President Donald Trump called up Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) in a fury to shout at her over the war powers vote on Venezuela earlier this week, The Hill reported on Friday.
“According to two sources familiar, a fuming Trump dialed up Collins, the foremost Senate GOP centrist, during the vote aimed at blocking the White House from using military force against Venezuela,” reported Al Weaver. One of her GOP colleagues told The Hill, “he called her and then basically read her the riot act” in a “profanity-laced” shouting session. Trump reportedly told her he is undermining his authority over the military and national security.
“He was very mad about the vote,” said another source. “Very mad. Very hot.”
Collins is notorious as a Republican who sometimes defies Trump on key votes, including his tax cut megabill last year, although many voters have never forgiven her for helping Trump get Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh confirmed amid accusations he committed sexual assault in his college years.
Nonetheless, Collins, who was one of five Senate Republicans to back the resolution, has enraged Trump. He publicly condemned her and the other four Republicans on his Truth Social platform, writing, “Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul, Josh Hawley, and Todd Young should never be elected to office again.”
Defeating Collins, who represents the bluest Senate seat to be held by a Republican, is a requirement for Democrats to have any shot at winning a majority in the midterms, a tall order as they will also have to win the open seat in North Carolina and at least one of the GOP-leaning seats in Texas, Ohio, Iowa, or Alaska, while holding every seat currently in Democratic control.
The two principal Democratic candidates for Senate in Maine are Janet Mills, the incumbent governor, and Graham Platner, a harbormaster and oyster farmer running a progressive outsider campaign.
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