A Jan. 6 exchange gives Jon Ossoff a new line of attack on Mike Collins

Republican U.S. Senate nominee Mike Collins’ response to a Jan. 6 rioter quickly ricocheted across social media this week. Now, Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff is trying to turn the exchange into a defining issue of the race.

The new front emerged Tuesday in Savannah when Dominic Box, a Georgia man who was convicted of charges stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, asked if Collins would support “some form of compensatory relief not just to Jan. 6ers like myself but all Americans, left right and center, who have become victims of a weaponized political system.”

Collins, who represents Georgia’s 10th Congressional District, answered: “A lot of things have been politicized and weaponized. And when the federal government harms you, then yes, they have a liability too. That’s easy. Yes.”

Ossoff is seizing on Collins’ remarks to tie his GOP rival to a proposed fund by President Donald Trump that would give taxpayer money to people convicted of violent crimes related to the attack on the U.S. Capitol. That proposal was so politically toxic the administration rejected it amid bipartisan furor.

Ossoff called the Republican’s response “disgraceful” and demanded that Collins also apologize for embracing Trump’s false claims that he won Georgia’s 2020 election.

“Mike Collins is a known bigot,” Ossoff said, calling it “another Collins crisis” in an interview. “Mike must recant his support for taxpayer-funded payouts to January 6 violent traitors, and Mike Collins must recant his 2020 election denial.”

Collins, meanwhile, is trying to elaborate on what he meant during the exchange.

A spokesman said Collins “believes Americans who’ve been wronged by their government ought to have a path to seek justice.”

“He does not support a blank-check fund or automatic taxpayer-funded payouts to anyone simply because they were prosecuted for January 6,” Collins spokesperson Meyer Siegfried said.

‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’

In May, the U.S. Department of Justice announced what it called “The Anti-Weaponization Fund.” This plan was to put $1.776 billion into this fund from a settlement with the Internal Revenue Service over the disclosure of Trump’s tax returns in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election.

The proposal sparked an extraordinary bipartisan backlash, fueled by concerns that people convicted of violent crimes during the attack on the Capitol could receive taxpayer-funded payments. Several Senate Republicans blocked Trump’s nomination of Todd Blanche as attorney general until the Justice Department formally killed the idea.

The Senate confirmed Blanche after he promised in writing to terminate the fund.

Collins’ comments drew a sharp rebuke from Michael Fanone, a former D.C. Metropolitan Police officer who was critically injured defending the Capitol during the attack and is an outspoken critic of Trump’s proposed anti-weaponization fund.

Fanone rejected Collins’ effort to clarify his remarks, calling them an insult to law enforcement officers.

“I saw the clip. I know exactly where you’re going,” Fanone said when asked about the Republican’s statement. “Mike Collins is a liar. The question was crystal clear. His response was automatic. And you know why? Because that’s what he truly believes.”

‘Gulag’

Box spent years as an adherent to QAnon and other conspiracy theories in Savannah before livestreaming his Jan. 6 march through the U.S. Capitol.

He was found guilty of two felony counts of civil disorder and four misdemeanors following a June 2024 trial and was awaiting sentencing when Trump pardoned every Jan. 6 defendant after returning to office.

Box’s participation in the Capitol attack is not his only brush with the law.

Most recently, Box was arrested last month outside a Savannah sports bar following a dispute with staff over an unpaid bar tab. According to court and police records, Box was accused of using racial epithets and tussling with bar security before police arrested him in the parking lot. He was out on bond when he attended Collins’ event Tuesday.

Reached by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Box disputed the police accounts of his arrest. But he admitted to being drunk and tossing around the n-word “familiarly” and “in the heat of the moment.”

Of his now-viral exchange with Collins, Box said he considered his question at the campaign event a “softball.”