Maine Sen. Susan Collins made sure to point out how unpopular Donald Trump is during a tense meeting with Senate Republicans.
Collins, who is at risk of being voted out of office after nearly 30 years in the Senate, took part in a private lunch with other Republicans on Wednesday, hosted by Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
The meeting gave Senate Republicans the chance to argue that they should return to session next week to pass crucial legislation that they believe could boost their chances in the Nov. 3 elections.
During the meeting, some Republicans tried to ease tensions by suggesting that Trump’s polling numbers—which are expected to doom the GOP in the midterms—aren’t as dire as publicly advertised. In response, Collins “shot back that 75 percent” of people in Maine disapprove of the president, Punchbowl News reported.
It is unclear which poll Collins was referring to when she threw the president under the bus.
On Wednesday, a New York Times/Portland Press Herald/Siena poll showed that 74 percent of voters in the Pine Tree State disapprove of Trump’s handling of soaring gas prices and the cost of living, with 73 percent saying they disapprove of the war in Iran.
The survey found that 65 percent of Maine voters overall disapprove of Trump’s job as president.
The same poll also showed Collins with a 3-percentage-point lead over her Democratic challenger, Troy Jackson, in the Maine Senate race.
However, this was the first time Collins had led in the polls since her previous Democratic challenger, Graham Platner, dropped out of the race in July amid sexual assault allegations, which he denied.
A YouGov poll published at the start of September showed Jackson with a 4-point lead over Collins among likely Maine voters, 48 percent to 44 percent.
Democrats consider Collins’ Maine seat, which she has held since 1997, one of the four seats they need to flip to win control of the upper chamber.
The 73-year-old has managed to win five Senate elections despite being a Republican in the blue state of Maine. However, intense backlash to Trump’s second term means the moderate Republican’s luck may run out in November.
Her re-election bid was also dogged this week by a ProPublica report alleging that a major bribery investigation that could have implicated her was shelved soon after Trump returned to the White House last January.
The allegations involved Martin Kao, the disgraced CEO of defense contractor Navatek, who allegedly set up a shell company to skirt campaign finance laws and give $150,000 to Collins’ 2019 campaign.
In return, Collins’ team allegedly ensured the senator would put plans in place for tens of millions of dollars in federal funding to be awarded to the company through government contracts.
Collins denied the allegations of receiving improper campaign funding, which first emerged in 2021. She told The Wall Street Journal that she was the victim of a “partisan hit job” and questioned why anyone would “take the word of a convicted felon,” referring to Kao.
An FBI spokesperson told the Daily Beast that the claims had already been investigated and “ultimately found nothing implicating Senator Collins or Senator Collins’ campaign. Any suggestion otherwise is totally false.”
