BREAKING RANK

Sen. Susan Collins: Trump Asking China to Probe Biden Was ‘Big Mistake’

The Maine senator says Trump’s bid to sic China on his political opponent was “completely inappropriate.”

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said Saturday it was “completely inappropriate” for President Trump to publicly urge the Chinese government to investigate his political rival. “I thought the president made a big mistake by asking China to get involved in investigating a political opponent,” Collins told the Bangor Daily News. The Maine senator joined Mitt Romney and Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) in breaking rank with the rest of the GOP to criticize Trump’s public comment that China “should start an investigation” into former vice president Joe Biden and his son. Collins predicted that the House will pass articles of impeachment against Trump over allegations he dangled crucial security aid to Ukraine’s president to try and force that country to pursue an investigation into Biden, a frontrunner for the 2020 election. “Should the articles of impeachment come to the Senate — and right now I’m going to guess that they will — I will be acting as a juror as I did in the Clinton impeachment trial,” Collins said.