As Collins weighed impeachment, Trump’s staff worked to get her on the ballot

Staffers for President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign in Maine worked to gather signatures to place Sen. Susan Collins on the ballot as she considered whether to remove him from office during the impeachment trial, according to a series of social media posts by Maine Trump Victory staffers.

According to the Maine Republican Party, Maine Trump Victory is “Donald J. Trump’s official field program” that “combines efforts of Donald J. Trump for President Inc., the Republican National Committee, and the Maine GOP.” Multiple staffers repeatedly posted on Twitter about collecting signatures for Collins at Trump events, on college campuses and door to door.

The campaign assistance came even as Collins continues to try to distance herself from the president in public. On Friday, she declined to answer whether she would support Trump for re-election, saying she hadn’t given the matter “any thought.”

In December, Trump tweeted out a fundraising link for Collins’ campaign. Last June, a staffer from her Senate office said her re-election campaign had been “working closely” with the Trump administration.

Prior to the 2016 election, Collins had said Trump was “unworthy of being our president.”

https://twitter.com/MaxProvencherME/status/1221552868190310400

Maine Democratic Party executive director Lisa Roberts said it was a conflict that Collins was relying on Trump Victory staffers to get her on the ballot “while she [was] supposedly serving as an ‘impartial juror’ in the Senate impeachment trial.”

“From meeting for lunch with Trump ahead of the trial, to voting twelve times against including witnesses and evidence in the impeachment process, to depending on Trump victory staff to prop up her campaign, it is clear that Collins has abandoned even the appearance of impartiality,” said Roberts.

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