Susan Collins Takes the Gloves Off With Personal Swipe At Dem Opponent: ‘Don’t Know Whether People Know That’
Screenshot via Politico
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) took the gloves off in an interview with Politico’s Jonathan Martin this week by noting that her Democratic opponent has two children with “his second cousin” – although Martin pretty much led her to it.
Martin shared clips from his lengthy sit-down with the longtime Republican Senator on Wednesday, including asking her about disgraced former candidate Graham Platner.
“Wouldn’t he have been an easier candidate for you to beat, given that paper trail, than running against a Democrat from the county where you hail from in northern Maine — Troy Jackson? It just seems like Platner would have been easier for you to beat, and it got harder with Jackson,” Martin asked, referring to Collins’s current opponent who previously served as the majority leader in Maine’s Senate.
“Well, they have different vulnerabilities. They really do. Under Troy Jackson’s leadership in Augusta, electric rates have skyrocketed. Maine’s are the fourth highest in the country, and he voted against a bill recommended by the independent public advocate that would have helped lower rates. So that’s a huge vulnerability. Anyone who has a record has vulnerabilities that a person without a record, like Graham Platner, does not,” Collins replied.
“But you’ve been in a lot of campaigns, Senator. You worked as a staffer on the Hill. If you were offered the chance to run against somebody who had a Nazi tattoo and a paper trail of sexual assault accusations, versus a conventional politician who voted to increase utility rates,” Martin pressed, bringing up some of Platner’s scandals.
“Well, I would suggest that they have different strengths and different weaknesses, and that Troy has changed his position on a whole lot of issues. You know, he started out as a very conservative Republican; now he’s essentially a Democratic Socialist,” Collins hit back.
“Should the circumstances of his personal life and the mother of his children be relevant to this campaign? Is that fair game, do you think?” Martin followed up.
“Well, I’m not going to bring up the fact that the mother of his two children is his second cousin. I don’t know whether people know that or not,” Collins replied.
“I think you just mentioned it,” Martin quipped in reply.
Watch the clip above via Politico.
The post Susan Collins Takes the Gloves Off With Personal Swipe At Dem Opponent: ‘Don’t Know Whether People Know That’ first appeared on Mediaite.