David Brooks
Role at the time: Columnist for The Atlantic, speaking as a PBS News Hour political analyst
Statement summary
On PBS News Hour, David Brooks said Ossoff should stop calling political opponents Nazis, but said it is accurate that Collins has a disturbing number of young men around him with ties to the alt-right and antisemitic content online.
“Jon Ossoff, my advice to him is, if you start calling your political opponents Nazis, maybe it's time to shut up. That's just not what we do here in this country. And the Bull Connor stuff -- and a lot of these candidates have real weaknesses. Like, Mike Collins, who's the Georgia Republican, I think what's accurate to say about him is, he has a disturbing number of young men on his -- around him who have ties to the alt-right and some of the vile antisemitic stuff online.”
PBS News Hour segment and transcript in which David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart discuss the October 8 Senate debates in Georgia, Michigan and Maine, including Ossoff's remark about Collins's staff.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Why we used this label
Relative to Collins's staffing and associations as Ossoff described them, Brooks says it is accurate that Collins has "a disturbing number of young men" around him with ties to the alt-right and antisemitic content online, which condemns those associations. He also tells Ossoff to stop calling political opponents Nazis. That criticism is aimed at Ossoff's rhetoric and does not defend Collins's hiring, so it does not change the label.