“Desperate” Senator Susan Collins’ Excuse for Avoiding Questions on Supporting Trump’s Re-election “Doesn’t Add Up”

New Reports Find Collins’ Deflections Are Misleading Attempt to Dodge Questions and Save Her Political Career

Vulnerable incumbent Senator Susan Collins is facing growing scrutiny for avoiding questions about her support for Trump’s re-election campaign. CNN spotlighted Senator Collins’ hypocrisy for saying that she is only focused on her own race “despite endorsing previous GOP presidential nominees,” and HuffPost found that Collins’ “desperate” deflections seemed politically motivated and her excuse for refusing to take a position on Trump’s re-election “doesn’t add up.” 

While Senator Collins may try to claim that she is staying out of the presidential race because “she doesn’t campaign against her Senate colleagues” and is focused on her own “difficult race,” the reality is that Collins campaigned for Republican presidential tickets and against fellow senators in 2000, again in 2004, and then again 2008. When Senator Collins was up for re-election herself in 2008, she served as co-chairwoman for the McCain campaign in Maine, arguing that it’s “typical for the leading officeholders to chair the campaign of whichever member of your party is running for President.”

As Senator Collins desperately attempts to distance herself from Trump to try to save her political career, the nation’s least popular senator can’t change the facts about her record. Senator Collins has voted with Trump 94% of the time and overwhelmingly supported his agenda and his judicial nominees — demonstrating just how much she’s changed after more than two decades in Washington.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

CNN: Susan Collins withholds support from Trump despite endorsing previous GOP presidential nominees
By Manu Raju, Alex Rogers and Ali Zaslav

Key Points:

• Sen. Susan Collins declined last week to back President Donald Trump for reelection, saying she would focus on her own race while suggesting that she only picked sides in 2016 because she was not on the ballot.

• But a dozen years ago, as she was running for reelection, Collins endorsed Republican Sen. John McCain over then-Sen. Barack Obama. She served as a co-chairwoman for the McCain campaign in Maine and said she would be “glad” to have her friend campaign for her. At a debate in her 2008 Senate race, she argued that it was “typical for the leading officeholders to chair the campaign of whichever member of your party is running for President.”

• Asked Tuesday to explain the discrepancy between her position then and her refusal to say if she’ll endorse Trump now, Collins noted her “difficult race” against state House Speaker Sara Gideon and that she and the late senator had a close relationship.

• The contrast reveals the awkward spot Trump has left the senior Maine senator as she battles through one of the toughest elections of her 24-year Senate career. Serving in a Democratic-leaning state with many Trump supporters, Collins is seeking to avoid offending the GOP base while also appealing to swing voters put off by the President. In March, she refused to say how she voted in the Maine GOP presidential primary.

• While the vast majority of Republicans in Congress have decided to endorse Trump, Collins has not. They have a complicated relationship.

• …Collins’ popularity has suffered during the Trump era. The last New England Republican in Congress now faces her toughest reelection race. Gideon has outraised Collins by roughly $10 million, according to the latest FEC filings.

HuffPost: Susan Collins Is Desperate To Avoid Saying Whether She Backs Trump’s Reelection
By Hayley Miller

Key Points:

• Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) seems awfully desperate to avoid saying whether she’ll vote for President Donald Trump in November.

• That shouldn’t be too surprising given that she’s facing the toughest reelection bid of her career in a state that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden appears poised to win.

• But Collins’ reasoning for avoiding questions about whether she backs the president’s push for four more years in the White House doesn’t add up.

• She attempted to explain her silence in an interview with The New York Times earlier this month, stating she doesn’t campaign against her Senate colleagues. (Before serving as President Barack Obama’s vice president, Biden represented Delaware as a senator for more than three decades.)

• She told the Times she knows Biden “very well” and that campaigning against him would essentially violate her own rule. And yet, she campaigned against fellow senators in their quest for the presidency in 2000, 2004 and 2008.

• Collins has refused to say whether she voted for Trump in Maine’s Republican primary, telling a local TV station that she doesn’t want to “get involved in presidential politics.” Trump was the only candidate listed on that ballot, along with the option to write in another name.

• Her refusal to weigh in on the race marked a clear contrast from her position in 2016, when she wrote an op-ed denouncing then-Republican nominee Trump and his “unsuitability for office” three months before the election.

• Though the explanations she’s offered for deflecting feel shaky, her likely reason for doing so seems clearer. It’s possible she’s made the political calculation that the risks of endorsing Trump outweigh any possible benefits for her reelection campaign.

• While Collins has positioned herself as a self-described “pro-choice” moderate, her voting record suggests otherwise. Her critical support for Trump’s tax bill, Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court appointment, and acquitting the president during his impeachment trial have mobilized Democratic and independent voters in Maine against her. 

• Trump appeared to endorse Collins in December, tweeting that he agrees “100%” with Sen. Lindsey Graham’s assessment that her reelection is crucial for maintaining a Republican majority in the Senate. 

• When asked Wednesday if being tethered to Trump would cost her in November, Collins danced around the question.

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