With Republican control of the Senate at risk in November, President Trump on Thursday took the unusual step of urging the defeat of his party’s most vulnerable incumbent, Senator Susan M. Collins of Maine.
After she and four other Republicans joined with Senate Democrats to vote to start a debate over restricting the president’s ability to use military force in Venezuela, Mr. Trump used social media to take a harsh shot at them.
“Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul, Josh Hawley, and Todd Young should never be elected to office again,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social, condemning their “stupidity” and saying that Republicans should be “ashamed” of the senators from Maine, Alaska, Kentucky, Missouri and Indiana.
Ms. Collins is the sole one of the five Republicans who will face voters in midterm elections this year as she seeks a sixth term in what is acknowledged to be a very challenging political environment. She is widely considered the only Republican who could win the Senate seat in Democratic-leaning Maine after holding off multiple past challenges, and defeating her is crucial to any hope that Democrats have of reclaiming the Senate.
She brushed off the president’s criticism, wondering aloud whether Mr. Trump would like to see one of her chief Democratic challengers, Gov. Janet Mills, win the race instead.
“The president obviously is unhappy with the vote,” she told reporters on Capitol Hill. “I guess this means that he would prefer to have Governor Mills or somebody else.”
And she defended her vote.
“I see a clear distinction between the extradition of an indicted narco-terrorist to stand trial in the United States and longer-term action in either Venezuela or Greenland, circumstances where the War Powers Act should apply,” she said.
Senator John Thune, the South Dakota Republican and majority leader, said he was certain that the president wanted to maintain Republican control of the Senate.
“This was a short-term, immediate reaction to something he felt strongly about,” Mr. Thune said. “He, like all of us, wants to make sure that we have a Republican majority in the Senate. And we all know that, in the state of Maine, the way to make that happen.”
Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate. Democrats are hopeful of substantially cutting into the margin if not overtaking Republicans entirely in November, given the midterm advantage that the party out of power traditionally holds in midterm election cycles.
Other Republicans singled out by the president shrugged off the social media assault.
“I just take no offense to that,” Mr. Hawley said.
Carl Hulse is the chief Washington correspondent for The Times, primarily writing about Congress and national political races and issues. He has nearly four decades of experience reporting in the nation’s capital.
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