Today, State Rep. Shea Roberts held a virtual press call demanding that GOP U.S. Senate nominee Mike Collins hold a press conference to answer questions on his ties to white nationalists. The virtual press call happened after the Washington Post published alarming new reporting on a former Collins staffer uplifting Nazi imagery and depicting himself in a costume of the Ku Klux Klan.
According to the report, the former Collins staffer promoted swastika imagery and depicted himself in Ku Klux Klan robes as recently as June and July. He also told the Post, “I do think that the white race contributes more to the world.” Despite this, the Post reported, Collins “did not respond to a question about whether he stood by” his previous endorsement of Parra’s work.
Previously, Collins’ office was exposed for briefing Nick Fuentes and Richard Spencer, two of the most notorious white supremacists in the country, on its efforts to free a Holocaust denier from jail.
Collins’ U.S. Senate campaign has been continuously plagued by a number of major scandals, including a federal investigation by the House Ethics Committee for Collins allowing his former chief of staff, who had been convicted of criminal battery, to illegally funnel thousands of federal tax dollars to a girlfriend who did no work for the office. The bipartisan Office of Congressional Conduct report detailed how “Collins refused to cooperate,” before formally recommending that the Committee on Ethics subpoena the congressman.
“In a disturbing new report from the Washington Post out yesterday,we learned that Mike Collins’ former staffer uplifted Nazi imagery by sharing a swastika and depicting himself in Ku Klux Klan robes,” said State Rep. Shea Roberts. “That’s why I’m here today — to demand that Mike Collins hold a press conference, answer questions on his ties to white nationalists, and that he release all forms of communication between himself, his office, and white nationalists.”
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