Acknowledging the unrest of voters dissatisfied with the nation’s economy and politics, Maine Republican senator Susan Collins announced Monday night that she won’t vote for presidential nominee Donald Trump, citing the candidate’s personal behavior as her primary reason for withholding her support.
“When the primary season started, it soon became apparent that, much like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Mr. Trump was connecting with many Americans who felt that their voices were not being heard in Washington and who were tired of political correctness. But rejecting the conventions of political correctness is different from showing complete disregard for common decency,” Collins wrote in the Washington Post.
The fifth-term senator highlighted Trump’s perceived mockery of a New York Times reporter’s disability, his doubt of the impartiality of the Mexican-American judge overseeing a lawsuit against Trump University, and his feud with a Muslim-American Gold Star family as specific instances in which Trump has shown he “lacks the temperament, self-discipline and judgment required to be president.”
Collins also sounded alarm about the effect Trump’s personality would have on the world stage. “I am also deeply concerned that Mr. Trump’s lack of self-restraint and his barrage of ill-informed comments would make an already perilous world even more so,” she wrote, adding, “Mr. Trump’s tendency to lash out when challenged further escalates the possibility of disputes spinning dangerously out of control.”
The Republican did not spin her criticism into an endorsement of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, however. The moderate GOP lawmaker instead vowed to advocate for other candidates in her party, defending the “value it has always placed on the worth and dignity of the individual.”
“It is because of Mr. Trump’s inability and unwillingness to honor that legacy that I am unable to support his candidacy,” Collins wrote.
The veteran senator, last elected in 2014, is now one of four Republicans in the upper chamber to give Trump a hard “no”, along with Lindsey Graham, Mark Kirk, and Ben Sasse. Other senators have held out on backing the New York businessman and left open the possibility they never will, like Jeff Flake and Dean Heller. Tea Party leaders Ted Cruz and Mike Lee have been sharply critical of Trump and reserved their support, as well.
Trump hadn’t commented on the Collins news as of early Tuesday.
