Role at the time: Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Georgia
"“A lot of things have been politicized and weaponized. And when the federal government harms you, then yes, they have a liability to you. That’s easy, yes sir.”"
In answer to a question about an anti-weaponization compensation fund and relief for people the questioner said had been harmed by a weaponized political system, Collins said the government has liability when it harms someone.
- First noted
- August 12, 2026
- Published here
- September 10, 2026
Why we used this label
Collins’s answer is conditional on government harm and responds to a question broader than January 6 defendants, but the question was posed by a pardoned January 6 defendant who explicitly included January 6 participants.
Context
Before the quotation
At a Savannah breakfast event, Dominic Box identified himself as a non-violent January 6 participant and asked whether Collins supported the proposed anti-weaponization compensation fund or other relief for people across the political spectrum whom he said had been targeted.
After the quotation
The Collins campaign later said he did not support a blank-check fund or automatic taxpayer-funded payouts merely because someone had been prosecuted for January 6.
Sources
Reports the August 11 Savannah exchange in which a pardoned January 6 defendant asked Collins about compensation for people harmed by a weaponized political system, as well as the Collins campaign’s August 12 clarification that he did not support a blank-check fund or automatic payouts for January 6 prosecutions.