President Donald Trump endorsed Sen. Susan Collins‘s (R-ME) reelection bid against Graham Platner, the embattled Democratic nominee for Senate in Maine, despite his checkered relationship with Collins.
“She does because she’s a sane woman,” Trump said during a Wednesday event at the White House when asked about his support of the Maine senator. “She’s not my best friend at all.”
The president was alluding to Collins’s willingness to buck the GOP on high-profile votes due to her persona as an independent-minded Republican. Collins broke with most Republican senators in April, when she voted with Democrats to advance an Iran war powers resolution that would withdraw American forces from Iran.
Despite this, Trump praised Collins’s tenacity, including recently casting her 10,000th consecutive vote in the Senate, a historic record.
“She’s a person that never missed a vote in many years,” said Trump. “I mean, she’s like had 10,000 votes, she had 10,000 votes, she never missed a vote, unfortunately, because sometimes she voted against me.”
“She’s a sane woman, and she’s a respected person, maybe a little different ideology than me,” the president added.
“But this guy is a thug, he’s a fake, he’s a fake thug, he’s a phony,” Trump said of Platner. “I made a lot of money picking out phonies. He’s a real phony, he’s bad, he’s a bad person.”
Platner has faced multiple controversies in his Senate campaign, including past allegations of misconduct and an ongoing sexting scandal. Nevertheless, he won 72% of the Democratic primary on Tuesday night.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee, in a new memo, wrote that “Graham Platner is wounded, but Democrats are not treating him as disposable.”
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Democrats will need to flip Collins’s seat if they have any credible chance of retaking the Senate. But Collins is a formidable opponent, and her willingness to buck Trump could help her campaign.
“Republicans need to match that urgency immediately,” the memo stated. “Define Platner. Defend Collins. Resource Maine. Senator Collins has proven time and time again, through her work ethic and commitment to the people of Maine and America, that she will prevail.”