Fox News Anchor Confronts GOP Senator On Only Voting With Trump 94% of the Time: ‘Might Sound High, But…’

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) joined Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum on her show, The Story, on Monday for Collins’s first national interview since Graham Platner officially became her general election opponent.

MacCallum asked Collins to weigh in on Platner to start the interview, and Collins teed off on Platner’s Nazi-tattoo scandal while hyping her “steady” leadership. The interview eventually moved to more pointed questions about Collins’s own record.

MacCallum noted Collins had voted with “President Trump about 94% of the time, which might sound high, but most people in your party have been with him 100% of the time, and he has pointed the finger at you several times over different issues.”

“One of them was the fact that you held out for quite some time on your vote of support for now-Justice Kavanaugh. Is this an issue that you think is troublesome for you in this race, now that Roe v. Wade was overturned, in Maine, across the country?” MacCallum asked.

“Well, first of all, let me make clear that I disagreed with the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision overturning Roe v. Wade, but the fact is that whether Justice Kavanaugh were confirmed or not, Roe v. Wade would have been overturned, given the 6-to-3 vote,” Collins replied, adding:

And also, I supported the justices like Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Justice Brown Jackson, who voted to sustain Roe v. Wade. I also joined with a bipartisan group of senators to codify Roe v. Wade and make it the law of the land. Regrettably, the then-leader of the Senate, Chuck Schumer, refused to bring up our bill.

“Let me ask you just a couple of quick questions, if I could get, you know, fairly quick answers on these. One is, in 1996, you said you would only run for two terms, and yet now you’re running again. Why is that, and did that break a promise that you once made?” MacCallum followed up.

Collins conceded, “I did say that I would only run for two terms. I underestimated how much seniority, experience, and knowledge matters in the Senate. When I look at what I could do as a freshman senator versus what I can do as chair of the Appropriations Committee, the most powerful committee in the Senate, there’s a huge difference, and I note that it had been 92 years since a Maine senator had held the position of chair of the Appropriations Committee.”

“And then, I know you took your 10,000th vote. You have a very impressive record in terms of showing up for these votes. Last question: the issue of Israel is becoming such a hot button, and it could be a factor in your race, which is a very close race. Most of the polls have him up by about four. It’s a similar margin that you were down by in your last election, which you ended up winning. But what do you say when you hear these numbers, that an AIPAC endorsement can make people less likely, 44% say it would make them less likely to vote for the candidate. You have been supportive of Israel. Are you changing that support at all in light of all of this?” MacCallum asked.

“No way. I remain a very strong supporter of Israel, the one democracy in the Middle East, our true ally in the Middle East. And I think this sadly reflects rising anti-Semitism in our country that Graham Plattner certainly is part of and has been since his high school days. That’s been a consistent theme throughout his entire life. He accuses Israel of committing genocide. He praises Hamas for its tactics in killing Israeli soldiers. This is appalling. And it’s important to recognize that AIPAC is made up of Americans who care deeply about our relationship with Israel. Plattner makes it sound like this is some sort of evil foreign influence, and that is absolutely wrong,” Collins replied.

Watch the clip above via Fox News.

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