CARLTON FLETCHER: Mike Collins’ neo-Nazi ties just the latest low surrounding his campaign

“We don’t want ’em, we don’t need ’em, Nazis ain’t got no place to be.”

— Roger Taylor 

While in Georgia Wednesday on his “I was robbed in 2020” tour, Donald Trump stopped talking about himself long enough to talk about what a good man Mike Collins is and how Georgians should help Collins defeat incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff.

Collins, though, was nowhere around. In a deal that was no doubt worked out ahead of time, Collins stayed away from this golden opportunity to get some love from the sitting president.

And while he hasn’t said as much, Collins stayed away from the rally so that his litany of issues would not take away from Trump’s self-aggrandisement. Perhaps the most damning of the controversy swirling around Collins is the recent revelation that his son-in-law, David Alan Scheer II, is an avowed neo-Nazi.

An Instagram post made by Scheer last June said the “deep state (a boogyman loved by Trump conspiracy theorists) is the same old synagogue of Satan that killed our Lord Jesus.” Collins’ son-in-law also shared posts promoting the white supremecist group Patriot Front and made such statements as “Gen-Z doesn’t hate Hitler” and “There’s nothing wrong with white nationalism.”

His posts also included disturbing Nazi imagery and claims that Jews were responsible for the death of JFK, the 9-11 attacks and the proliferation of pornographic material.

So that’s Mike Collins’ son-in-law, the man who married the candidate’s daughter. But for those who say a person should not be judged by the company he keeps, there’s also this:

– The U.S. House Ethics Committee is reviewing allegations of Collins’ office misusing taxpayer funds. Primary among these claims is that Collins’ former top aide, Brandon Phillips, performed work on the rep’s campaign while drawing a congressional salary and arranged a paid, no-work internship for his girlfriend. (Collins, by the way, called these charges a “nothing burger,” although Phillips was dropped from his staff a short while later after he posted a vulgar attack on the wife of a strategist for Collins’ opponent in the GOP primary, Derrick Dooley.)

– Collins brought in Kip Talley to replace Phillips, but he ended up firing him as well when Talley reportedly told friends he would use “the levers of the legislative branch” to help a Holocaust denier secure a release from prison. 

Still, Trump called Collins a “good man” when the president paused momentarily from talking about himself, his “stolen election” and his many snake-oil schemes to add to his alleged fortune that’s $5.6 million smaller now that he’s been ordered to pay E Jean Carroll that sum for sexual abuse and defamation.

In most of the polls that include the U.S. Senate race between Ossoff and Collins, the Republican already trailed by a significant margin. And Ossoff has collected more than 40 times more in contributions than the challenger.

But let’s just wipe the slate clean. Let’s put Ossoff’s record against Collins’s. There’s an even wider disparity in that respect because Ossoff has a record of working for the people of Georgia and the nation, while Collins has used his position in the House to benefit himself … and to try and build even closer ties to the president, hoping to get in on the crazy train for sycophants.

Ossoff vs. Collins on Nov. 3 should have been a clear no-brainer for any right-thinking Georgian before all the controversy swirling around the Republican even surfaced. Now, though, it’s even clearer that there’s really only one choice.

But let’s not forget this is Georgia. And while it shames me to admit as much, there are people who will now vote for Collins because of his ties to neo-Nazis.

Email Carlton Fletcher at [email protected].