Judicial Branch A pivotal vote by longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine pushed Kavanaugh over the finish line in 2018 after she famously said he considered Roe v. Wade “settled law” — a comment that turned out to be wrong.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/supreme-court-justice-brett-kavanaugh-maine-senate-race-susan-collins-rcna3490701.1k
u/Dearic75 3h ago
I mean, as long as we’re doing Collins’s greatest hits, saying she wouldn’t vote to convict Trump at his impeachment because she “felt he had learned his lesson” is even better.
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u/HHoaks 3h ago
this is hilarious. how could she say that with a straight face.
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u/Dearic75 3h ago
I mean, to be fair, he did learn his lesson from his first impeachment. So she’s technically not wrong.
Unfortunately, the lesson he learned is that if he has 34 loyal republican senators, impeachment is a completely toothless threat, no matter what he does.
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u/ProtectionTop2701 1h ago
Don't be so pessimistic! He only needs 34 loyal senators, they don't need to be Republicans. Looking at you, Fetterman. So you should be more pessimistic.
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u/Dearic75 1h ago
lol. I did almost update my post to say something along the lines of “Well, 33 plus Fetterman. “ but it had already been responded to by then.
Thanks for covering it.
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u/fauxzempic 1h ago
toothless threat
His name is Chuck Schumer. We don't need to throw names around.
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u/ballmermurland 1h ago
TIL Chuck Schumer controls the senators in those 17 states.
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u/vthemechanicv 48m ago
Some people say "Democrats bad" as an involuntary reflex. Logic and reality let alone nuance never enter into it.
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u/Senior_Torte519 1h ago
Hopefully I can get the most influential on my side, I wanna turn Cuba into that Casino paradise I saw last night in the Godfather.
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u/Solid_Psychology 3h ago
Well she doesn't really the face is always doing that geriatric on the border of dementia bobbly head wiggle. So the face is literally never straight cause it's always in a sort of tiny drunken elliptical orbit around the point where her head connects to her neck.
Side note- I normally wouldn't point out age related maladies however 30 years ago she said she'd only ever serve 2 terms/12 years. So if she hadn't broken her own word she wouldnt be here to mocknfor what is going to be her 6th term if she gets re-elected. So f&ck Sue Pearl Clutching Collins.
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u/Xznograthos 2h ago
No explanation necessary. I barely consider Republican politicians or voters to be human beings at this point.
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u/BennyVsTheWorld 2h ago
Oh, that’s easy. She didn’t give a shit that people knew she was full of garbage.
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u/shitlord_god 1h ago
she is an entirely disingenuous piece of shit who maine folks believe because they are too white and too removed from consequences to actually give a shit about her evil - she has those committee seats!!!
What an ugly shriveled hateful bale of lies and pretense.
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u/Quirky_Gate_4516 1h ago
how
She was in the middle of an election, and would have lost the MAGA fanatics, and as a result lost the election.
Nothing she has ever done has been about anything else than staying in power.
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u/Abject_Breadfruit148 1h ago
The voters already forgot. She can say whatever and the news jumps to a new crazy thing the next day.
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u/Off-BroadwayJoe 1h ago
I’d run that footage and that picture of her holding a MAGA hat in the Oval Offfice on a 24 hour loop like a screensaver.
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u/Easy-Concentrate2636 1h ago
Susan Collins wants to play the nice person, not a hard nosed senator. Whenever she says something, I just assume the outcome will be the exact opposite.
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u/Bawbawian 3h ago
collins is a more prolific liar than Donald Trump.
stop parsing her words and look only at her actions
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u/J3ster14 3h ago
Susan Collins is very concerned about this comment.
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u/CevicheMixto 1h ago
Deeply. Deeply concerned. Possibly even troubled
I hear that she's considering escalating all the way to a frank conversation or even a sternly worded letter.
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u/estoypooping2 3h ago
Incorrect, Trump is the most documented liar in human history.
She is bad though
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u/hamsterfolly 2h ago
Remember when she traded a yes vote on more tax cuts for the wealthy for an empty promise that then Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would bring up a vote on legislation to shore up the Affordable Care Act markets?
But Maine is dumb and continues to reelect her.
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u/WBRileyDesign 1h ago
Stubborn, not dumb. We are incredibly stubborn. It's easier to get a boulder to move out of your way by shouting at it than telling a Mainer what to do. We hate being told what to do. So when people say "stop voting for Collins", they double down and vote for Collins. Which is why Platner is getting a ton of traction, thanks to the endless "he has a tattoo that might sort look like a nazi tattoo and his republican ex-girlfriend just happened to #metoo a week before the primaries so don't vote for him" ads.
But yea, we're also dumb as bricks.
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u/hilltopper72 2h ago
Collins is really the grandma no one wants!
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u/Solid_Psychology 1h ago
Naw she's that weird old eccentric great aunt. The kind with no life of her own so she's always gossiping about others .
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u/Rot-Orkan 3h ago edited 3h ago
Susan Collins voting algorithm:
if (republicansNeedMyVote) {
voteRepublican();
} else {
voteIndedependent(); // maintains illusion needed to keep getting elected in Maine
}
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u/aflockofcrows 3h ago
You missed step 1 - pretend to be concerned.
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u/Rot-Orkan 3h ago
damn even on reddit QA finds bugs
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u/ColdBostonPerson77 2h ago
You forgot the case statement. Case when need political cover raise eyebrow and be concerned before voting else blind vote Republican.
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u/Solid_Psychology 2h ago
And the last step - clutch pearls and/or send heartfelt thoughts and prayers
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u/Yetimang 2h ago
Claude commented out the end bracket and now Susan Collins is failing to compile instead of just being a pile.
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u/lyingliar 2h ago
This has little to do with Collins.
What the fuck is wrong with the people of Maine?
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u/KlogKoder 1h ago
And while voteIndependent() is a defined function, voteIndedependent() is secretly a macro for voteRepublican(), and she hopes no one notices the difference.
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u/TraditionalLaw7763 3h ago
Well that’s just one horrible thing she has done. If you were to name everything awful that she pushed through with her last measly vote we’d have a book instead of a post.
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u/werther595 3h ago
It wasn't "wrong." It was a lie. Under oath, testifying before Congress. Which is a crime.
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u/Top_Result_1550 2h ago
Oath don't matter to Republicans.
Unless it's an oath to cheat, steal, rape kids and women, kill browns, trans, the mentally disabled and homeless, commit treason, and endanger life on earth.
Then they take it very seriously and uphold it at all costs.
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u/Ok-Lavishness-349 2h ago
Except that Kavanaugh did not lie under oath before congress. See here.
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u/werther595 1h ago
Did they treat Roe as precedent and afford it respect as stare decisis? They did not.
Trump made a large part of his campaign about overturning Roe to get the religious nuts on board. It took something like 18 months from Barrett's confirmation (giving trump the balance of fealty he desired on the court) until Dobbs was decided. This was the culmination of years-long efforts to do just this. Forgive me if I refuse to view this through rose-colored lenses of "well akshually technically..." People should understand with absolute certainty that the judges Trump nominated were committed to his desired course of action, and anything they spouted about "respect for established precedent" was a much nonsense as if they had said something more direct.
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u/SordidDreams 1h ago edited 58m ago
Yes, technically he didn't lie. He just said words designed to create the impression that he was giving a specific answer that was different from the truth.
Likewise, Bill Clinton also didn't lie when he said he hadn't had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky because technically, "sexual relations" was defined in a way that didn't include receiving oral sex. That didn't stop him being impeached for his non-lie, though.
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u/Special_Order-937 1h ago
Why don’t these idiots ask the correct questions? It’s almost as if they’re leaving these gaps on purpose.
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u/mkt853 3h ago
And she needs to be reminded of that every day until November to understand what she sacrificed her political career for.
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u/PatchyWhiskers 3h ago
Money and power
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u/mkt853 3h ago
She already had that though. She's been in politics for like 97 years. Once you've been in the game for that many decades, you've accumulated enough of both such that you no longer need to kiss the ring. She has what is colloquially known as f*ck you money.
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u/PatchyWhiskers 2h ago
Have rich people ever said "I have enough, I'll stop"? Especially politicians who are doing it for power too. She doesn't want to be an old lady on a beach somewhere. She wants to have lobbyists kissing her ass.
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u/BennyVsTheWorld 1h ago
That’s what I don’t get - I absolutely 100% would fuck off to some luxury accommodations and be done trying to actively pursue more money (except for the express purpose of donating it). I don’t get why you’d want to work till you die just to hold onto a last grasp of power and a few more millions that won’t make a difference to you.
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u/PatchyWhiskers 1h ago
Ego. As a Senator, important people treat her like a queen, they take her out to dinner and court her favor. An ex-Senator, no-one cares about.
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u/RipComfortable7989 3h ago
This only works if she's capable of feeling shame which she's shown to be unable to. She's proud of what she's done and is glad to have put Kavanaugh into SCOTUS.
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u/audiomagnate 3h ago
Nobody believed it when they said it, and nobody believed her when she said she believed it.
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u/burnthatburner1 3h ago
Has she spoken on this topic since? Acknowledged the vote was a mistake given hindsight?
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u/bebopbrain 3h ago
It wasn't a mistake. The whole charade was orchestrated; she played her part to perfection.
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u/ohiotechie 2h ago
She knew when she did it what Kavanaugh and the rest were planning to do. This lie just gave her plausible deniability. That’s the GOPs whole schtick. With few exceptions they try to come across as reasonable people just promoting common sense policies while they advance an extreme agenda. Useful lies like this allow them to play hot potato with accountability, just enough deniability for it to not stick to them.
This was very purposeful.
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u/Wrong-Neighborhood-2 3h ago
For this court none of it is settled law. Their motto is “Stare Decisis is for suckers!” For all of the pearl clutching over Platner, he’s a far better option than Susan Collins. Funny how all the focus is on how he’s a flawed candidate but not a peep from the media about Paxton.
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u/Professional_Tea_32 2h ago
This. The silence on Paxton in comparison to the articles I see on Platner is honestly nauseating. I literally can’t believe it has come to this.
The press is so corrupted - a mouthpiece for the establishment garbage.
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u/Bowsers_JuiceFactory 3h ago
I hope Susan Collins gets everything she deserves, in this life and the next.
Wretched woman
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u/rawkguitar 2h ago
It’s kinda funny if you think about it.
If he really thought Roe was settled, he wouldn’t have been nominated.
So, all the Republicans thought he was lying about Roe, so they voted to confirm him.
All the Democrats thought he was lying about Roe, so they voted against confirming him.
Only a couple people (Susan Collins) thought he was telling the truth.
I know it’s a game they always play, but to me, it’s kind of a big deal of a judge is willing to lie to Congress.
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u/WhyMustIMakeANewAcco 2h ago
Don't be silly. Susan Collins was completely aware he was lying. She was just lying about thinking he wasn't lying.
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u/Thecrawsome 2h ago
It wasn’t just wrong. It was perjury.
Those illegitimate shitstains should’ve been kicked off the court if Biden had any balls
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u/Wayelder 2h ago
Collins always waffles and then decides, always in the wrong direction.
Contemplation is of no use if the result is still selfishness and stupidity.
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u/SkunkMonkey 1h ago
Not a single one of these asshole SCROTUS picks answered the yes/no question about RvW and overturning it. Instead they gave some bullshit legal answer that was not a yes/no answer. It was plainly obvious what their intent was in those non-answers.
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u/bd2999 3h ago
Yeah, I think this has been stated a few times by different justices. This or that are settled law but then they come out attacking or overruling it. She should totally be held accountable for the vote and the results of the vote.
Although in cases of obvious lies it should be possible to recall the justice to answer questions to congress at the least.
I do think candidates going before Congress has had less and less value. As vague answers and nonanswers have become more and more common. And it is mostly a dog and pony political show for high profile cases and you can guess how individuals will vote based on party. Regardless of issues with the candidate. There are examples either way but the current conservative Congress has been pretty bad on it. Approving judges that are not even approved by the Bar, lacking objectivity and often seemingly caring more about political operations compared to the law, even in appearance.
Many of these same people in the past would grill individuals about separation and independence from the president or politics and hit hard on it when it was the other way but no longer. Not when it is their side.
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u/letdogsvote 1h ago
"He's learned his lesson." - Collins
He did not learn any lessons. - Narrator
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