Republican party forgoes 2020 platform, pledges fealty to Trump--Collins on day 617 of refusing to tell Mainers whether she supports his reelection
Yesterday, the Republican National Committee announced that they will not be adopting a platform for the 2020 election. Instead they issued a memo in which their only tangible commitment to their voters and the American people was that they will “continue to enthusiastically support the President’s America-first agenda.” So far, Trump’s ‘America-first agenda’ has meant confirming hundreds of right wing judges, tax breaks for corporations and the ultra-wealthy, and repeated attempts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, and Senator Susan Collins voted for that agenda 94% of the time.
While a host of other Republicans, including Collins’ former Senate colleague Jeff Flake, have come out against Donald Trump, Senator Collins has made a political calculation that she’s better off voting in lockstep with Trump and pretending to distance herself from him in front of Maine people. With Trump’s popularity deep underwater in Maine, it’s no wonder that Collins doesn’t want to remind voters that if they send her back to the Senate, she’ll spend the next six years as a reliable vote for Trump’s top priorities.
“Senator Collins is running under the banner of a party that just confirmed that they have only one policy priority--backing Donald Trump,” said Maine Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Marra. “After nearly four years of voting in lockstep with Trump and McConnell, and against the interests of hard working Mainers, her desperate attempt to hide her support for the President won’t be enough to save her seat.”
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