GOP Rep. Mike Collins Standing By Weird Antisemitic Social Media Post

WASHINGTON ― Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) isn’t having second thoughts about his social media posts.

On Sunday, Collins responded to a racist, antisemitic account on X, formerly known as Twitter, pointing out a Washington Post reporter was Jewish.

“Never was a second thought,” Collins wrote.

Collins suggested in a follow-up that because the account was called @GarbageHuman23, he was just agreeing that the reporter was a “garbage human” because she’d written in a recent story that said the U.S. had been built on stolen land.

“I guess pointing out that a Washington Post journo excusing crime because she believes USA is on ‘stolen land’ makes her a garbage human is anti-Semitic? Y’all just see stuff that ain’t there,” Collins wrote on Monday.

The initial post by @GarbageHuman23 linked a critical take on the story and said, “In case you were wondering, yes she is” — leaving some ambiguity about its meaning, at least for those unfamiliar with online antisemites. But in response to the attention generated by Collins, the account holder made clear that their original post was meant to point out that the reporter, style writer Maura Judkis, is Jewish.

The Washington Post story used the closing of a CVS store in Washington, D.C., purportedly due to extensive shoplifting, to examine anxieties around inner-city crime. (One detail from the piece: There’s another CVS pharmacy one block away.)

“America is a sticky-fingered nation built on stolen land, and its current moral panic is about shoplifting,” Judkis wrote.

Conservative media highlighted the “stolen land” line, fueling a firestorm last week around the story and its author.

HuffPost asked Collins on Wednesday morning at the Capitol if he realized he was responding to a social media post about a journalist’s religion. Collins declined to comment, saying to contact his staff. A spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.