Sen. Susan Collins, a key swing vote on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, harshly criticized President Donald Trump’s mocking of a woman who accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault as a teenager.
“The President’s comments were just plain wrong,” Collins told reporters in brief remarks before heading into a hearing of the Senate aging committee, which she chairs.
Collins did not answer a question from reporters about whether the comments would influence her vote.
During a rally in Missippi on Tuesday night, Trump mocked California psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford, parodying tearful testimony last week in which she alleged that Kavanaugh held her down, put his hand over her mouth and tried to remove her clothing. Kavanaugh denies the allegation.
“How did you get home? ‘I don’t remember,’” Trump said, mocking Ford’s voice.
Collins, along with Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, are the three Republican Senators who remain explicitly undecided on Kavanaugh’s confirmation. With the Republicans holding a razor thin majority of 51-49, the conference can only afford one defection if they want to see Kavanaugh confirmed. All three Senators were instrumental in coercing Republican leadership to support a weeklong FBI investigation into the sexual misconduct allegations against Kavanaugh.
Like Collins, Flake also decried the President’s comments, calling them “appalling” but stopped short of saying if or how it would influence his decision. “To discuss something this sensitive at a political rally is just not right,” he said Wednesday on the “Today” show.
