Following a speech on the Senate floor on Tuesday in which she announced she’ll vote to acquit, Collins told Norah O’Donnell of CBS that she believes Trump “has learned from this case” and “will be much more cautious in the future.” Getting impeached “is a pretty big lesson,” Collins said — the implication being that Trump will be chastened going forward from trying to pervert diplomacy into an opposition research opportunity, as he did with the Ukrainian government.
Collins’s hopefulness about Trump changing his behavior is absurd on his face. Trump has spent five months insisting that a phone call he had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that’s at the heart of his impeachment — one in which Trump implicitly linked military aid to Ukraine with the country helping him with investigations of his political rivals — is “perfect.”
While Collins claims to have principled reasons for voting to acquit Trump it’s also the case that she’s running for reelection and facing perhaps her toughest race yet, and in that position she can’t afford to cross the undisputed leader of her party.
Article submitted by, Great Gazoo.
