Republican Sen. Susan Collins has said she won’t endorse Donald Trump even if he becomes her party’s nominee.
The Hill reports that the Maine senator was asked whether she can see herself getting behind Trump if he wins the nomination to which she replied, “I do not at this point.”
The centrist senator was one of seven Senate Republicans to vote in favor of impeaching Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection.
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Collins said she was optimistic about Nikki Haley’s chances against Trump, despite the former South Carolina governor losing the New Hampshire primary by 11 points to the former president on Tuesday. However, she stopped short of saying that Haley would receive her endorsement either.
“I’m glad to hear last night that Nikki Haley is determined to stay in [the race.] I think the more people see of her, particularly since she appears to be the only alternative to Donald Trump right now, the more impressed they will be,” she said.
Collins said she declined to endorse Haley at the start of the primary race because she is close with a number of then-candidates including former Vice President Mike Pence, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and “didn’t want to choose among them.”
Trump has been critical of Collins in the past calling her “absolutely atrocious” and claiming that he could have derailed her 2020 win.
“Just one word about her and the fact that she didn't help the fisherman, as their rights were taken from them from the federal government, and the lumberjacks, she would have had no chance to win,” he said in a February 2022 statement. “But I remained silent and positive and allowed her to have her victory.”
“She would have lost in a landslide. Gee, aren’t I nice?”
