The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee today launched a new website to highlight how Senator Collins refuses to set the same standards for impeachment that she did in 1999 and now “aligns” with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell instead of demanding a fair hearing. The website, WhatChangedSusan.com, features Senator Collins’ own words from the 1998 and 1999 impeachment process and contrasts those statements with her current and ongoing “fence-straddling.”
Today’s inaugural post focuses on how Senator Collins has changed when it comes to witnesses.
In 1999, Senator Collins said she required for “‘more evidence’ and ‘witnesses,’ in order to ‘get to the truth,’ and to fulfill the Senate’s ‘duty to do impartial justice’” ahead of the impeachment trial.
Now, Collins has refused to make the same demands. Instead, she has echoed McConnell — who is taking his cues from the White House. Her statement that she is “open” to witnesses without demanding they be a part of a fair hearing underscores the change from her stance in two decades ago, and was promptly dismissed as meaningless political calculation rather than the stance of a “straight-shooting, independence voice.”
“Senator Collins was once clear about the need for witness testimony and a full and fair trial in the U.S. Senate, but she now refuses to make the same demands — so what’s changed?” said DSCC spokesperson Stewart Boss. “Her carefully chosen words can’t cover up what Senator Collins is really doing: once again toeing the party line with Mitch McConnell.”
WhatChangedSusan.com will be updated as the impeachment process unfolds.
###
Next Post
