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Mike Collins Questioned Over Racist And Antisemitic Posts By Ex-Staffers

Rep. Mike Collins, the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate seat held by Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, is facing questions about a family member’s and former staffers’ white supremacist and antisemitic statements and images.

Former Collins staffer William Paul, a son of Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, worked as the digital director for Collins from January to June 2025. In May 2026, the Washington Sun, then called NOTUS, reported that Paul had yelled antisemitic comments at Republican New York Rep. Mike Lawler at a bar in Washington, D.C.

Reese Gorman, a reporter for NOTUS, wrote that he was a witness to the younger Paul interrupting a discussion of a Kentucky primary and telling Lawler that if Rep. Thomas Massie lost it, it would be because of “your people.“ To Lawler’s question, “My people?” Gorman wrote that Paul responded, “Yeah, you Jews.” When Lawler said he wasn’t Jewish, Paul said, “Oh wow, I’m so sorry for calling you a Jew.”

According to Courthouse News Service, Lawler told reporters: “He goes, ‘oh, I’m sorry to accuse you of that,’ which is just a remarkable statement in and of itself. … At one point, [he] said that he hates Jews and hates gays and doesn’t care if they die. And I think that’s f ***ing disgusting.”

Paul publicly apologized for his tirade on May 13: “Last night, I had too much to drink and said some things that don’t represent who I really am,” he wrote on the social platform X. “I’m sorry, and today I am seeking help for my drinking problem.”

In July, CNN reported on social media posts by Collins’ son-in-law David Allen Scheer that the outlet said contained antisemitic and anti-Muslim comments and conspiracy theories and promoted white supremacist groups.

On August 3, a group of Georgia faith leaders held a press conference outside of a church in the Sweet Auburn District of Atlanta to demand that Collins answer for his son-in-law’s comments.

“Maya Angelou once said, ‘If you want to know who somebody is, ask them.’ So today we’re asking you, Mr. Mike Collins — who are you? Who do you represent?” said the Rev. Dr. Gerald L. Durley, pastor emeritus of the Providence Baptist Church of Atlanta and a former dean at Clark Atlanta University. “We cannot stand –- not with all the diversity in this city — for you to be connected, or even have ties.”

“He [Scheer] has had no role in my campaign whatsoever,” Collins said in a statement to Capitol Beat in August, “and I don’t believe or support those views and I have always condemned racism and antisemitism regardless of the source.”

In August, the Washington Post reported that a former staffer of Collins by the name of Preston Parra had posted on X a photo of himself in a Ku Klux Klan robe, an image of a swastika, a song lyric associated with the Nazi party, the N-word, and “White Power” — all of which he said were meant to be satire.

“Preston Parra has no affiliation with Mike Collins’ office or campaign,” Meyer Siegfried, a spokesperson for Collins, said, according to The Guardian. “The posts are vile, completely unhinged, and Mike Collins unequivocally condemns them.”

Additionally, as reported by Slate, Kip Talley, another one of Collins’ staffers who was fired, was in a group chat with far-right antisemite and white nationalist Nick Fuentes and Richard Spencer, a neo-Nazi leader in the alt-right movement and a promoter of the August 12, 2017, Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, a march to oppose the removal of Confederate monuments.

The Georgia Independent reached out to the Collins campaign for comment for this story, but did not receive a response.

Reprinted with permission from The Georgia Independent

Body Horror: Donald Trump, Natalie Harp And The Political Uses Of Revulsion

Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff is, for the moment anyway, the Democratic Party’s living legend in effective rhetoric. And he struck a hell of a nerve just by stating the obvious: Trump, he said, “doesn’t want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the emir of Qatar.”

On its face, that statement is difficult for any sentient political observer, right or left, to disagree with. It has been obvious for months that Trump would much rather spend his days on his Bob the Builder projects, take a few public naps, and spend the wee hours exulting and giggling over racist memes and AI renderings of himself as Genghis Khan or Jesus – delivered by Natalie Harp, the woman his own staff calls his “Binky,” his security blanket.

Even Forbes, The Capitalist Tool, noticed, publishing a story headlined, “Natalie Harp Seen Everywhere With Trump Lately.”

Meanwhile, his lawfully wedded spouse of two decades hasn’t been spotted anywhere, let alone anywhere near him, for almost a month.

Cat’s away, mice will play! Oops…

But the right has gone crazy. Scandalized pearl-clutching all around!

Trump himself feebly insulted Ossoff, calling him Pee-wee Herman. His allies, however, rushed to the defense of his chivalry and Harp’s honor in a ferocious eruption of performative hypocrisy.

Megyn “blood coming out of her wherever” Kelly went to the mat – figuratively, if not literally – for the disgusting cad.Kelly was joined in moral outrage by the whole gang, playing the same tune in concert, like the Philharmonic, from Newt Gingrich – who famously discussed his divorce papers with his hospitalized wife – to Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, who, like Kelly, accused Ossoff of “sexism.”

Mentioning in a political speech that the President is spending time with “Natalie” is apparently a level of offense above that of mainstream journalists quoting solid White House sources claiming Harp is so devoted to Trump that she:

Slept in a Trump golf club locker room for a summer rather than be exiled from his glorious presence.

Left him mash notes that alarmed even his devoted chief of staff, including, “You are all that matters to me,” “I don’t ever want to let you down,” and “I want to bring you joy.”

Was one of the chosen ones invited aboard the sneaky Presidential food cart on the tarmac in Ankara, conveying him away from possible harm, leaving reporters and Cabinet members behind as live decoys for the Iranians Israel had promised were coming to get him.

Apparently reads him to sleep at night with racist and sexist memes and conspiracy theories he can push out on “Trump Social.”

Inspired the White House nickname “Binky,” because, as the Times’ Maggie Haberman said, “She is sort of his binky, for lack of a better way of putting it, a comfort blanket.”

As we noted almost a year ago in The Body Horror of the Trump Years, after that tense weekend during which Trump disappeared, a brown something was seen tossed out of the White House residence window, and rumors were rife that he was dead or dying at Walter Reed:

The MAGA movement has undeniable aspects of body horror, a subgenre of horror that involves grotesque degeneration, mutation, or transformation of the human body … The doddering old man’s body is metaphor for the ghastly corrupting effect he has had on our country: a decade-long descent of our public discourse into profane spectacle, the jettisoning of common decency and empathy in favor of rudeness and cruelty, the daily rituals of public humiliation, open racism and sexism, and the craven terror of the disfigured Republican Party.

Natalie Harp’s arrival in Trumpworld is itself body-horror adjacent. She emerged, fully formed as a useful political prop, out of California around 2018, when she first tweeted support for Trump. The following year, she appeared on Fox and Friends, claiming she had a bone cancer that standard chemo was not helping. She credited Trump’s “Right to Try” law with giving her access to an experimental treatment that supposedly saved her life. (Her story has been convincingly challenged, but letting facts get in the way of a good political story is not the MAGA way.)

Trump, watching his favorite show, was enchanted by the Ivanka-Marla lookalike Liberty University graduate. He soon invited her onstage at one of his speeches. Before long, she was on national alt-right fake-news TV, spouting Bible verses and eventually Big Lie election trash as an anchor on OAN. She also landed a coveted speaking slot at the 2020 Republican convention.

By the summer of 2024, she was bunking in the locker room at the Trump National Golf Course Bedminster, so as to not let too much daylight get between her and The Donald. Melania was said to be irked and the staff alarmed, but nothing put a dent in her clutch behavior, least of all the object of her devotion.

Last week, Michael Wolff shared one of his best Inside Trump’s Brain reflections on Instagram, challenging one of the anti-Trump world’s most cherished certainties: the ubiquitous meme that Trump wears a diaper. Wolff is convinced it isn’t true, and there is little reason to doubt his access to Trumpworld insiders; the Epstein files made that crystal clear. He blames our universal attachment to the Trump diaper on a psychological syndrome that afflicts us all: the utter disbelief that obese, vituperative, rambling Trump “exists at all – an 80 year old man who lives on junk food and has never exercised a day in his life.”

As Wolff put it, we are riveted by the survival of this visibly decaying man: “How is that possible?”

The diaper, in other words, is less a medical claim than a tangible symptom of the Body Horror of Trump. And it is indeed horror. The kind that sticks.

Which is why Ossoff’s comment so unnerved the Red Team.

I am not alone in sharing this piece of feminine wisdom, dear Freakshow fans: There is no ladylike sensibility in the nation that doesn’t recoil at the thought of those giant, swollen, bruised paws coming anywhere near a young one’s flesh. And there is not a woman alive whose stomach doesn’t churn in unison with that of any young woman – even a devotee there by choice – confronting those flaccid turkey giblets (to steal a metaphor from the poet Anne Sexton), let alone interacting with that in any way.

Ossoff didn’t need to spell anything out. He didn’t need an allegation, a punchline, or even an adjective. He just said “Natalie” and everybody filled in the blanks of their own volition.

That is also what makes the ensuing Republican outrage so spectacularly funny. The party that has coalesced around a decaying, profane misogynist – who introduced America to the coarsest level of political discourse and misbehavior toward women in living memory – accusing a Democrat of gutter politics for simply mentioning the name of a woman constantly at the president’s side is one of the best laughs of Summer 2026.

Enjoy it while it lasts.

Nina Burleigh is a journalist, author, documentary producer, and adjunct professor at New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. She has written eight books including her recently published novel, Zero Visibility Possible.

Reprinted with permission from American Freakshow

Even More Troubling Than Weird Natalie? Vicious White House Attacks On Women

She is the human printer, controlling the flow of paper to the president and transcribing his social media posts. She thinks she owes her life to Donald Trump. She is always by his side. Her name is Natalie Harp. She is this week's troubling news.

On Sunday, Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, a rising Democratic star, hit Trump hard: The Georgia senator told a crowd that Trump "doesn't want to do the job" and instead "wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the emir of Qatar."

What's newsworthy about that? It was news to most of us that of the very few aides whose lives Trump valued most — the ones who switched planes with him, sending Air Force One as the decoy — was Natalie Harp. Not the Secretary of State or the Secretary of the Treasury. Natalie Harp.

Kristen Holmes, a senior White House correspondent at CNN and a well-respected journalist, asked Trump to respond to Ossoff's comment. Trump went off the deep end and the White House response team did the rest.

When Holmes asked Trump in the Oval Office to respond to Ossoff's remark, the president dismissed her, calling the senator a "Pee-wee Herman lookalike".

"Quiet, quiet, quiet. You're very disrespectful." After she told him she worked for CNN, he responded, "Fake news, you're fake news, you're a loud, boisterous person. You're fake news. Be quiet. Be quiet. You're a fake reporter and you report fake news."

The White House's "rapid response" social media account then took over, posting the exchange and calling her a "disgraceful, humiliating embarrassment to her alleged profession".

The post criticized her for taking a "cheap shot" at a staffer, adding: "These scumbags are the lowest of the low."

Then they called her a bad mother, sending out yet another post attacking the CNN reporter: "Someday, your children will come across your disgusting and inhumane question. They will be sickened and embarrassed to have a parent be so callous and vindictive. It's quite troubling."

Natalie Harp was diagnosed with Stage 2 bone cancer in the early 2010s. She credits a bill signed by Donald Trump with giving her access to experimental treatment.

"We all know the story about the Good Samaritan. But what you don't know is I was that forgotten person on the side of the road ... and left to die of cancer," Harp reportedly said at an event with the president in 2019. "But then, an outsider — my Good Samaritan, President Donald J. Trump — he saw me there and he didn't walk by. He stopped."

Not exactly. According to the experts, as reported in The Washington Post, the drug Harp credited Trump with helping her gain access to was already approved by the Food and Drug Administration at the time she received it. Experts said she would have been able to access it without "Right to Try," which is a pathway to access medication not yet approved by the FDA.

Harp's story got Trump's attention and a speaking role at the 2020 Convention. She has been by his side ever since.

Harp's loyalty to Trump and his to her is noteworthy. But what is more noteworthy is Trump's attitude to the press and women reporters in particular. "Quiet, piggy," he told a Bloomberg reporter; and another CNN journalist he called "corrupt" and stormed out of NBC's Meet the Press after calling the moderator "crooked or stupid." Meanwhile, ABC has taken the FCC to court for threatening its license renewals because the President doesn't like the coverage.

Natalie Harp is not really the issue. The First Amendment is.

Susan Estrich is a celebrated feminist legal scholar, the first female president of the Harvard Law Review, and the first woman to run a U.S. presidential campaign. She has written eight books.

Democrats Rapidly Gaining Momentum In Bid To Flip U.S. Senate

When we last checked the Senate map on June 22, Democrats had a path to the majority. Today, they’re slight favorites.

The fact that Democrats are even in this position is a testament to how badly Republicans have screwed this up. They currently hold a three-seat majority and are defending some of the friendliest Senate territory imaginable. Democrats should be worried about losing seats—not talking seriously about pickups in Alaska, Ohio, Texas, and yes, even Kansas.

Here’s how the battlefield looks today.

1. Georgia (D-incumbent, Likely D)

There hasn’t been much recent polling in Georgia, but what we’ve seen confirms the existing trend: Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff appears headed for a comfortable reelection in this lean-red state.

The bipartisan Fabrizio Ward/Impact Research poll for AARP found Ossoff leading MAGA Republican Mike Collins 52-43. It’s difficult to see Collins, who is facing an ethics investigation, overcoming that kind of deficit. Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball recently upgraded the race to Likely Democratic, while the Cook Political Report continues to rate it Lean Democratic.

2. North Carolina (R-open, Likely D)

North Carolina topped the first two editions of these rankings. Sliding to second isn’t a downgrade—it simply reflects how strong Ossoff’s position has become.

Former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper remains enormously popular and has led every public poll since early 2025, when he was first matched against retiring Republican Sen. Thom Tillis.

This remains Democrats’ clearest pickup opportunity and likely would be even in a neutral political environment.

Senate Republicans recognized the danger, with the Senate Leadership Fund spending $17 million beginning in July to rescue former RNC Chair Michael Whatley. So far, it hasn’t worked. A late-July Fox News poll found Cooper ahead 53-44. If that margin doesn’t narrow soon, Republicans may decide their money is better spent elsewhere.

3. Maine (R-incumbent, Lean D)

This race looks very different than it did a month ago.

Former Democratic nominee Graham Platner has exited the race, replaced by former state Senate President Troy Jackson. Incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins had managed to pull ahead during Platner’s troubled campaign, but Jackson has quickly restored Democratic momentum, leading 49-45 and 49-46 in the two most recent polls.

Given Maine’s partisan lean, undecided voters should generally break toward Jackson. But Collins has survived seemingly impossible races before, so writing her off would be foolish.

4. Alaska (R-incumbent, Lean D)

When I upgraded Alaska last month, the reasoning was straightforward: former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola kept leading.

Alaska Survey Research—the state’s gold-standard pollster—showed Peltola ahead by five points in consecutive surveys while Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan remained stuck below 45 percent. Its ranked-choice simulations also suggested Peltola would comfortably clear 50 percent after later rounds of counting.

A late-June New York Times/Siena poll showed Sullivan ahead 47-45, though it didn’t model ranked-choice voting. That’s enough to inject some uncertainty, but not enough to change the rating. I’ll wait for another Alaska Survey Research poll before reconsidering.

5. Michigan (D-open, Toss-up)

Michigan has certainly become dramatically more interesting after Dr. Abdul El-Sayed won the Democratic primary.

Whether you’re celebrating that outcome or dreading it probably depends on where you fall in the Democratic Party’s ideological debates. What isn’t debatable is that it introduced uncertainty into one of the party’s most important races.

Polling before the primary suggested Democrat Haley Stevens would have run slightly stronger against Republican Mike Rogers. But political analyst G. Elliott Morris has argued the difference was marginal, writing that “the two candidates look like they would have done roughly the same this November.”

That assessment makes sense. This election is being driven overwhelmingly by national conditions—namely Donald Trump—with candidate quality mattering mostly around the margins.

Still, uncertainty is uncertainty. Recent polling has shown El-Sayed narrowly trailing Rogers, so Michigan drops from Lean Democratic to Toss-up.

"The good news is that the broader outlook remains encouraging in this must-win race,” G. Elliot wrote in his email newsletter, “[W]hen we run all the data through our forecasting model, El-Sayed holds Michigan 64% of the time with Democrats taking the Senate 55% of the time.”

If Democrats hold Michigan while winning the four races above, they need just one more pickup to reclaim the Senate majority.

6. Ohio (R-incumbent, Toss-up)

A recent New York Times/Sienna poll gave Republican-appointed Sen. Jon Husted a 50-47 lead on former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.

The latest Fox News poll gave Brown a 53-45 lead.

Who knew we’d be rooting for Fox News to be right?

The reality is that most polling on this race is like that: all over the place. Throw it all into a cauldron, mix it up, and what you get is the same toss-up status we’ve been seeing for the past several months.

That’s actually encouraging. When Brown entered the race, Ohio looked permanently out of reach. Trump’s political environment has transformed what once looked like a long shot into a genuine pickup opportunity.

7. Texas (R-incumbent, Lean R)

We had an energetic internal debate about moving Texas into Toss-up territory.

The case is compelling. Democratic state Rep. James Talarico has led every public poll since late June—seven straight surveys.

Even more striking, he’s hit between 47 percent and 51 percent in the past five polls, including a Fox News survey showing him ahead 51-48. In a deeply Republican state, undecided voters usually drift toward the GOP. The closer Talarico gets to 50 percent, the more realistic an upset becomes.

Republicans didn’t have to be here.

Had they renominated incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, they’d almost certainly be cruising toward another comfortable victory. Instead, with Trump’s enthusiastic backing, they nominated Ken Paxton—one of the country’s most ethically compromised politicians, impeached by the overwhelmingly Republican Texas House before being rescued politically by Trump.

It will be something if Democrats take the Senate. But if they do so because of Trump’s love for despicable humans like Paxton? That would be the cherry on top.

8. Iowa (R-open, Lean R)

Democratic state Sen. Josh Turek continues to run a surprisingly competitive race against Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson in this open seat. Since the last update, Fox News showed Turek leading 50-46, while Emerson and New York Times/Siena polls gave Hinson narrow leads.

The Fox News poll is the outlier Democrats hope proves correct. The other surveys point toward an extremely close race, but one where Iowa’s Republican lean should eventually pull undecided voters toward Hinson in a state where Trump won by more than 13 points.

Even so, Republicans aren’t behaving like this is a safe seat. They’ve already reserved $11 million in advertising in Iowa—an enormous investment for such an inexpensive media market. Republicans don’t spend that kind of money unless they’re worried.

9. Nebraska (R-incumbent, Likely R)

Nebraska has been unusually quiet.

Independent Dan Osborn, the former union leader who came within seven points of defeating GOP Sen. Deb Fischer in 2024, is now taking on Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts in a climate where being a billionaire isn’t a helpful flex.

The biggest recent development wasn’t polling but ballot access. Democrats successfully cleared the field behind Osborn and blocked an effort by another Democrat to qualify, avoiding the possibility of splitting the anti-Republican vote.

Osborn still faces a steep climb in one of the nation’s reddest states. But in this political environment, Republicans can’t completely ignore the race.

10. Kansas (R-incumbent, Likely R)

Back in May, I wrote: “[D]id someone say Kansas? No one did, but I’m saying it. Education remains one of the strongest predictors of partisan alignment. Of the 20 states with the highest percentage of those with a bachelor’s degree or higher, only two voted for Trump in 2024: Utah and Kansas. Utah politics are heavily shaped by the Mormon church. But Kansas should be bluer than it is, and it does have a Democratic governor in Laura Kelly.”

I then added, “I’m not saying this is the year Kansas flips at the Senate level. A Democrat hasn’t won a Senate race there since 1932. But in this environment? Weird things may happen.”

Since then, Democratic polling has shown Democratic megachurch pastor Adam Hamilton trailing incumbent Republican Sen. Roger Marshall by just four to six points. That’s enough to make the race interesting, though probably not enough to make it competitive. In a Republican-leaning state like Kansas, undecided voters usually break toward the GOP, making it difficult to see Hamilton reaching 50 percent.

Still, Republicans are acting more nervous than you’d expect.

“I still don’t think Kansas Democrats have woken up … to really what they have here,” Washburn political scientist Bob Beatty told the Kansas Reflector. “They will, but Roger Marshall knows. That’s why it’s going to be a big-time race, and I think that’s why people are going to look at it nationally, maybe, and be surprised. We got two candidates that we’ll be seeing a lot on the national TV.”

Marshall’s own attacks have bordered on bizarre.

“Look, this guy is a woke, big megachurch pastor,” he told Fox News. “He’s too woke for Kansas. I think all we have to do is share his own sermons … with the Kansas people, and they’re gonna realize that he’s too woke for Kansas.”

So now being a megachurch pastor is “woke”? The Dem response was brutal: “Roger Marshall would rather attack a church whose community is one of the largest sources of food donations in his alleged home state than talk about why he constantly votes for higher prices, why he’s been hiding from Kansans for over 500 days, and why only 27 named Kansans donated to his campaign last quarter.”

Guys, this is going to be a good one. National Republican orgs haven’t engaged yet, but odds are good that they will.

Both Cook and Sabato recently updated the race from “safe” to “likely” Republican.

The bottom line is remarkably simple: Democrats no longer need everything to go right.

Georgia and North Carolina increasingly look like the party’s to lose. Maine and Alaska have moved into Democratic-leaning territory. Michigan remains the pivotal hold. Win those five races, and Democrats need just one more breakthrough—from Ohio, Texas, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, or somewhere else Republicans never expected to be playing defense.

That’s a dramatically different Senate map than anyone expected last year.

Markos Moulitsas is founder and editor of the blogging website Daily Kos and author of three books.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

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