The Washington Post reported that they discovered an AI picture that a former staffer of Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) posted on social media showing himself in a notorious white robe and hood.
Preston Parra posted on X a feature he said was created using Grok's AI feature. He claimed it was meant to be "satirical" and described himself as a provocateur.
According to the report, Parra insisted Collins had no idea about the account when he was working for the Senate hopeful, as Parra made his account private.
“What, is there supposed to be some kind of CIA background check?” Parra said.
He swore he is not a white supremacist because it is against his religion. He also has a Colombian father.
“I do think that the white race contributes more to the world,” he said.
In July, Parra posted another image that repeatedly used a slang word often used to describe young and slim gay men. The word was arranged in the shape of a swastika. Gay men were among those who faced torture and death in the Holocaust at the hands of the Nazis.
The Post reported that "Parra’s consulting website says that Collins praised the quality of his 'product,' although it does not say when Collins made the remark or what specifically he was referring to."
“You can grade it by the amount of people that are watching it and pushing it back out,” the site quotes Collins as saying.
Parra said that it was a statement about the digital work that he had done as part of his job for Collins.
But Parra also posted a celebration of Collins, saying, “let’s get that man elected.”
Collins has been campaigning against Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) but a number of stories have popped up about Collins' allies who have had other similar issues with white supremacist ideology. His son-in-law, for example, came under fire for allegedly racist posts. And Collins' former chief of staff last month faced similar allegations after reports that the staffer was in a group chat with white nationalists.
After that incident, more than 50 Black Georgia lawmakers have signed onto a statement condemning Collins for his associates’ comments and posts that have been widely panned as racist and antisemitic.
“In the South, we have a saying: You lay down with dogs, you get up with fleas,” Debbie Dooley, an original tea party organizer said to the Post. “Well, Mike Collins has got a lot of fleas on him.”
