In what had been billed as a long-winded, stemwinder (as if) speech, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) finally owns up to what has been rumored for weeks—she promised Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump she would vote for Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court even before his nomination was official.
She’s spent the intervening weeks stubbornly insisting, against all evidence, that Kavanaugh would not be the final vote on the Supreme Court to gut Roe v. Wade, showing a degree of forced (and unconvincing) gullibility we haven’t seen since she insisted that she’d secured promises from McConnell that he’d bring votes to protect the Affordable Care Act to the floor, after she gave him her tax cuts vote. She’s not that gullible. She just doesn’t care.
She mouthed words about how she was being tough on this nomination, saying that if she determined he “was not truthful, then obviously that would be a major problem for me.” He proved time and time again, in his first round of hearings and then again in his self-defense against Christine Blasey Ford’s sexual assault accusation. Collins isn’t stupid enough to not see the blatant lies there. She just doesn’t care.
Then Collins tried to turn the massive grassroots effort by her own constituents in Maine into some kind of jihad against her. As if calls from her constituents were actually bodily threats. She called the simple democratic act of grassroots fundraising against her “bribery.” Which was particularly rich, given she’s received over $5 million from PACs and large donors like the Koch brothers. Her constituents are asking her to represent them. She just doesn’t care.
She’s heard face-to-face pleas from constituents like retired professor Elaine Johnson, who said that “her speech a few minutes ago in Collins’s office was the first time she’s spoken in a public setting about what happened to her as a child and teenager. Says she was inspired by Blasey Ford, says a Collins yes vote would be “crushing.” Collins just doesn’t care.
Maine, you’ve got 24 hours to make her care, to get her to change her mind: 207) 622-8414, (207) 945-0417, (207) 283-1101, (207) 493-7873, (207) 784-6969, (207) 780-3575, (202) 224-2523.