Sen. Susan Collins now has a golden opportunity to stand up to President Donald Trump and his reckless, irresponsible conduct of the presidency and to get even with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for his betrayal of a promise to secure her health care legislation.
By a strong bipartisan vote of 14-7 last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed tough legislation to protect the investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller into heavy-handed Russian intervention in the 2016 election.
The unusual action was supported by four of Collins’ Republican colleagues, including the conservative chairman of the committee, Charles Grassley of Iowa. It is the first unequivocal statement by more than one or two members of the GOP that they are willing to do more than spout words of criticism in reaction to Trump’s stream of lies, insults and attacks on the very foundations of our democracy.
Just last week, Trump called up his favorite cable network and went on a childish rant against the FBI, calling its senior officials “corrupt.” That attack is only the latest of a dozen or more attacks on professional members of the government. He has called leading members of the intelligence community “Nazis,” and he has fired senior FBI leaders on a whim. Time and again, while overseeing a 10-ring circus of chaos in a White House riddled with firings, resignations and scandal, he has continued to demean respected news organizations for doing their job and run roughshod over constitutional safeguards of freedom of religion and the press.
Alarmingly, he has repeatedly threatened to fire Mueller or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who both oversee the investigation into Russian cyberattacks and manipulation of social media in the 2016 election.
It was in reaction to Trump’s repeated threats and musings about trying to short-circuit the investigation that led the Judiciary Committee to consider legislation to protect Mueller. The bill was sponsored by Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Democratic Sen. Christopher Coons of Delaware. Significantly, it passed 14-7, with GOP Sens. Grassley, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Jeff Flake of Arizona joining Tillis and the 10 Democrats on the committee.
Now, the problem is that McConnell has vowed to stop the bill from being considered by the full Senate — despite its overwhelming support and the fact that McConnell has been the target of ridicule by Trump.
Collins’ four Republican colleagues need her strong, unequivocal backing to force McConnell to bring the matter to a vote. Who cares, as Collins has suggested, if Trump refuses to sign the measure? It would simply be another signal that he has plenty to hide in the millions in Russian investments in his properties, numerous meetings of his campaign officials with Russians close to Vladimir Putin and other unusual campaign contacts with Russians.
Collins, who has criticized Trump for racist comments or crude behavior toward woman, has spoken tepidly in favor of the legislation to protect the Mueller probe. She said “it probably wouldn’t hurt” to pass the bill in a recent CNN interview.
That is not enough. It is time for Collins to come out and issue a vigorous endorsement of the bill and pressure other Republican senators to stop lying low and “hoping” Trump might start acting like a president instead of a TV reality show host.
Among other things, Collins could show McConnell that she has not forgotten his pledge to bring up her important health care measures, as he promised to do in return for her vote on tax reform last year.
One of Collins’ predecessors, Republican Sen. Margaret Chase Smith, did not shy away from confronting similarly un-American and anti-democratic behavior on the part of a Trump look-a-like, Sen. Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy’s downfall began with Smith’s brave stand against his contempt and brazen assault on our democratic principles: the rule of law and human dignity.
The stakes are high. There is no need to wait for a constitutional crisis similar to the “ Saturday night massacre,” when President Richard M. Nixon tried to block the Watergate investigation by firing a special counsel. We have not been faced with such an insecure, egocentric and unstable person in the White House since Nixon.
This president has little respect for the Constitution, frequently demonstrates a clear lack of concern for the national interests of the United States in foreign policy and has no respect for its historic principles and values.
Frederic B. Hill of Arrowsic is a former foreign correspondent for The Baltimore Sun. He served as foreign affairs director to Sen. Charles “McC.” Mathias Jr., R-Maryland, and led an office in the State Department that conducted wargaming exercises and conferences on national security issues. He is also author of “Ships, Swindlers and Scalded Hogs.”
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