Republican Senate candidate Mike Collins’ press conference abruptly ended after reporters questioned him about his son-in-law’s pro-Nazi online posts.
Rep. Collins, who has been a congressman in a reliably red Georgia district since 2023, on Thursday tried to shift the topic to his Democratic opponent, Sen. Jon Ossoff. But reporters pressed the issue, and Collins ultimately walked away from the podium with minimal comments about how David Alan Scheer II, according to a CNN investigation, is “a pro-White nationalist and social media influencer with a track record of sharing antisemitic material and Nazi imagery in comments across the internet.”
Towards the end of Collins’ seven-minute press conference outside the Monroe County Hospital, a reporter asked him if he wanted to comment on what Scheer posted online, like how, “There’s nothing wrong with White Nationalism.” Scheer also shared Nazi imagery.
Collins, 59, skirted the issue.
“You know, we’ve fully addressed that,” he claimed. “But Jon Ossoff refuses to disavow these Democrat socialist movements in our country.”
As Collins kept talking about Ossoff, another reporter asked him about his son-in-law.
Collins, stammering a bit, continued to discuss Ossoff.
Several reporters then spoke at once about Scheer. When Collins finished, a journalist told him: “Could you address his question, please, sir?”
Collins declined, instead calling on someone else. But a few seconds later, he abruptly ended the press conference.
“Listen, I appreciate y’all’s time. I appreciate you coming out this morning,” Collins said as another reporter asked if he really was not going to talk about his son-in-law “at all.”
Collins then walked away.
Though the Trump-endorsed candidate claimed that he had already addressed the familial controversy, he didn’t when asked by CNN earlier this month.
According to the outlet, his campaign ignored questions about Scheer and his racist and antisemitic comments. A spokesperson said in a statement that Collins’ “lifelong support for Israel is unquestionable and backed by his consistent record in Congress of standing up for Israel and her people.”
The Daily Beast asked Collins’ campaign which prior statement he was referring to when he said he had “fully” addressed the matter, and whether he condemns what Scheer said. In response, an aide sent a link to what Collins told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week, which stopped short of being a condemnation.
“Nobody speaks for me, and I don’t speak for anybody else,” he said then. “I think it’s pretty clear on where I’ve always stood with Israel.”
Collins added it was difficult to speak out against a family member because “you love your family.” It was a “personal decision” to remove from his campaign website a photo that included Scheer, he said.
Ossoff, 39, said later on Thursday that Collins “ran away” under the press’ scrutiny. The senator also mentioned how CNN reported that Scheer seems to have narrated promotional videos for his father-in-law’s trucking business.
“He is refusing to answer questions, and Georgians have a right to know the answers to these questions,” Ossoff said.
According to CNN, Scheer regularly shares content from white supremacist hate group Patriot Front to about 1.5 million followers on YouTube, Telegram, Instagram, and TikTok, among other places.
Scheer has blamed Jews for “porn,” “killing JFK,” 9/11, and the shooting of Charlie Kirk, among other things.
“Sixty million Christians that were killed by Jewish Bolsheviks in the early 1900s, right before World War II,” he said last November.
“They don’t tell us the history about Germany before World War II,” he continued. “All we’re told is, ‘Germany bad, Hitler evil, don’t ask questions, Holocaust, Holocaust, Holocaust, here’s 50 movies every year about the Holocaust and why it’s so bad.’”
Scheer is married to Collins’ daughter, Summer. Collins has two other children, Dakota and Dylan, as well as six grandchildren.
