Susan Collins: Trump Has “Learned” from Impeachment
Republican Senator Susan Collins announced Tuesday she will vote to acquit President Trump in his Senate trial, telling CBS News she believes the president has learned a “pretty big lesson” from impeachment and will be “much more cautious” about seeking foreign assistance in the future.
“I believe that the president has learned from this case,” Collins said in an exclusive interview with “CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell on Tuesday, before a speech on the Senate floor about her decision. “The president has been impeached. That’s a pretty big lesson.”
Chaser:
Asked about Sen. Susan Collins saying he’d learned a lesson, Trump told the anchors he did not agree. He had done nothing wrong. “It was a perfect call.” https://t.co/CNJmi46w7A
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) February 5, 2020
This must come as a shock to Susan Collins, because it’s not like Trump has said things like this before! Indeed, let’s review some of Trump’s statements to see what he has “learned” since being impeached:
Why should I have the stigma of Impeachment attached to my name when I did NOTHING wrong? Read the Transcripts! A totally partisan Hoax, never happened before. House Republicans voted 195-0, with three Dems voting with the Republicans. Very unfair to tens of millions of voters!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2020
Great idea. This phony Impeachment Hoax should not even be allowed to proceed. Did NOTHING wrong. Just a partisan vote. Zero Republicans. Never happened before! https://t.co/47oV6z4RQc
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2020
I hope Republicans & the American people realize that the totally partisan Impeachment Hoax is exacty that, a Hoax. Read the Transcripts, listen to what the President & Foreign Minister of Ukraine said (“No Pressure”). Nothing will ever satisfy the Do Nothing, Radical Left Dems!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 3, 2020
Exacty! He has learned so much! Why, Senator Collins, you truly are a stateswoman and a serious human being. I cannot praise your integrity highly enough!
[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]
Exacty!
Patterico (115b1f) — 2/4/2020 @ 6:18 pmWhat price judges: she backed Kavanaugh.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 2/4/2020 @ 6:26 pmTrump will have learned his lesson when he is thrown out in November. Enough for a passing grade if the Democrats flip 20 Republican seats in the Senate and hold on to the House.
nk (1d9030) — 2/4/2020 @ 6:27 pmI wonder if she realizes that no one, not on either side of the aisle, takes her seriously any more.
Nic (896fdf) — 2/4/2020 @ 6:39 pmThere are times when I’d like to wake up and see that I’d been wrong about this awful man-child.
But I live in Realityville, and I’ve been right all along. He’s EXACTLY who I assessed him being.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 2/4/2020 @ 6:58 pm3. Trump will have learned his lesson when he is thrown out in November.
Doubt it. There’s only one way this screenplay ends: he dies in office, face down in a bowl between two creamy white scoops of Dolly Madison Vanilla topping German chocolate cake.
But who will play him in the film?!
DCSCA (797bc0) — 2/4/2020 @ 7:05 pmCharlize Theron. She can play anybody.
nk (1d9030) — 2/4/2020 @ 7:13 pm@7. Ya’know, she could work it.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 2/4/2020 @ 7:25 pmBest moments- post speech: the bootlickers:
‘Could you sign my tie for me?!’
DCSCA (797bc0) — 2/4/2020 @ 7:27 pmHe learned to win, even more than he did before: the President is all about winning.
Make America Ordered Again (23f793) — 2/4/2020 @ 7:44 pmAnd relieving suffering.
Make America Ordered Again (23f793) — 2/4/2020 @ 7:44 pmAnd relieving suffering.
Look up what he said about why he married Melania. (Hint: it was to induce suffering.)
As note elsewhere, some of you will suck up anything…
like a Dyson.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 2/4/2020 @ 7:53 pmThanks to you never trumpkin republicans and trump derangement syndrome clinton democrats craziness trump now at 49% in polls. When your in a hole stop digging!
asset (525029) — 2/4/2020 @ 7:56 pmWhen your in a hole stop digging!
Excellent advice for T-rump and the other elitists who are spending us into oblivion. Be sure to let him hear from you!
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 2/4/2020 @ 8:06 pmI see we’ve heard from the mindless Trumper contingent. Thank God. That point of view was starting to feel unrepresented.
Patterico (115b1f) — 2/4/2020 @ 8:50 pm“Trump will have learned his lesson when he is thrown out in November.”
nk (1d9030) — 2/4/2020 @ 6:27 pm
Three years of losses taught #NeverTrump nothing, so why should he be an outlier?
Munroe (dd6b64) — 2/4/2020 @ 9:08 pmContra Duh Donald, over the last three years many have learned several things.
One is that Trump cannot learn. He cannot become anything except who he has been for decades, and that isn’t pretty. That is a real shame because he could have been a president instead of what he is.
We learned today of the retirement of the commander of the Navy’s special operators. He could not continue to serve under T-rump. There are just so many leaders like that, and we can’t afford their continuing loss.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 2/4/2020 @ 9:33 pmWhat we learned today Trump 49% in polls. Never trumpkins zero in polls. Trump won with 8% of black vote now he is at 17% (mostly black men) Same with hispanic men. Trump wins in 2020 so democrats will have to wait for AOC in 2024 when demographics are even more favorable for democrats.
asset (525029) — 2/5/2020 @ 12:40 amThat’s political spin by Collins as she’s giving herself some cover for her acquittal vote.
There are political realities here…
whembly (fd57f6) — 2/5/2020 @ 6:15 am#19 —
Sounds like Collins is trying to justify her acquit vote to herself. Given her druthers, she would have removed him. But she needs the Trump people to come out and vote for her, particularly because the Dems are after her blood. Back in 2016, Ms. Collins wrote (when announcing she would not vote for Trump for President) “His essential character seems to be fixed, and he seems incapable of change or growth.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/gop-senator-why-i-cannot-support-trump/2016/08/08/821095be-5d7e-11e6-9d2f-b1a3564181a1_story.html
Appalled (1a17de) — 2/5/2020 @ 6:52 amBut she needs the Trump people to come out and vote for her
Yes. God forbid she should respond to the will of her constituents rather than the money people or what her elitist echo chamber thinks. Not that anyone should trust her sincerity on such matters.
PTw (894877) — 2/5/2020 @ 7:03 amRagspierre wrote:
What he is, is President. Oh, I know, I know, you don’t like that, but President is what he is, until January 20, 2021, and, more probably, January 20, 2025.
Mr Trump did learn. He learned that being who he is defeated sixteen more ‘standard’ Republican challengers, and defeated the guaranteed-to-win Hillary Clinton.
What he has learned is how to win. And in politics, winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.
The Dana in Kentucky (b49bca) — 2/5/2020 @ 7:05 amKinda makes you believe in the bell curve as something more than a contrived construct.
nk (1d9030) — 2/5/2020 @ 7:10 amYou gotta hand it to him. He won on ObamaCare, won on lowering the debt and deficit … yes I’m getting tired of all this winning.
Patterico (115b1f) — 2/5/2020 @ 7:26 amWhat he is, is President. Oh, I know, I know, you don’t like that, but President is what he is, until January 20, 2021, and, more probably, January 20, 2025.
What he has learned is how to win. And in politics, winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.
T-rump holds the office, but is not and never will be presidential. He’s incapable.
IIRC Stalin and Mao were big winners in their time. For some of us, “winning” comes way behind higher values. I’ll keep mine and you can have yours.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 2/5/2020 @ 7:29 amDonald Trump wouldn’t make a pimple on Stalin’s or Mao’s butts. He is a grub who wormed his way into the American apple and is feasting on what the truly great men of American history grew, while his intestinal bacteria feed on the remnants of his digestion and think they’re in seventh heaven.
nk (1d9030) — 2/5/2020 @ 7:49 am@24
I find this criticism curious, as you’re ignoring the obvious good things that has happened under his administration.
He ran on other things that he has completed. That’s why we don’t hear “But Gorsuch!” spiel anymore….
Let’s play hypothetical, everything that Trump has campaigned, promised and policies that he championed in office. Yes, even the Ukraine brouhaha. Separate the man from those things.
What would your support look like towards this “non-Trump” figure having the same Trump campaign promise and results???? If it helps, superimpose Ted Cruz onto Trump policies/results/actions (or, Rubio…I can’t remember which one you supported in ’16).
I think you’d still bang on that government spending/deficit drum and things like that… but I doubt you’d share the same animus that you have now. You may hem & haw about the Ukraine ordeal, but I doubt you’d be calling for impeachment. I’d even dare to say that you’d be more supportive and would still consider yourself part of the Republican party.
Am I wrong?
You can despise the man all you want and believe that Trump shouldn’t be anywhere near the Oval Office due to character flaws, but it’s undeniable of the good things that has happened in his first administation.
That’s why I offer the Roger Water Pink Floyd example in the past… His music is amazing and he has done a lot of good things (charitable foundation, etc). But, he’s also a disgusting anti-semite who’s well represented by the Corbynite British Labour ideology. However, I can separate the man’s politics from his craft and purchase/enjoy is music.
That doesn’t make me a hypocrite?
That’s because I truly believe that we are more than just our politics.
whembly (fd57f6) — 2/5/2020 @ 9:19 amHey, if Duh Donald would go back to crafting ways to cheat contractors or grift people out of their hopes for an education, I’d be delighted and you’d never hear another word about him from me.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 2/5/2020 @ 9:33 amhttps://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/05/us/politics/impeachment-vote.html
Republicans, on the other hand, should they win back control of the House (unlikely unless Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren is elected and then only two years later)
plan to expunge Trump’s impeachment. (but if Trump was no longer president, I don’t think Republicans would be interested. Unless a really pro-Trump person won the Republican nomination in 2024 or later)
https://nypost.com/2020/02/05/republicans-planning-to-expunge-trump-impeachment-if-they-win-back-the-house
Of course such an “expungement wold have no legal consequences. It’s sounds futile, although it once happened with the censure of Andrew Jackson (by the Senate I think)
Whatever it meant would depend on how people would treat that “expungement”
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 2/5/2020 @ 10:53 amI suspect that the voters in Maine have learned that Ms. Collins has a learning disability.
John B Boddie (286277) — 2/5/2020 @ 12:19 pmIOW, Donald Trump being the president is what matters. What he does as president doesn’t matter.
Radegunda (0e8745) — 2/5/2020 @ 7:22 pmWhich correlates closely with Trump’s view of things.