Donald Trump has spent his presidency deepening the divisions in this country. He has insisted that white supremacists are “very fine people,” blamed “blue states” for the spread of the coronavirus, and has doubled down on his commitment to divisive politics, vowing to be “vicious” throughout the 2020 campaign. But despite Trump’s insistence on using the politics of division, Senator Susan Collins still refuses to be honest with Mainers about whether or not she will be voting for him in November.
In 2016, Collins took a very different view. She made clear that she could not vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 election because of his divisive rhetoric, saying that Trump “deepens the divisions that are so pervasive in our society today.” Four years later, with Trump using the White House’s bully pulpit to continue deepening those divisions, Collins now won’t say whether she’s voting for his re-election.
Donald Trump hasn’t changed — but Susan Collins has.
Senator Collins has bragged about how “courageous” her public opposition to Trump was in 2016, but that “courage” has now disappeared as she refuses to be honest with Mainers about who she is voting for in 2020. But even after 675 consecutive days of refusing to be honest with Mainers, she still can’t hide her record of support for Donald Trump. She’s voted with him 94% of the time, and provided him key votes for his agenda––including packing the federal judiciary with far-right judges who put Mainers’ rights and health care at risk.
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