Susan Collins’ defense of her Kavanaugh confirmation vote suffers from a key flaw
Almost exactly eight years ago, Rep. Susan Collins of Maine, one of the last remaining Republican members of Congress who supports abortion rights, declared, “I would not support a [Supreme Court] nominee who demonstrated hostility to Roe v. Wade.” She added that, as far as she was concerned, the landmark ruling established abortion as a “constitutional right.”
Soon after, that commitment was put to the test when President Donald Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to serve on the high court, and Collins helped confirm the controversial jurist. At the time, the Republican senator said she was confident Kavanaugh saw abortion rights as “settled as a precedent of the court” and “settled law.” In September 2018, Collins specifically said, “I do not believe he’s going to repeal Roe v. Wade.”
Her confirmation vote was not a popular one, but the incumbent senator was nevertheless re-elected in 2020. Two years later, Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices overturned Roe v. Wade in a 6-3 ruling.
Kavanaugh, of course, was in the majority, Collins’ prediction notwithstanding.
The longtime GOP senator is seeking yet another term this year, and it’ll be the first since Roe was overturned. With this in mind, an NBC affiliate in Maine asked Collins this week whether she regrets having confirmed Kavanaugh.
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Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”
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