All posts tagged "georgia"

MAGA candidate pays out to cheated workers despite pro-jobs campaign: report

A billionaire running for Georgia governor with President Donald Trump's endorsement and a job-creating platform saw his companies pay millions to settle worker complaints.

According to a Monday report by The Daily Beast, Rick Jackson has built his campaign around his business track record, but court records show at least two of his healthcare firms agreed to class-action settlements. Workers accused his firms of failing to pay wages properly.

One subsidiary, Jackson Nurse Professionals, settled a 2017 class action in 2022 for close to $2 million to resolve claims from roughly 300 nursing staff who said the travel staffing company shorted them on overtime, bonuses, and wages owed when they left. A separate company, Avante Healthcare Professionals, agreed to a $3 million settlement covering more than 5,000 current and former international workers, according to The Daily Beast.

CNN first reported the second settlement last month and noted the foreign-born nurses accused the firm of exploiting immigrants it had recruited to the United States.

None of the settlements found that Jackson personally broke labor laws, The Daily Beast noted. However, the payouts sit awkwardly against a campaign that leans heavily on his reputation as a self-made healthcare titan, The Daily Beast added.

Jackson has vowed to "create more jobs than have ever been created in the history of Georgia," and pledged to bring business solutions to the state, according to The Daily Beast. He also described himself as a conservative outsider who built a $3 billion company without outside financing.

Trump has repeatedly boosted Jackson and credited his business acumen and MAGA views after Jackson won the GOP primary runoff in June, The Daily Beast reported.

Jackson faces a tight race against Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former Atlanta mayor. An August InsiderAdvantage poll showed the two effectively deadlocked, with Jackson at 46.3 percent and Bottoms at 46.2 percent among likely voters, per The Daily Beast.

Jackson also faced scrutiny in June, when a recording captured him appearing to agree that women should have to prove they were raped to qualify for an abortion. His campaign said the comments were distorted, The Daily Beast noted.

'Exhausted' Trump voters' praise for his rival leaves former GOP pollster in disbelief

A focus group of President Donald Trump's voters spoke so warmly about his Democratic rival that a former GOP pollster couldn't believe it.

In a Saturday episode of The Focus Group Podcast, Sarah Longwell said she had to text her team midway through a focus group session to confirm the Georgians she was interviewing were actually voters who backed Trump in 2024. What threw her was how the voters in the focus group disapproved of Trump's job performance in his second administration and their descriptions of Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA).

"I like Jon Ossoff. I have voted for him before. I appreciate him because he does fight for the little guy," one voter told Longwell. "He just really represents the marginalized community very well. He's always looking out for us."

Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), Trump's endorsed pick to unseat Ossoff, fared far worse.

"Collins is Trump's lap dog," one voter unloaded. "Daddy Trump said this, this is what I need to do. He's not leading. I jumped on the Trump train, and I'm shoving the coal."

Another said he knew almost nothing about Collins beyond attack ads. "Everything I see on TV is just really Ossoff or attacking Ossoff," the voter said. "I don't really see why Collins is promoting himself."

Cook Political Report's Amy Walter tied the mood to a broader problem for the GOP. She warned that "their base is exhausted" heading into the midterms and that the "enthusiasm gap is like a chasm right now."

Walter noted that three of the Trump voters independently framed Ossoff as someone who "helps the little guy." She called the profile striking among people who back the president.

Longwell said she could "feel" the fatigue in the room and described voters who sounded "kind of getting over this Trump stuff." She added that the exhaustion extended beyond policy as Trump voters retreat to culture-war fights because little else feels like a win.

"I'll talk about trans athletes all day long because that makes me feel like I'm still on the side of the angels," a voter told Longwell. "But generally speaking, I don't feel like there's a ton to defend."

Crowd erupts as Trump foe mocks his MAGA 'scandal piñata' opponent

Georgia Senate candidate and Trump foe Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) took a swipe at Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) that got laughs from a crowd on Tuesday.

Ossoff and Collins are vying to represent Georgia in the Senate. During a campaign event in Columbus, Georgia, joined by Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) — another President Donald Trump adversary — Ossoff launched a jab at the MAGA candidate endorsed by the president.

"This scandal piñata, Mike Collins," Ossoff said. "Every time you shake Congressman Collins, new misdeeds fall out. Have you seen it?"

The audience cracked up at the comment.

"Mike Collins is pro-war, he's pro-tariffs, he's pro-cutting your health care," Ossoff added. "He's a bigot and a Trump puppet."

Ossoff has been a sharp critic of Trump and just days ago suggested that the president had different priorities in a biting speech.

"While the sailors on the Lincoln fight his war, while he fruitlessly drains our munitions and oil reserves, the president sleeps through his meetings," Ossoff said. "He golfs and trades stocks. So he doesn’t want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar."

Collins has faced his own share of controversies, including a House Ethics Committee investigation over allegations that he misused congressional funds and paid an intern who allegedly performed no work while dating his then-chief of staff. The Senate candidate's campaign has also been rocked by high staff turnover, an incident involving a former aide's participation in a group chat with white nationalists and renewed scrutiny over his history of racially charged social media posts.

Ossoff gets laughs for calling Mike Collins "the scandal pinata" and adds that he's "a bigot and Trump puppet" pic.twitter.com/kHbxuXYuIA
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 18, 2026

MAGA candidate 'gonna get smashed' if Trump keeps showing up: report

A MAGA Senate candidate is in danger of sinking in the polls if President Donald Trump keeps showing up to support him, according to NOTUS.

NOTUS reported Friday that Republicans are worried that Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) will suffer from Trump coming out in support of him against Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) ahead of the midterms. Sources told NOTUS that the problem is that Trump is tanking in the polls, and his endorsement could pull Collins down with him.

"We're already seeing Ossoff at every turn trying to tie Collins to Trump," an anonymous GOP operative, who has an active campaign role, told NOTUS.

The operative noted that Trump's approval rating sits below 40 percent.

"There's headwinds there," the operative said. "But Collins is going to wear the negative of it."

The operative added that the Trump administration's focus on Georgia for voter fraud is hurting Collins.

"Those issues are definitely net negatives for Republicans in the state," the operative said. "A general election electorate doesn't have much patience for that."

"Collins is gonna get smashed," GOP pollster Eamon Keegan told NOTUS. Keegan said that Trump's approval ratings and the ongoing war in Iran will continue to erode Collins' chances, according to NOTUS. Another operative told NOTUS they believe "one-hundred percent" that Trump will hinder Collins.

During an event in Marietta, Georgia, earlier this week, Trump praised Collins and tried to take a swipe at Ossoff.

"Maybe the most important man in this room right now is not here. His name is Mike Collins, and he's going to beat Pee-wee Herman," Trump said.

"If they could bring back Trump every week, we'd love it," David Brand, a Georgia Democratic operative supporting Ossoff, told NOTUS.

Trump 'mocked ruthlessly' by attendee at his own rally: journalist

A journalist flagged how President Donald Trump was "mocked ruthlessly" at his own rally in Georgia.

On Wednesday, Trump held a rally at a high school in Marietta, Georgia, in a "gymnasium named after a Confederate soldier," noted journalist Aaron Parnas in an episode of The Parnas Perspective. However, Parnas' focus was more on a tall man dressed in a black suit who mimicked Trump's movements during the speech.

The rally attendee could be seen behind Trump, holding his hands up, swinging them back and forth, and rocking his head side to side the way Trump does.

"That's the president right there being mocked incessantly by an attendee at his own rally who's not too happy," Parnas explained. "He's not too happy, the president, about having this guy right behind him on stage."

Parnas suggested that White House officials failed by letting the impersonator slip by and explained that someone messed up the task of "advance," which is checking the optics around the president.

"If you know anything about advance and working at the White House, a key part of advance is making sure that the stage looks prim and proper," Parnas said. "That the people you put behind the principal, in this case the president of the United States, that they don't make any faces, that they don't essentially embarrass the White House."

Parnas also noted that Trump "repeatedly struggled to get through his speech" as speculation swirls about his health. Parnas played a clip of Trump later in the speech where he was sweaty and running out of breath.

"The president of the United States had a pretty rough night," Parnas said.

'Staggering' DOJ demand hits major snag thanks to Trump's own appointee

A Trump-appointed judge dealt the Justice Department a major setback after finding the scope of its request "staggering" in a court order.

According to a court order filed on Tuesday, federal judge William M. Ray II quashed a DOJ grand jury subpoena that prosecutors had issued in April.

The subpoena sought a "staggering" amount of personal information about thousands of election workers in Fulton County, Georgia, who took part in the count and recount of the 2020 vote, Ray wrote. The rejection comes a week after the FBI sent hundreds of analysts to the Atlanta Field Office to review seized election materials.

"These records, even if they lead to the DOJ finding individuals who worked for Fulton County in the 2020 Election who support the theory that the 2020 Election was not fair, would not lead to information that could be used to charge anyone with anything," Ray wrote. "That is because the statute of limitations for any possible crime arising from the 2020 Election has long expired."

Ray described the DOJ as engaged in an "arbitrary fishing expedition" that would lead to "a dead-end prosecution," and decided "the Subpoena is unreasonable and must be quashed." Although a grand jury issued the subpoena, "that does not give the DOJ the right to use the Grand Jury to do whatever the DOJ wants," the judge added.

"Everyone, whether you support the President or you do not, or whether you believe the 2020 Election was fair or believe that it was not, should be concerned about the DOJ's ability to utilize the power of the Grand Jury to appropriate your private information without a legitimate purpose," Ray, a Trump appointee, warned.

"Anyone in power (perhaps the next administration of a different party) could use the Grand Jury process similarly to subpoena personal information of citizens (perhaps that of their political opponents) with no legitimate law enforcement purpose."

'Chilling': Security expert sounds the alarm as Trump DOJ ramps up election probe

A security expert warned about the impact of Trump's latest move to send hundreds of FBI analysts to Georgia.

CNN law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller broke down Trump's decision to send 260 intelligence officials to Georgia to investigate the 2020 election results. Miller said the move is "very concerning," especially as Trump pushes the Save America Act, a voter-proof-of-citizenship law.

"There is a through line when you combine the idea that he is pushing the SAVE Act and then, on a holiday weekend, calls in hundreds of FBI analysts," Miller said. "When law enforcement comes in and starts doing things like this...it creates this chilling effect towards election workers and others."

He explained that Trump called in "staff operations specialists and investigative operations specialists to the Atlanta field office," and "this is the kind of people where it looks like you would be dumping a ton of paperwork, maybe ballots on them."

The instructions to these hundreds of FBI analysts could even be to go through the ballots and investigate them "one at a time," Miller added. However, he cautioned that, "if they're doing a recount, that kind of usurps the election authorities of the state."

Whether or not they find anything, Miller warned, "You're creating this atmosphere that there's something wrong there, and I can't see these two things being unconnected," again referring to the Save America Act and noting that this "could have been done last week."

'Is he that dumb?' GOP lawmaker's Medicaid attack shredded by online critics

A Republican lawmaker attacked the idea of Medicaid with comments that had online critics questioning if he knew how it works.

Rep. Rich McCormick criticized Medicaid while speaking at a town hall and argued that it amounted to giving away "free money" in his full-throated speech.

"To the point of Medicaid, the worst thing I can possibly do is give you free money to stay home and do nothing," McCormick said. "That's not happiness. I'm not gonna allow you to sit home and get something for nothing."

On X, critics argued against his description of Medicaid and went after the Republican congressman, adding that he didn't seem to know how the program works.

South Dakota Democratic state Rep. Linda Duba similarly wondered, "Is he that dumb? No one gets money from Medicaid. You must use services and payments go directly to the providers."

Journalist John Harwood agreed, writing, "Health care is not 'free money.'"

Author Joyce Carol Oates slammed Congress more broadly with her post by writing, "'Staying home & doing nothing' is the point of becoming a congressman. Seems a wee bit hypocritical to scold sick & disabled person for wishing to do likewise."

Disability rights activist James Tate gave a scathing reaction to McCormick's comment by posting, "Veterans say F— YOU B—."

Legal writer and criminal defense lawyer Scott Greenfield asked in his post, "How is it possible that a congressman has no idea what Medicaid is used for?"

Meanwhile, Russell Foster, a former Democratic congressional candidate from Texas, wrote, "Republican theme seems to be 'How much can I hurt the poor, sick, and in need to give to my millionaire donors?'"

Billionaire who beat Trump's pick in Georgia faces fallout over leaked recording: analysis

A MAGA billionaire gubernatorial candidate in Georgia was under fire on Wednesday after a recording surfaced with him reportedly "agreeing that women should have to 'prove' they were raped in order to qualify for an abortion," according to a report from The Daily Beast.

Rick Jackson defeated Burt Jones — a candidate backed by President Donald Trump — in the GOP primary on Tuesday night. The shock win has rocked the Republican Party as the new audio was revealed the next day.

The recording was reviewed by The Beast and apparently made at a campaign event before Jackson's victory. In it, the healthcare executive talks about "abortion with a voter who objected to exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape."

A voter said in the recording that "if a woman is saying she was raped, she needs to prove it."

Jackson responded to that comment and agreed, The Beast reported.

“I just want to see babies born, no matter how they were conceived,” the woman said in the recording. "I mean, the whole thing about a rape exception and everything, it’s like, I mean I know it’s horrible, but two wrongs don’t make a right."

"They’ve still got a life," Jackson said, agreeing with the voter.

"Yeah, it’s still a life," the woman added, "and it seems to me if a woman is saying she was raped she needs to prove it."

"Right, got you," Jackson responded.

Jackson's campaign has disputed the characterization of the recording, and argued that critics have misrepresented his position on the topic.

DOJ moves to oust judge embroiled in sex scandal from key Trump voter rolls case

The Department of Justice is demanding that an embattled Georgia judge be taken off its case seeking to grab voter rolls, according to reporting by Reuters.

U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross in Atlanta was in the headlines earlier this week after news outlets identified her as the unnamed judge reprimanded for having sex in her chambers within earshot of clerks.

The DOJ is seeking her removal from the case because she attended a political campaign event for Fani Willis, who prosecuted Trump for alleged crimes related to the 2020 election, Reuters noted.

"A judge who attended a party celebrating the election of a Democrat best known for prosecuting a Republican President for alleged election interference cannot then preside over a case concerning that President's efforts to ensure election integrity," DOJ lawyers wrote, according to Reuters.

Ross is hearing the DOJ's lawsuit seeking to force Georgia to hand over its non-public voter registration list. The DOJ filed similar lawsuits in other states, though it's been defeated in some.