Role at the time: Mike Collins U.S. Senate campaign, through spokesperson Sam Densmore
"Rep. Collins misspoke"
The Collins campaign said the Social Security reference was a mistake, that he meant Medicaid, and that the Ossoff ad intentionally truncated the interview to mislead voters.
- First noted
- September 4, 2026
- Published here
- September 10, 2026
- People and groups discussed
- Jon Ossoff
Why we used this label
The campaign directly contests the ad’s interpretation and says the excerpt omits crucial context.
Context
Before the quotation
FactCheck.org asked the Collins campaign to explain the June 2025 radio remark after the Ossoff ad began airing.
After the quotation
FactCheck.org reported that the cited full interview did not contain an immediate correction and that the campaign did not provide a location for one when asked. The Ossoff campaign separately defended the ad’s interpretation. The spokesperson's exact statement time was not reported; occurredAt uses the reporting publication timestamp.
Sources
Reporting that identifies when the Ossoff television ad began, links the full June 2025 radio interview and ad, and records direct responses from both campaigns. It is used for the campaigns’ stated interpretations; the radio interview remains the primary record for Collins’s full wording.
Primary full interview record. Collins was making an argument for tax cuts and work incentives and referred in one sentence to Medicaid, Social Security, and returning to work. This is the full record from which the campaign ad excerpted audio. The brief quotation is corroborated by FactCheck.org's transcription; the audio was not independently retranscribed during this update. The timestamp is episode publication, not a verified recording time.