Republicans Are Race-Baiting a Republican

Rep. Doug Collins, a Georgia Republican, wants to unseat Kelly Loeffler in the Senate.Michael Brochstein/ZUMA Wire

Rep. Doug Collins is a Georgia Republican, and as the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee he was one of President Trump’s most vociferous defenders during the impeachment saga. He’s running for Senate now. Standing in his way is Sen. Kelly Loeffler, a Republican businesswoman appointed to the seat in December when her predecessor stepped down with health issues.
The two will square off in November in what has become a bitter fight pitting various factions of the Republican political machine against each other, with both sides claiming that the anti-Trump swamp is thwarting their efforts.
There’s little doubt where the National Republican Senatorial Committee stands. On Thursday the group released an ad slamming Collins for the crime of…hanging around Black people:

NEW VIDEO: Convenient Conservative.@CollinsforGA wasn’t with @realDonaldTrump until a Senate seat opened up. #GASen #gapol pic.twitter.com/uBYpUT9WUJ
— The Senate Majority (@NRSC) February 27, 2020

The charges here, if you can’t bring yourself to watch, are that Collins says he’s friends with Stacey Abrams and Hakeem Jeffries, and that he once shook Barack Obama’s hand. You don’t exactly need Bletchley Park to crack this code. The ad makes Lee Atwater look subtle.