Collins downplays vote fallout
WASHINGTON –– Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine downplayed the threat of a re-election challenge in 2020, as lawmakers’ votes for and against U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in his confirmation battle generate political backlash.
Collins, who voted for Kavanaugh in what she termed one of her hardest decisions ever, said in response to a question about a potential challenge from former U.S. national security adviser Susan Rice that she did what she thought was right. And besides, Collins said, Rice doesn’t really live in Maine.
“Her family has a home in Maine, but she doesn’t live in the state of Maine,” Collins said Sunday.
On Friday, Rice responded “Me” to a Twitter pose from another former State Department official, Jen Psaki, asking who would like to run for the Senate from Maine. Rice, who was also a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President Barack Obama, later posted that she was “not making any announcements” but was “deeply disappointed” in Collins.
A crowdfunding campaign has raised millions of dollars for Collins’s eventual challenger, while former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin suggested that she could oppose Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who cast the only Republican vote against Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, a vulnerable Democrat from North Dakota seeking reelection in November, who voted against Kavanaugh, said in an interview that she had no doubt that supporting the nominee would have been “politically expedient,” according to a transcript provided by CBS.