Free Republic

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, late Friday issued a glowing statement about Sen. Jeff Sessions' nomination to become attorney general, a positive sign for the Alabama Republican's path to confirmation. With Republicans retaining only a narrow three-seat majority after the election, the Trump transition team is keeping a close watch on the reaction from the few centrist-leaning Republicans, such as Collins.

Sen. Susan Collins appeared on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday morning from the WGME studios, explaining why she is not voting for her party’s presidential nominee. […] Collins said she can’t support Hillary Clinton either. She said she is considering the Libertarian ticket, but that’s not a sure thing either. “I may write in a candidate who I believe would be best qualified to lead our country,” Collins said. …

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Donald Trump's characterization of Somalis as dangerous and a drag on resources could undo years of work that they have done to establish themselves in the country's whitest state, Somali residents said Friday. Trump told a packed audience in Portland on Thursday that Maine is a "major destination" for Somali refugees and that they're coming from some of the "most dangerous" places. All told, about 10,000 Somalis lives in Portland and Lewiston, Maine's largest cities. [snip] On Friday afternoon, Somali organizers held a rally on the steps of City Hall to respond to Trump. One read...

Liberal Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who scored just 30 percent on The New American’s latest Freedom Index, wrote an op-ed piece for the Washington Post explaining why she will not support for Donald Trump for president.In her brief article, Collins, who has a record of being anti-Second Amendment, pro-abortion (despite identifying as a Catholic), and in favor of giving an Obama Supreme Court nominee a hearing, did not mention a single issue upon which she bases her opposition to a Trump presidency. He entire argument against her party’s nominee boils down to her dissatisfaction with comments that Trump...

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has become the second and most-senior Republican senator to say she will not vote for GOP nominee Donald Trump for president. In an op-ed published online Monday night in The Washington Post, Ms. Collins said it was “not a decision I make lightly, for I am a lifelong Republican.” The column outlined a series of common criticisms of Mr. Trump’s conduct and temperament — mocking a reporter with disabilities, feuding wioth a Muslim Gold Star family, suggesting a Mexican-American judge might not be impartial.

Senators on Tuesday rolled out a bipartisan bill aimed at stopping suspected terrorists from buying a gun, as lawmakers try to overcome a stalemate on the issue. "Essentially we believe that if you are too dangerous to fly on an airplane, you are too dangerous to buy a gun," Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) told reporters. The legislation would allow the attorney general to block the sale of a gun if an individual is on the "no-fly" list or the so-called "selectee" list, which requires additional screening at an airport. Collins said the two lists affect approximately 109,000 people, most...

Washington (CNN)Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins said she won't endorse GOP presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump until he starts behaving more "presidential." "I would love to be able to endorse Donald Trump, but he really has to change the approach that he's taken," she told CNN's Chris Cuomo on Wednesday on "New Day." "If I were giving him advice, I would tell him he should own up to making mistakes. He should apologize to the judge and to the American people. And he should stop insulting people."

They’re coming for your home. Right now. I suggest you save it. I can guide you, but you must do exactly as I say. Except, this isn’t The Matrix. You’re no actor, like Keanu Reeves, playing a distraught programmer-hacker named “Neo.” Nor am I an actor, like Laurence Fishburne, playing your guide “Morpheus.” This is real life, baby. Your home or apartment—and the neighborhood in which you live—is under siege. “Agents”—sans black glasses and black business suits—who work for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have written a new regulation called “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” (AFFH) that...

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Tuesday that she met with President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Judge Merrick Garland, and she is “more convinced than ever that the process should proceed” despite the GOP leadership’s assertion that the next president should nominate the next Supreme Court justice. “I’ve just concluded a more than hour-long meeting with Judge Garland. It was an excellent meeting that allowed us to explore many of the issues that I would raise with any nominee to the Supreme Court as well as some of the criticisms that have been levied against him. The meeting left me...

Recently, a very revealing exchange took place between Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Turing Pharmaceuticals executive Michael Smith. Now, for those who don’t remember, Turing Pharmaceuticals is the company led by notorious shark and price gouger Martin Shkreli, who is currently under investigation by the FBI for securities fraud. Shkreli became infamous for raising the price of the antiparasitic drug Daraprim from $13.50 per pill to $750 per pill. Even the BBC marveled at how this single act had made Shkreli “the most hated man in America.” In other words, if you wanted to find an example of pharmaceutical executives...

A small group of Senate Republicans is breaking with its party's Supreme Court strategy, with lawmakers saying they're willing to meet with President Obama's pick to succeed Justice Antonin Scalia. Seven Republicans so far have said they are open to considering or meeting with Merrick Garland, the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia who was nominated for the Supreme Court earlier Wednesday by President Obama. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said she agreed to meet with Garland after the White House reached out, but said such a meeting will take place after the Senate...

The Senate voted 49-40 Monday evening to confirm John B. King Jr., President Barack Obama’s nominee, as secretary of education. A total of 11 senators did not vote on King’s confirmation, while those who voted against him cited his loyalty to the system and support for Common Core education standards. King, 41, has been the acting secretary of the Department of Education since January, after Arne Duncan stepped down from the Cabinet post at the end of last year. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., secretary of education under President George H.W. Bush, spoke in support of King on the Senate floor....

BANGOR, Maine - Maine Sen. Susan Collins has joined those making an early endorsement in the GOP race for president. Collins told MPBN News she is supporting former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. “I have recently made a decision after talking extensively with Jeb Bush that I am going to endorse him for president," Collins said at an event in Bangor.

Two 2016 presidential competitors have joined forces to get a ban on the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens included in an annual defense policy bill. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), both of whom are running for president, have joined up with other senators to introduce an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), currently before the Senate, that would ban indefinite detention of U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents, without being charged or given a trial, unless authorized by Congress.Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) also put their names on the...

People who are trying to do good for their families and the planet by living a simple life based on traditional skills are facing yet another assault. Artisanal soap makers say new regulations, proposed by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) and Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine), will put them out of business. Many soap makers are rural “kitchen table” operations that rely on the income to fund their simple living lifestyle. Some use milk from goats they raise and ingredients they harvest from the land. The Handmade Cosmetic Alliance posted this form on its website that can be used to reach out...

This morning on radio, Glenn gave some hints from an important phone call he received before going on the air. While Glenn was unable to release any of the details about who called or exactly what it was about, he did share a snippet of content concerning the GOP. Courtesy of Glenn, we do know that there were “big names involved” and Glenn was “encouraged by who it came from.”Glenn did provide some of the message from the mystery caller, saying“Just please tell Glenn to continue to put the heat on. Because the party is split. And half of...

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says President Barack Obama’s Attorney General nominee, Loretta Lynch, is unfit to be the nation’s top lawyer because of her support for executive amnesty and other positions she’s taken, the governor’s spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski tells Breitbart News.“Given Loretta Lynch’s failure to commit to protect Americans from the president’s lawless executive overreach, that even he said nearly two dozen times, she is not fit to serve as the nation’s Attorney General,” Kukowski said in an email.Walker is in New Hampshire,the first in the nation primary state,on Friday, meeting with—among other—former Sen. Scott Brown(R-MA)—who narrowly lost to Sen....

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday praised the Republican senators who declined to sign a controversial open letter to Iran. "I'm heartened ... that a few Republicans, seven to be exact, didn't sign the letter. That's nice. Seven out of 54, certainly seven better than nothing," Reid said from the Senate floor. The open letter, signed by 47 Senate Republicans, states that any deal reached on Iran's nuclear program could be overturned “with the stroke of a pen” after President Obama leaves the White House in 2017. Republican Sens. Bob Corker (Tenn.), Susan Collins (Maine), Jeff Flake (Ariz.),...

Signers include former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Sens. Susan Collins and Mark Kirk and Massachusetts Gov. Charlie BakerMore than 300 veteran Republican lawmakers, operatives and consultants have filed a friend of the court brief at the Supreme Court in support of same-sex marriage late Thursday. The amicus brief, organized by former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, was filed for the four same-sex marriage cases the Court will hear on April 28 that could legalize the unions nationwide. In 2013, Mehlman marshaled a similar effort for the case that overturned California’s Proposition 8, which had banned same-sex marriage...

Two senators from very different wings of the Republican party united to outline how the GOP might counter a Democratic filibuster of the House bill that denies funding for President Obama’s immigration executive orders. Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and Senator Susan Collins (R., Maine) argued during a Senate GOP lunch that if Democrats filibuster the Department of Homeland Security funding bill — which blocks implementation of Obama’s 2012 deferred action program and his November 2014 “adult amnesty” — Republicans should respond by blocking only the 2014 orders. The thinking, according to a GOP senator who was in the lunch,...