Mike Collins
Role at the time: U.S. representative and Republican Senate candidate from Georgia, speaking at the debate
Denied
Response to this claim
Collins improperly used public money to pay his staffer's girlfriend.
“That ethics complaint is bogus.”
Read the original text (opens in a new tab)Atlanta News First transcript of the Ossoff-Collins Senate debateFirst-segment stewardship-of-tax-dollars exchange; second-segment federal privacy question
The broadcaster's transcript records Collins's denial, Ossoff's accusation about office payments and Ossoff's separate proposal for federal Flock privacy rules.
Why we used this label
Collins denies the allegation by rejecting the complaint as bogus. His later description of it as a nothing burger also minimizes it, but the explicit denial is the clearer response to the alleged misuse.