‘Con man’ and ‘cowardly’: Personal insults fly in heated Michigan, Georgia, Maine Senate debates
By Eric Bradner, Steve Contorno, Patrick Svitek, CNN
(CNN) — It didn’t take long for the personal attacks to fly in Thursday night’s debates for three marquee Senate races in Georgia, Michigan and Maine.
Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff opened by effectively putting Republican Rep. Mike Collins’ record on trial, highlighting his association with a white nationalist and what Ossoff called his “childlike devotion” to President Donald Trump.
In Michigan’s open Senate race, Republican Mike Rogers attacked Democrat Abdul El-Sayed in personal terms, repeatedly calling him a “con man” and questioning his credentials as a doctor. El-Sayed in turn mocked Rogers: “Weak. Cowardly. Won’t stand up until his poll numbers drop.”
And in Maine, Sen. Susan Collins heatedly defended her integrity against repeated barbs from her Democratic challenger, Troy Jackson.
All three seats are critical to Senate control even as the map of battleground states widens amid surging Democratic enthusiasm in states President Donald Trump won by double digits two years ago.
Here’s a look at key moments from the debates so far.
Rogers says he made calls about tariffs
The economic fallout of Trump’s 50% tariffs on $20 billion in Canadian goods has battered Michigan — giving El-Sayed an opening and forcing Rogers to defend his relationship with Trump.
Rogers said that this week he’d called Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to discuss getting a trade deal with Canada done.
“This is about getting the best deal possible. I’d like to see it end. I think we need to end it. And I — matter of fact, I made those phone calls this week,” Rogers said.
El-Sayed, meanwhile, pointed to Rogers’ past praise for Trump’s tariffs, and said his reversal in recent weeks “has everything to do with his sagging poll numbers.”
He also lambasted Rogers over Trump’s war with Iran, saying the former congressman has “cheer-led this war the entire time.”
He said Michigan’s next senator needs to “stand up to Trump and Trumpism,” and said of Rogers: “You can tell he’s not going to stand up to anybody.”
El-Sayed also mocked a new Rogers television ad in which the former congressman, sitting at a bar and holding a Canadian beer, breaks with Trump on the Canadian tariffs.
“He’s doing an ad, drinking Labatt, and talking about the Red Wings, pretending like he was not for this the entire time,” El-Sayed said. “Be serious, my guy. Like, just be serious. People deserve to know they have a leader who’s going to be serious about policy.”
Ossoff similarly put Mike Collins on defense all night over tariffs — from their effects on Georgia farmers to the cost of food. He repeatedly challenged Collins to explain to Georgians how tariffs have helped them.
Collins ignored Ossoff’s bait, but when asked later by a moderator how to balance competitiveness with China and Georgia’s manufacturing sector, he said the tariffs were “making it fair.”
Ossoff pounced.
“Go buy groceries,” Ossoff said. “No one in this state seriously believes these tariffs are working, Congressman. It’s been a disaster.”
Rogers gets personal against El-Sayed
Rogers told viewers that El-Sayed is “not what he says he is. He’s actually selling the best con I think I’ve ever seen.”
“If somebody came into his office and he tried to treat that patient, he’d go to jail,” Rogers said. (El-Sayed earned a Doctor of Medicine from Columbia University, but he does not practice clinical medicine. He held public health positions in the Detroit area.)
He accused El-Sayed, who is Muslim, of being sympathetic to — and funded by — interests connected to Islamic terror.
“He can’t condemn Hamas. He can’t condemn the Muslim Brotherhood,” Rogers said. “He gets money from people who support, openly, Hamas, Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda.”
For the most part, El-Sayed ignored the personal attacks, rather than litigating their veracity on-stage. He said Rogers wanted to make the race “about him or me, but the question is about you.”
However, he did jab back with some personal barbs of his own, accusing Rogers, a former congressman, of running for office again to make millions in the private sector.
If the animosity between Rogers and El-Sayed wasn’t already clear enough, the moderator said after a commercial break that it was the first time he’d ever seen candidates continue debating into the break, while voters aren’t even watching.
Rogers also sought to contrast the work their mothers did. He pointed out that El-Sayed’s mother worked for the Islamic American Relief Agency, a non-profit that the Treasury Department in 2004 designated as an organization supporting terrorism.
“Are you going after my mom?” said El-Sayed, who was primarily raised in Michigan by his father and stepmother.
“I was going after that organization that was indicted for funneling money to Al Qaeda,” Rogers said. “Look, that’s your mom. My mom worked at a small chamber of commerce. I’ll put my mom up any day for that.”
El-Sayed responded he is a “dad and a doctor” who wants to “get money out of politics, put money in your pocket and pass Medicare for All.” He said Rogers “wants this to be about anything but his own record.”
Georgia foes get heated
Ossoff challenged Collins to defend his support for Trump’s agenda.
“I doubt he’ll have the courage to do so,” Ossoff said.
Collins fired back that Ossoff was “an extremist who’s voted for men to go in girls’ sports” and then called his opponent “a trust fund kid who’s never had a job in his life.”
The exchanges grew more heated from there. Ossoff raised an ongoing House Ethics Committee investigation into allegations that Collins’ congressional office misused taxpayer dollars. A visibly irritated Collins called the investigation a “nothingburger” and accused Ossoff of dodging scrutiny of his own record.
“All he wants to do is slander and try to slam me,” Collins said.
Mike Collins avoids Trump mentions
From the outset, Ossoff tried to link Collins to Trump — a bet that the administration’s sinking approval ratings will be a drag on his Republican opponent.
Ossoff invoked Trump’s name 16 times, usually with Collins’ name in close proximity.
Collins, meanwhile, avoided almost any mention of his party’s leader. The lone exception was to highlight TrumpRx, a prescription drug program that White House officials have encouraged Republican allies to discuss more often.
He presented himself as a bipartisan dealmaker and touted his efforts to “get two bills signed by two presidents of different parties.”
It was one of several ways Collins appeared largely on defense throughout the hour-long debate. In addition to questions about Trump’s policies, Collins faced accusations — and a very tough question from a moderator — related to his son-in-law, a White nationalist influencer with a track record of sharing antisemitic material and Nazi imagery in comments across the internet.
Collins sought to turn the tables by and break Ossoff’s grip on the race by tying his opponent to the Democratic Party’s more polarizing left-wing figures.
He asserted that Ossoff “recruited, supported and endorsed Abdul El-Sayed.” Collins on three occasions brought up Hasan Piker, the progressive influencer whose left-wing politics have become fodder for Republicans and a headache, at times, for Democrats. Notably, Piker wasn’t mentioned in Michigan’s Senate debate even as Republicans have brought up El-Sayed campaigning during the primary with Piker repeatedly.
Collins also attacked Ossoff over the financial support he has received from LinkedIn co-founder and Democratic donor Reid Hoffman.
“He wants to take control of this country with these weird and dangerous ideas with his radical friends,” Collins said, before issuing a direct plea to voters: “Help me get to the US Senate. Help me get there, and I’ll answer to Georgia.”
Susan Collins demands an apology
In the Maine Senate debate, Susan Collins took umbrage at multiple junctures as Troy Jackson accused her of not doing enough to stand up to Trump.
In the most contentious moment, Collins erupted after Jackson accused her and her husband, without providing evidence, of “making money” off the war in Iran.
“That is absolutely outrageous and you owe me an apology,” Collins told Jackson. “That is absolutely outrageous, to say that my husband and I are making money off the war in Iran, is absolutely outrageous.”
Jackson quickly responded, “No, you owe me an apology.”
Collins also expressed indignation earlier in the debate when asked about a recent ProPublica story alleging a pay-to-play scheme involving her office and a defense contractor. Collins continued to deny any wrongdoing.
“I have served Maine with integrity the entire time and I deeply resent these false allegations,” Collins said.
Dueling records on abortion
During their first debate Tuesday, Collins and Jackson only scratched the surface of a sensitive issue for the Maine Democratic nominee: the anti-abortion positions he took early in his political career.
On Thursday night, they got into it.
Jackson proactively raised the issue in response to a question about whether they would support federal protections for abortion rights. Jackson said yes and added: “I’m sure Sen. Collins is going to bring this up, but our records have changed: Mine has gotten better, hers has gotten worse.”
Collins said she not only supports federal protections but also has already authored legislation to codify abortion rights after the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. And she said she has been more consistently “pro-choice” than Jackson has.
“He was an extremist when it comes to abortion,” she said.
Jackson, as he’s done before, disavowed his earlier positions but argued he is able to admit when he is wrong, while Collins cannot. He pointed to her continued defense of voting in 2018 to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, one of the justices who later voted to overturn Roe v. Wade.
This article has been updated with additional developments.
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