U.S. Sen. Susan Collins came to the defense of her former Senate colleague and current Attorney General Jeff Sessions Friday, telling CBS 13 President Donald Trump’s latest comments about the head of his Justice Department “inappropriate.”
“I am really appalled at the president’s continuing public humiliation of the attorney general,” she told the Portland television station during a media availability at the McDonald’s in Winslow.
Collins, a Maine Republican, made an appearance Friday at the fast food restaurant to support a collection of school supplies there for students and teachers at nearby Winslow Elementary School.
Trump renewed criticism of Sessions in a series of posts on the social media site Twitter Friday, after a televised interview Thursday in which he said the former Alabama senator “never took control” of the Justice Department.
[Trump continues feud with Sessions, saying he should investigate the ‘other side’]
In his Friday Tweets, the president chided the attorney general to focus more on investigating what he called “the other side” — such as people Trump considers rivals or threats, like 2016 presidential opponent Hillary Clinton and Robert Mueller, the former FBI director who is probing Russian interference in the election.
Trump has long been critical of Sessions for recusing himself from Mueller’s investigation into Russia, and his latest remarks came soon after two of the president’s allies — personal lawyer Michael Cohen and former campaign manager Paul Manafort — were convicted of violating federal campaign laws and bank fraud, respectively.
Sessions had said after the president’s Thursday comments on Fox News that while he’s in charge, “the actions of the Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations.”
According to Bloomberg, Collins said previously that Trump firing Sessions “would not be a wise move,” and “I don’t see the president being able to get someone else confirmed as attorney general were he to fire Jeff Sessions.”
In addition to weighing in on the Trump-Sessions spat, Collins talked to CBS 13 about her recent meeting with the president’s controversial U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh — saying she “pressed him hard on the issue” of abortion rights — and her feelings about U.S. John McCain, R-Arizona.
[John McCain is discontinuing treatment for brain cancer]
Kavanaugh is seen by opponents as a threat to tip the top court toward overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that legalized abortion. Collins, who is in favor of abortion rights and is seen as a potential make-or-break vote on Kavanaugh’s candidacy, said he made it clear to her he sees Roe v. Wade as established law.
On McCain, Collins reportedly told CBS 13: “My heart just aches.” McCain, a 2008 presidential candidate who has served in House or Senate since 1982, will no longer seek medical treatment for brain cancer, according to his family Friday.
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