Augusta, ME – This week, independent fact checkers have thrown cold water on Susan Collins’ attempts to distance herself from corruption allegations, President Trump, and his One Big Beautiful Bill. The reality is that Collins has “ignored” “the central point” of the bombshell ProPublica report about her pay-to-play scheme, has “rarely thwarted” President Trump, provided a “key procedural vote” for Trump’s tax cut, and has touted a measure that “will not erase the cut from the One Big Beautiful Bill.”

Read more about how Collins’ campaign is falling apart under scrutiny:

New York Times: “Susan Collins’s defections have rarely changed outcomes in Trump’s second term”

• A New York Times analysis of Ms. Collins’s voting record over the last decade […] reveals that her defections [from Trump] […] have rarely thwarted the president during his second term. […]

• That was the case with Republicans’ signature domestic policy law — what Mr. Trump refers to as his “big, beautiful bill” — which slashed taxes, significantly increased funding for immigration enforcement and made substantial cuts to social safety net programs.

• Ms. Collins voted against the bill, expressing deep reservations about its cuts to Medicaid. But she did not stand in the way of Republicans as they sought to bring it to the floor, siding with her party on a key procedural vote that cleared the way for its eventual passage.

• […] in the end, Ms. Collins could not kill or even limit the Medicaid cuts. […]

Politifact: Collins’ rural health provision “will not erase the cut from the One Big Beautiful Bill”

• Collins, when asked why she voted to advance Trump’s domestic policy bill when she objected to its cuts to Medicaid and rural hospitals: “I created the $50 billion rural healthcare fund.”

• Health policy experts have said those dollars will not erase the cut from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. […]

• KFF, a national health care policy think tank, estimated that the $50 billion […] will not fully offset $137 billion in Medicaid cuts states combined will see over 10 years.

• Maine projected in July 2025 that 31,000 MaineCare expansion members are at risk of losing coverage because of new work requirements.

• Nine Maine hospitals or maternity awards had announced closures in the past decade as of 2025, the Maine Beacon reported, reflecting a national trend.

Bangor Daily News: “Collins ignores part of ProPublica report”

• Collins said again Thursday that allegations of a pay-to-play scheme reported by ProPublica involving her or her staff were false and had been settled under former President Joe Biden. […]

• That doesn’t address the central point of ProPublica’s piece. By late 2024, agents had asked supervisors to OK a broader bribery investigation that could have involved Collins and other lawmakers, the outlet reported.