Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) on Monday said it’s too hard to tell whether President Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee in the 2020 election.
Collins on MSNBC said Trump “had an obligation, a moral obligation, to speak with absolute clarity from the very beginning” in his response to the violence that erupted at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
“Unfortunately he wavered back and forth,” Collins said. “I think the President failed to meet the standard that we would have expected a President to do in a time like that.”
“At what point, though, given what we’ve heard from your Republican colleagues too, does that talk turn into action?” Hallie Jackson asked. “At what point, if any, do you not support, for example, his renomination?”
“Well, I didn’t support the President when he was our party’s nominee. That was a very difficult position for me to take,” Collins said. “I’d never taken it before.”
“So what happens — he’s already running for reelection,” Jackson pressed. “What happens next?”
“Well, it’s far too early to tell now,” Collins replied. “There’s a long ways between now and that point.”
“Do you think he will end up the party’s nominee in 2020?” Jackson asked.
“It’s too difficult to say,” Collins said.
Well, duh. It’s all dependent on whether he is even still in office then.
But, saying that, it was a stupid question from Jackson.
President of what? Ecuador?
Or maybe you Republicans will just continue to be “concerned” or “disturbed” instead of saying a racist should not be the head of this party .
A better question
“When will Republicans develop a spine and put country before party”
I was hoping she learned that taking a hard, but difficult stance can pay off (after getting standing ovations in the Bangor airport after her no vote on gutting the ACA) but this is Susan Collins we are talking about - she caves like most ‘moderate’ Republicans do all the time.
“At what point, though, given what we’ve heard from your Republican colleagues too, does that talk turn into action?” Hallie Jackson asked. “At what point, if any, do you not support, for example, his renomination?”
Glad to hear a journalist ask this. Ask them all, every single day.