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If there’s anything long-time observers of former President Donald Trump know, it’s that, when he doesn’t prevail, he will proclaim that the outcome was fraudulent. He did it when his TV show didn’t win an Emmy 20 years ago. He did it when he didn’t win the 2016 Iowa caucuses. With the greatest damage so far, he did it to promote the effort to thwart the peaceful transfer of power on Jan. 6, 2021.
So, while it was unethical and harmful to our social and political fabric for Trump to assert his recent trial in New York was rigged, it was not surprising.
But it was striking to see how Sen. Susan Collins reacted after Trump was found guilty of 34 felonies of falsifying business documents related to him paying hush money to a porn star to keep the news of their reported sexual relationship out of the news after the release of the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape one month before the 2016 election.
Collins issued a statement focused around something untrue about the prosecutor, District Attorney Alvin Bragg. As if conveying a fact, Collins stated that Bragg “campaigned on a promise to prosecute Donald Trump,” creating “political underpinnings” for the case.
But Bragg did no such thing.
As Politifact reported over a year ago when Trump made basically the same false claim, Bragg “made no promises about any case. He said that although he had access to some publicly available information about Trump’s activities, he didn’t have all the information and wanted to be ‘fair.’” In addition, while running for office, Bragg said he would hold Trump “accountable by following the facts where they go” and explained that “every case still has to be judged by the facts and I don’t know all the facts.”
Promising to be “fair,” “following the facts where they go,” and noting that prosecution decisions should be based on “the facts,” about which candidate Bragg said “I don’t know,” is the opposite of what Trump and Collins claimed Bragg promised.
Collins’ statement also said nothing about respecting people involved in the case and trial, despite them being smeared almost daily by Donald Trump and facing threats and doxxing attempts. In fact, the nastiness toward trial participants by Trump and his backers was so bad that the judge issued a protective order to shield jurors’ identities and orders to Trump prohibiting him “from attacking witnesses, prosecutors, jurors and court staff, as well as their relatives” and the judge’s family.
Nor, in reacting to the convictions, did Collins express respect for the rule of law or for equal justice under the law.
Moreover, when asked about her statement at a press event in Bangor with the secretary of the Air Force earlier this month, not only did Collins not correct her incorrect statement about Bragg but, as Portland Press Herald journalist Randy Billing noted, “Collins ended the press availability after that question, but shortly afterward approached a Press Herald reporter to scold him for asking the question at all, calling it ‘dirty.’ She also continued to criticize the newspaper, again for [its editorial criticizing her comments about Bragg and the trial] and also for not covering the event that brought her to Bangor.”
Yet there’s nothing inappropriate or “dirty” about a journalist asking a sitting senator about her statement. Asking public officials questions is essential to our democratic republic and its practices of transparency and accountability. To me, Collins’ response to the reporter came off as thin-skinned and peevish.
Collins may feel caught between members of her party who overwhelmingly believe Trump’s lies and conspiracy theories, and most voters, who don’t. That doesn’t make her reactions acceptable.
It’s especially dangerous to reinforce Trump’s attacks and to denigrate the press for asking questions at a time when Trump is promising autocracy, including using the Department of Justice to go after his detractors, should he retake the presidency. Mainers deserve better from our senior senator.
