Over two dozen Republican officials in Maine formed a caucus after the state’s primary GOP voted down an effort to censure Sen. Susan Collins over her vote to convict former President Donald Trump on charges of inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Twenty-five conservatives, including “six County Chairs, several sitting legislators and state committee members,” banded together to form the Maine Grassroots Republican Caucus, the Aroostook County GOP said. The move was in response to “growing dissatisfaction with the state GOP” following a 41-19 vote against censuring Collins.
The group was founded one day after the ballots were cast against rebuking the Maine senator, officials said.
“The Main Republican Party just isn’t listening to the voices of disenfranchised Republicans that are screaming to hold officials accountable,” John DeVeau, a former state lawmaker and caucus chairman, said in a statement, adding that the subgroup will not “fracture or divide” the party.
SUSAN COLLINS FACES POSSIBLE CENSURE FROM MAINE GOP OVER VOTE TO CONVICT TRUMP
“We didn’t create the division,” DeVeau continued in reference to COVID-19 lockdown protocols in the state. “We’re actually trying to unify the Republican Party by giving the disenfranchised a voice at the statewide level and restore the constitutional balance of power.”
On March 13, those in favor of censuring Collins said they “vigorously condemn” her vote to convict Trump, adding that “there was no formal investigation or due process given prior to the House Impeachment proceedings, no witnesses called forth, nor any evidence brought forward.”
Trump betrayed his “oath” to the executive office in remarks during his impeachment trial, which resulted in his acquittal on all charges, Collins claimed.
“This impeachment trial is not about any single word uttered by President Trump on January 6, 2021,” she said Feb. 13. “It is instead about President Trump’s failure to obey the oath he swore on January 20, 2017. His actions to interfere with the peaceful transition of power — the hallmark of our Constitution and our American democracy — were an abuse of power and constitute grounds for conviction.”
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She continued: “My vote in this trial stems from my own oath and duty to defend the Constitution of the United States. The abuse of power and betrayal of his oath by President Trump meet the constitutional standard of ‘high crimes and misdemeanors,’ and for those reasons I voted to convict Donald J. Trump.”
