Senator Collins “Dodges Question About Supporting Trump” While Maine GOP Chair Confirms Collins & Trump “Support Each Other”

After spending the last 619 days refusing to come clean with Mainers on whether she’s supporting President Trump’s re-election, Senator Susan Collins is in the hot seat again for dodging the question repeatedly yesterday — even as the Maine GOP chair claimed that Collins and Trump “both support each other” and Collins’ campaign co-chair recently offered his “full-throated support” of Trump.

While Collins claims she’s staying out of the presidential race because she’s “concentrating on [her] own race,” when she was up for re-election 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:

News Center Maine: Susan Collins dodges questions about supporting Donald Trump

• Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who is fighting to keep her Senate seat in one of the country’s most notable races, said Tuesday she’s focusing on her own race, again offering no indication of whether she is supporting President Donald Trump.

• When asked whether she is supporting Trump in his reelection campaign, Collins dodged the question, saying, “You know, I’m concentrating on my own race, you may have noticed it’s a pretty vigorous race this year.”

• It’s a sentiment she’s repeated for months, despite being endorsed by the President.

• On Monday during a call with reporters ahead of the Republican convention, Maine GOP Party Chair Dr. Demi Kouzounas said, “I’m a huge Trumpster…and also a huge Susan Collins supporter. They are not mutually exclusive. They both have their jobs to do. They both support each other.”

Roll Call: Sen. Susan Collins supports Trump, head of Maine GOP says

• Sen. Susan Collins may be absent from this week’s Republican National Convention, but she supports President Donald Trump, according to the head of Maine’s Republican Party.

• Maine GOP Chairperson Demi Kouzounas — when asked on a call arranged by a Trump campaign committee about Collins’ absence from the convention — said Monday that the senator supports Trump.

• “They’re not mutually exclusive. I think they both have their jobs to do. They both support each other,” Kouzounas said on a Trump Victory call with reporters. 

• “Despite her refusal to tell Mainers who she’s voting for, Senator Collins has made her opinion on Donald Trump clear,” Gideon spokeswoman Maeve Coyle said in an email to CQ Roll Call.

• Collins cast a key vote in 2018 to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh’s confirmation process was rocked by an allegation of sexual assault dating to his time in high school. His placement on the high court is often touted by Trump as one of his biggest accomplishments in office.

NBC News: Susan Collins refuses to say if she’ll vote for Trump

• After the head of the Maine Republican Party told local reporters in a conference that Sen. Susan Collins “supports” President Trump, it raised a lot of questions as the Maine senator has refused to say if she’ll vote for Trump in November. She did not vote for him in 2016. 

• Collins is in a tough re-election race where she is carefully trying the thread the line of not offending Trump supporters in the state while still maintaining the support of the independent-minded Maine voter.  

• Pressed on her plans to vote in November, Collins told an NBC affiliate reporter, “I am concentrating on my own race.”

Newsweek: Susan Collins Edits Trump Signage Out of Social Media, Despite Endorsement

• Sen. Susan Collins’ campaign posted a photo on social media that appears to have been digitally altered to blur out a Trump campaign sign, despite the president expressing support for her reelection bid.

• The Maine Republican is facing a significant challenge while attempting to retain her U.S. Senate seat for a fifth term, with polls consistently showing her trailing behind Democratic challenger Sara Gideon. Collins has positioned herself as a moderate and has recently struggled to publicly express any clear opinions on President Donald Trump.

• A photo posted to Twitter shows Collins posing with supporters while standing in front of Sanford Republican Committee headquarters in Springvale, Maine on Saturday, in front of a doorway with a Trump campaign sign posted to it. A second photo posted to the Collins campaign Twitter account from the same event includes the same doorway, but with the partially visible Trump sign blurred out.

• When questioned about the race for president, Collins has insisted on remaining neutral, refusing to endorse Trump or say whether she will vote for him, while also refraining from speaking against former Vice President Joe Biden.

• Demi Kouzounas, chair of the Maine Republican Party, reportedly insisted on Tuesday that Collins does support Trump despite her silence on the issue and her notable absence from this week’s Republican National Convention.

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