Hmmmm?
Sen. Susan Collins declined last week to back President Donald Trump for reelection, saying she would focus on her own race while suggesting that she only picked sides in 2016 because she was not on the ballot.
“I was not up for reelection,” the Maine Republican told reporters, referring to the 2016 race, when she publicly voiced her opposition to Trump’s presidential campaign. “I didn’t have my own race to worry about at that point.”
But a dozen years ago, as she was running for reelection, Collins endorsed Republican Sen. John McCain over then-Sen. Barack Obama. She served as a co-chairwoman for the McCain campaign in Maine and said she would be “glad” to have her friend campaign for her. At a debate in her 2008 Senate race, she argued that it was “typical for the leading officeholders to chair the campaign of whichever member of your party is running for President.”
Asked Tuesday to explain the discrepancy between her position then and her refusal to say if she’ll endorse Trump now, Collins noted her “difficult race” against state House Speaker Sara Gideon and that she and the late senator had a close relationship.
“As I said, I have a difficult race,” Collins told CNN. “And I am concentrating my efforts on that race.”
…
The contrast reveals the awkward spot Trump has left the senior Maine senator as she battles through one of the toughest elections of her 24-year Senate career. Serving in a Democratic-leaning state with many Trump supporters, Collins is seeking to avoid offending the GOP base while also appealing to swing voters put off by the President….
Then there is this.…
Republican Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) said she will not campaign against former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. Collins said in an interview with The New York Times that she does not campaign against former colleagues. Collins and and Biden served together in the Senate.
The New England senator said she knows Biden “very well” from their days serving in the upper chamber together and that she doesn’t plan to violate her own rule….
image…..The Hill
She’s never going to endorse Trump or vote for him. She did not four years ago either. She will of course try to avoid the matter altogether publicly.
THAT ain’t gonna work with a little more that 3 months before Election Day…
And she will still lose.
Good…..
That will be and even exchange for Doug Jones …
Dem’s need FOUR MORE Senate gets….
Niles Edwards Frances
Still think it’s wild that Montana and Arizona could both have two Democratic Senators by January while Florida has none.
Eh
Sen Collins IS in trouble…
She currently trails Gideon by 5% points in Maine…
…
A new Public Policy Polling survey in Maine finds Sarah Gideon (D) leading Sen. Susan Collins (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 47% to 42%.
Politicalwire…
Andrew Solender
@AndrewSolender
Joe Lieberman endorses Susan Collins in an @RJC ad: