Sen. Susan Collins: “The House did little to support its assertion in Article One that the president will remain a threat to national security and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office.” https://t.co/35Zg7cQ9nU pic.twitter.com/yxMwNIaLEh
— ABC News (@ABC) February 4, 2020
Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins announced that she’d vote to acquit President Trump on both articles of impeachment, telling the press that Trump has learned from impeachment and will be more cautious with seeking foreign assistance going forward.
Per Fox News:
Even as she criticized Trump’s behavior as “flawed,” Collins slammed House Democrats for delaying transmitting the articles of impeachment to the Senate for more than a month, saying the stalling and posturing undercut their arguments that the president was an imminent threat.
Last week, Collins had broken ranks with her fellow Republicans, along with Utah GOP Sen. Mitt Romney, to vote in favor of additional witnesses in the Senate trial. Trump, who is now set to be overwhelmingly acquitted by the Senate on Wednesday, will deliver the annual State of the Union address before Congress Tuesday night amid record-high approval ratings.
“In the trial of President Clinton, I argued that in order to convict, we must conclude from the evidence presented to us with no room for doubt that our Constitution will be injured, and our democracy suffer, should the president remain in office one moment more,” Collins said. “Impeachment for a president should be reserved for conduct that poses such a serious threat to our governmental institutions so as to warrant the extreme step of immediate removal for office.
“I voted to acquit President Clinton, even though the House managers proved to my satisfaction that he did commit a crime,” Collins continued, saying that his perjury did not rise to the threshold required for removal from office.
Collins’ speech comes one day after West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin urged the Senate to censure Trump rather than convict and remove him, a potentially bipartisan compromise.
AAN Staff
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