In Georgia’s first Senate debate on Thursday, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) said he would defer to the International Criminal Court on whether Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, but said that he believes Israel has violated international law.

Ossoff also repeatedly hammered his opponent, Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), as a bigot who had hired, amplified and even welcomed into his home and family antisemitic and white supremacist figures.

Collins’ official congressional account amplified an antisemitic post from a white nationalist Twitter account, his former chief of staff was a member of a group chat with white nationalists where he discussed using congressional authority to free a Holocaust denier from prison and his son-in-law is a white nationalist influencer.

“The question of genocide is a question of whether a government has the specific intent to destroy a national ethnic group, and that is a question for the International Criminal Court,” Ossoff said at the debate. “There is no doubt in my mind that Israeli forces prosecuting the war in Gaza violated the law of armed conflict and international humanitarian law.”

Neither Israel nor the U.S. are members of the ICC.

Ossoff said that he “care[s] deeply about the security of the Israeli people,” including some members of his own family, as well as about innocent Palestinians, and said that he stands by his votes to halt arms sales to the Jewish state.

He went on to attack Collins for voting to sanction the ICC.

“His view is there should not be accountability for crimes against humanity, no matter who commits them, and that’s because the congressman is deeply disconnected from our state’s tradition of civil rights and human rights,” Ossoff said.

Sen. Jon Ossoff said during last night’s debate that whether the IDF committed genocide in Gaza "is a question for the International Criminal Court," but he has "no doubt" that Israel violated international law in the course of the war. https://t.co/SDjI8Cplgn

— Jewish Insider (@jewishinsider) October 9, 2026

Collins responded by accusing Ossoff of being a far-left extremist, highlighting his support for Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, and antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker’s backing — since retracted — for Ossoff. He also accused Ossoff of hating Israel and loving Iran.

Collins, for his part, faced grilling from both Ossoff and the debate moderators over his ties to various antisemitic and white nationalist figures, including his own son-in-law.

“You’ve hired half the Third Reich to staff your congressional office and you have promoted neo-Nazi content online,” Ossoff said. “Imagine running for the U.S. Senate while neo-Nazi propaganda is disseminated to an audience of millions from your home. That’s Mike Collins.”

Ossoff continued: “Mike Collins’ office intervened at the Department of Justice on behalf of a Holocaust denier, while his office was in cahoots with some of the nation’s most notorious white supremacists. Mike Collins is a bigot, and it’s disqualifying for a candidate for the U.S. Senate.”

Ossoff suggested that, had the Civil Rights Movement been happening today, Collins would have been personally involved in brutalizing protesters.

Asked by moderators about what conversations he’s had with his daughter and son-in-law about the latter’s online activity, Collins suggested that Ossoff’s attacks on him have endangered his family.

“That’s my family. That’s the craziness that John Ossoff has been spewing out there,” he said. “I actually had a crazy person get put in jail this weekend because he not only wanted to kill my son-in-law, but he wanted to kill me.”

He went on to say that he’s condemned racism, antisemitism and hate, regardless of the source, and said he’s told his son-in-law that as well, and said he’s fired staff with problematic ties when made aware of them.

“It’s wrong. We have no place in this world for that,” Collins said, going on to say that Ossoff has failed to condemn figures like El-Sayed and Piker. (Ossoff belatedly condemned Piker in August after Piker suggested that American Jews were responsible for inciting antisemitic attacks on themselves, months after Piker named him as among his favored candidates for the 2028 presidential election.)

Ossoff also attacked Collins over his support for the war in Iran and its impacts on gas and other prices domestically.

Ossoff said that the U.S. was “lied into” the war. “They told us last year that they obliterated Iran’s nuclear program. This year they told us it posed an imminent threat. So on top of the tariffs now, we have eight months of war, 18 Americans killed in action, hundreds wounded. Iran still has its uranium. Iran still has its drones and missiles,” Ossoff said.

Collins said that President Donald Trump “had every right to go in there and make sure that Iran does not get a nuclear weapon,” pointing to warnings from the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran was approaching nuclear weapons capability.

He said that Iran, were it to obtain nuclear weapons, would attack both Israel and the United States, and that it has been attacking and killing Americans for 47 years.