After weeks of silence, Maine Sen. Susan Collins finally announced Wednesday that she would oppose Todd Blanche’s nomination as the next attorney general. In a statement posted on X, Collins lambasted the acting attorney general for presiding over “actions that have further eroded the [Justice] Department’s independence.”
Collins specifically took issue with Blanche’s approval of a sweetheart deal between President Donald Trump and the IRS that “shield[ed] the President, his sons and the family business from IRS audits,” as well as Blanche’s recent call with religious leaders, in which he promised to expand Republicans’ war on abortion rights.
Collins has either ignored or actively blocked attempt after attempt by Democrats to restore trust and independence at the DOJ.
Collins’ objections all sound correct in isolation, but her admission that the Department of Justice has become a partisan weapon in Trump’s pocket raises a host of tough questions she cannot answer. Most pointedly, if Collins really believes what she’s saying, why is she only speaking up now? And why has she fought against Democratic efforts to bring accountability and independence back to the DOJ?
To understand Collins’ attempt to brand herself as an anti-Blanche warrior for public integrity, look no further than the latest Maine Senate polling. A recent University of New Hampshire poll found Collins trailing her Democratic challenger Troy Jackson 49-46, with a majority of voters disapproving of Collins’ job performance. Despite positioning herself as a check on Trump’s corruption, public voting data reveals she supported the MAGA agenda nearly 95% of the time. No wonder Trump endorsed Collins last month.
Collins’ opposition to Blanche’s confirmation offers her the chance to look like she’s taking a stand against a president who lost her state in all three of his presidential campaigns, without requiring any meaningful actions to back it up. Blanche is just one vote short of confirmation after Utah Sen. John Curtis announced his approval Tuesday. On Friday morning Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski announced her opposition, but Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy can still provide the deciding vote and render Collins’ protest moot.
Indeed, if Collins really wanted to send a message about protecting the integrity of the Justice Department, she could challenge its disgraceful decision to open a criminal probe into the writer E. Jean Carroll, who successfully sued Trump for sexual abuse in 2023. Or she could lend her voice and vote to Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen’s stalled effort to investigate why the Justice Department refused to prosecute border czar Tom Homan for accepting $50,000 in cash from undercover FBI agents in 2024.
Collins has either ignored or actively blocked attempt after attempt by Democrats to restore trust and independence at the DOJ. Though she listed Trump’s IRS immunity deal as a leading reason why she opposes Blanche’s nomination, Collins hasn’t co-sponsored New Mexico Sen. Ben Ray Lujan’s “No Trump Immunity Act,” which would permanently block the Justice Department from offering immunity deals to the president, vice president or their families.
Collins has made a long career out of expressing concern with MAGA extremism while either standing aside or voting to inflict it on the American people.
In fact, Collins hasn’t co-sponsored a single piece of proposed Democratic legislation aimed at ensuring the Justice Department’s independence from political meddling, from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s 2019 Security from Political Interference in Justice Act to the more expansive Protecting Our Democracy Act introduced last year. Nor has she put forward any similar legislation of her own.
The gap between actions and words is nothing new for Collins, who has made a long career out of expressing concern with MAGA extremism while either standing aside or voting to inflict it on the American people. It’s ironic, for instance, that Collins now finds Blanche’s pledge to expand Trump’s war on women disqualifying, given that she bears more responsibility than most for making that war possible in the first place.
She provided a key vote to put Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh on the bench in 2018 despite being one of only two Senate Republicans at the time to express support for abortion rights. In June, Collins said she would vote for Kavanaugh again given the chance, even though he played a central role in dismantling Roe v. Wade and advancing Trump’s war on abortion rights.
Maine voters may be finally tired of this act. The UNH survey found that only 36% of respondents rated Collins’ representation of Mainers as “very good” or “good,” compared to the 47% who rated her “very poor” or “poor.” Her popularity is stuck in the low thirties with independents, with many respondents ranking her support for Trump nominees as a major source of discontent. Even for a consummate political survivor like Collins, those are brutal numbers.
Collins’ mistake is thinking Mainers will let one noisy vote against Blanche make up for a decade of disastrously bad choices. Despite what she wants to be true, voters shouldn’t give her any credit for complaining about a Justice Department corruption crisis she helped create.
The post Susan Collins is back to her old tricks. Voters should see right through them. appeared first on MS NOW.
Author: Source Author
From MS Now.
Leave a Reply