Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) will support Xavier Becerra to become President Biden’s secretary of Health and Human Services, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
“Although the California attorney general will still likely be among the most narrowly confirmed of Biden’s Cabinet nominees, Collins’ support ensures that he will have at least one Republican vote, and almost certainly avoids the need for Vice President Kamala Harris to break a tie vote in the Senate on his nomination.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) boasts about his extensive relationships in a New York Times interview, but it appears there’s one senator who still really doesn’t like him: Susan Collins (R-ME).
“Mr. Schumer’s political action committee ran ads accusing Ms. Collins’s husband of enriching himself through the opioid crisis and charging that she had ‘pocketed’ money from drug companies.”
Said Collins: “His tactics were unworthy of a Senate race.”
“The Maine Republican Party could vote by month’s end to censure Sen. Susan Collins over her Saturday vote to convict former President Donald Trump of a Democratic impeachment charge, a move that infuriated many in the conservative grassroots,” the Bangor Daily News reports.
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New York Times: “Republicans who had privately fretted about her demise offered hearty congratulations, professing to have always known she would survive. Senator Joe Manchin III, the centrist Democrat from West Virginia, reached out wanting to know how soon he could get a meeting with his fellow moderate to begin breaking through the impasse on a coronavirus relief package. And President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. made a brief call to congratulate a former Senate colleague and legislative ally whose vote he will badly need to push through his agenda and staff his administration.”
“The ring-kissing reflected the prime perch of Ms. Collins, who, after having survived the steepest re-election challenge of her career with a comfortable margin, has emerged more powerful than ever, poised for a fifth term in which her brand of bipartisan deal-making will be crucial.”
“The question is how Ms. Collins, who has long held sway as one of the few swing votes in a narrowly divided Senate, will use that power.”
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) acknowledged that her stated belief that President Trump had learned a lesson from impeachment was “aspirational,” saying that she “may not be correct on that,” The Hill reports.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) to Bloomberg: “If there are articles of impeachment I would be a juror just as I was in the trial for President Clinton, and as a juror I think it’s inappropriate for me to reach conclusions about evidence or to comment on the proceedings in the House.”
“I do not regret my vote in the least.”
— Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), in an interview with the New York Times, on her vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said she’s “surprised” and “appalled” by the Trump administration’s decision to argue in court that the Affordable Care Act should be thrown out, Axios reports.
Said Collins: “I’m appalled. I think the Justice Department has a duty to defend the duly enacted laws… I was surprised and disappointed. If the president disagrees with a law, then he should should ask Congress to repeal or change that law. He should not try to get rid of it through the courts.”
“Democrats and liberal groups on Friday pointed to a Supreme Court ruling in an abortion case to argue that Justice Brett Kavanaugh would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, focusing their ire on Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who supported Kavanaugh’s nomination last year and faces a tough 2020 reelection,” the Washington Post reports.
“The outcry from the left follows the court’s 5-to-4 vote to block a restrictive Louisiana abortion law… While Democrats hailed the decision, they pointed to Kavanaugh’s dissent as a sign that he is poised to side with conservatives in future rulings on abortion rights.”
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) declined to say during a television interview whether she will endorse President Trump for reelection in 2020, the Washington Post reports.
Said Collins: “I’m not prepared at this point to make that decision.”
When asked whether she would endorse Trump later, Collins said: “I don’t know. I’m going to have to see what happens between now and then and look at what his record is. I can’t imagine I would endorse any of the Democrats who are running right now, but I’m going to focus on 2020 in 2020.”
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) told NBC News that President Trump’s threat to declare a national emergency to get funding for the border wall “a very dubious move from the constitutional perspective.”
She added: “Without congressional authorization is not what I think is intended by the national emergency act.”
When asked her views about Trump walking out of a meeting with congressional leaders: “It makes me worried about whether… we are able to get to a compromise this week. I’m worried about what the end game is. This cannot be allowed to go on forever.”
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) warned the Trump administration against interfering with special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, saying he “must be allowed” to finish it, The Hill reports.
Said Collins: “It is imperative that the Administration not impede the Mueller investigation. I’m concerned Rod Rosenstein will no longer be overseeing the probe.”
SEnate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) promised to raise $3 million to support Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) to counteract anger over her vote to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh, The Hill reports.
Said Grassley: “I’m going to help raise $3 million to match that.”
Sen. Susan Collins explicitly told CNN that she does not believe Christine Blasey Ford’s sexual assault allegation against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Said Collins: “I found Dr. Ford’s testimony to be heart-wrenching, painful, compelling, and I believe that she believes what she testified to.”
But she added: “I’m 100 percent certain that this did not happen.”
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) “was already one of the Democrats’ biggest Senate targets in 2020 when she took to the Senate floor Friday to announce she would vote to confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. But Collins’ decision to back the Supreme Court nominee after he was accused of sexual assault was instantly controversial with not only the hundreds of activists who flooded the Capitol this week but also with Democratic activists in her home state of Maine who have opposed Kavanaugh’s nomination for weeks,” CNN reports.
“By the time she finished her speech, Democrats in Maine had begun speculating who might challenge the moderate Republican. And progressive activists are pouring in money to fund the eventual challenger, raising millions of dollars online to unseat Collins.”
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) announced that she will vote in favor of Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.
After her speech, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said he would also support Kavanaugh.
That means Republican leaders now have 51 committed votes to confirm Kavanaugh.
Activists have now raised nearly $2 million for a future Democratic opponent of Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) if she votes in favor of Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Collins is expected to announce her final vote at 3 p.m. ET.
“Republican senators are confident that Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) will announce her support for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on Friday afternoon, after days of talking to her about her concerns,” The Hill reports.
“GOP senators swarmed around Collins after a key procedural vote Friday morning, in which Collins voted to advance the nominee to an up-or-down vote on Saturday. She cast her vote shortly after saying she would announce her position on Kavanaugh during a 3 p.m. floor speech on Friday.”
CNBC reports that Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) will vote to confirm Kavanaugh.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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