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Donald Trump lost Maine with around 45.5 percent of the votes in 2024. Susan Collins was re-elected to the Senate in 2020 with 51 percent of the vote. Trump’s cabinet nominees pose this challenge: does Sen. Collins work for Trump, or for the people of Maine?
Collins is off to a good start. She reportedly helped sink the nomination of Matt Gaetz to serve as attorney general. Given the serious drug and underage sex allegations against Gaetz, Collins deserves praise for her opposition.
Pete Hegseth, the Fox news personality nominated to be Secretary of Defense, faces serious allegations of sexual abuse. Jane Mayer in The New Yorker has a detailed exposé of Hegseth’s alleged sexual licentiousness, management incompetence and drunkenness.
Maine has the highest percentage of Medicare enrollees in the country. Trump’s nominee as Secretary of Health and Human Services is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who has shared conspiracy theories and is an anti-vaccine crusader. The nominee to oversee the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid is Mehmet Oz, a television personality who has promoted questionable medical cures.
A Trump advisor told ABC News, “If you are on the wrong side of the vote, you’re buying yourself a primary. That is all. And there’s a guy named Elon Musk who is going to finance it.” It appears that Trump and Musk are openly threatening United States senators.
The founders wisely empowered the Senate with the power to reject dangerously unfit nominees for positions of trust. Sen. Collins must meet her constitutional obligation.
Maurice Cunningham
Damariscotta
