About Mike Collins …

I was at the home of Kirk Halpern and his family when he hosted State Rep. Mike Collins for a meet & greet with approximately 80 of Jewish Atlanta’s most politically connected community members.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran a story on Friday, July 31, about the event but its reporting barely scratched the surface of Collins’ comments regarding a range of hot-button issues.

Yes, Collins addressed his controversial son-in-law, whose social media history includes white nationalist and antisemitic content … and Collins addressed his also-controversial political opponent, Jon Ossoff, whose voting record supporting Israel has drawn ire regarding arms and munitions sales to the Jewish State.

I was the only member of the media present at the Collins event.

The audience mingled for the first half-hour, nibbling on delicacies and sipping spirits and sodas while they waited for the “man of the hour” to make his appearance.

Collins finally arrived … to be fair, traffic that evening on Hammond Drive/Mount Vernon was particularly awful. Sandy Springs could use some more alternate routes to help with the traffic congestion… but that’s for another column.

Halpern played both host and moderator for the evening. The Q&A session with Collins opened with a focus on the congressman’s viewpoints on supporting Israel.

“What I care about is that we take care of Israel,” he said. “It’s good policy to pair up with Israel. We’re both fighting the same enemy.” He then referenced the “47-year war with Iran.”

Collins noted that he watched the Oct. 7 footage that was presented to the state legislators and then he condemned Hamas’ actions.

He cited all of the accomplishments that Israelis have made in medicine and technology and added that, “Israel is over there fighting the fight for us.”

Later in the evening when speaking about immigration, Collins asked rhetorically, “Am I America First? You bet I am! And what does America First mean to me? It’s protecting Israel.”

This felt canned as if he has a fill-in-the-blank answer to his America First definition depending on who is in the room with him at the time.

Collins then took a moment to disparage his opponent and stake his claim in this race for the Jewish vote.

“This is such an important election cycle, and we have the wrong person [Ossoff] in the seat.”

Collins then questioned Ossoff’s voting record.

“You wanna see how somebody stands? Look at their voting record. That’s where the rubber meets the road,” he said. “If you look at my voting record … at the end of the day, I don’t have to answer to anyone.”

As for Collins’ son-in-law … oy … let’s just start by quoting Collins himself: “He’s wrong on that issue,” referring to posting white nationalist and antisemitic content. “I don’t agree with that. There’s no place in this country for antisemitism.”

Collins then naturally deflected and said, “The fact of the matter is always gonna be that no one speaks for me. No one else is running this race except for me and Ossoff … and I think you’re gonna see there’s a big difference between us two.”

However, one of the guests put Collins on the spot. This was Collins’ time to shine.

“I like you. My friends like you,” she said. “We want to vote for you. But we need to hear you specifically denounce white supremacy so we can feel comfortable voting for you.”

You could feel every breath in the room at that moment.

Collins responded with, “Hate has no place in America.”

Sure … that’s true. But that’s so general. He just needed to say the words. Hell, he could have lied and just uttered, “White supremacy is bad.” But he didn’t.

Please note that he did not denounce white supremacy, even when put on the spot in a room filled with approximately 80 Jews.

One of the guests then asked how Collins was planning to deal with this controversy as he took his family on the road during the campaign trail. Collins replied that his family will stay at home due to “security concerns,” and that, “My wife didn’t sign up for this. My family didn’t sign up for this.”

Out of sight, out of mind.

Collins also discussed campaign funding and said that he expects the Senate Republican Campaign Fund to support him with at least $44 million.

“The cavalry is here and they’re gonna come in a lot of different ways,” he said, adding that, “A lot of this race will be on the airwaves. A lot of it will be on social media.”

The AJT will write a formal preview of the Ossoff-Collins race in an upcoming edition but … in the meantime … thanks to the Senate Republican Campaign Fund and Ossoff’s donated millions, we will be subjected to countless political commercials during broadcasts of the Braves games on BravesVision … and likely the Hawks games on Gray Media.

Happy Happy, Joy Joy!