson. "Just crazy bad luck, I'm sure."
"Why does this keep happening to Mike Collins? He has such bad luck," agreed Lawfare's Eric Columbus.
"The white supremacists feel welcome in Mike Collins' home and his office. Why is that?" wondered Georgia state Rep. Esther Panich, a Democrat.
"This is what the Republican Party Is offering. Nazi is as Nazi does," observed retired nuclear scientist Cheryl Rofer.
"Will the GOP disavow Mike Collins, who is ON THE BALLOT and far more extreme than @hasanthehun?" asked legal expert Marcy Wheeler.
"The first time it happens can be an accident," opined Georgia journalist Jay Bookman. "The second time it happens can be a coincidence. The third time it happens you might be on to something. The fourth time it happens?"
"None of you guys believed me when I said Mike Collins is a worse candidate than Herschel Walker. Believe me now?" said journalist Zaid Jilani.
