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A new poll ranks U.S. Sen. Susan Collins as the least popular senator. The poll, released Thursday by the Morning Consult, found a 42 percent approval rate for Collins and 52 percent disapproval rate among Maine voters surveyed. The fourth quarter ranking represents a 10 percent drop in Collins’ net approval rating. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R – KY, ranked as the second least popular senator with 50 percent of Kentucky voters disapproving of his performance. The rankings are based on a survey given to 494,899 registered voters nationwide between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31. Participants could answer whether...

Sen. Tim Kaine, Virginia Democrat, on Tuesday announced he has enough support to advance a key War Powers resolution designed to restrict President Trump’s authority to take military action in Iran. Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky have both expressed their support of the resolution with some changes to the language. Mr. Kaine has been working on bipartisan language for the legislation in a bid for greater support. “I’ve got 51 declared votes on version two,” Mr. Kaine said. “More [are] considering getting on board,” he added. Sens. Todd Young, Indiana Republican, and Susan Collins,...

How imbecilic are those Republicans trying to make a name for themselves by supporting the unconstitutional Schiff/Pelosi articles of impeachment? Beyond polite description. Susan Collins, Rob Portman, probably the self-serving Mitt Romney, are each trying to be the biggest monkey wrenches in an already ridiculous endeavor to remove President Trump from office. Each of them should just admit they are Democrats at heart and switch parties. How else to explain their betrayal of their own party? Poor judgment is one thing, like Matt Gaetz voting for Pelosi's meaningless resolution to limit Trump's ability to counteract Iran. That was just dumb,...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Democrats are fighting to force impeachment witnesses who defied congressional subpoenas related to Ukraine to testify, but so far, no court cases against the four key figures exist. Pelosi made the misleading claim in an ABC interview Sunday in response to comments about Republican critics saying House Democrats could’ve done more to exhaust their alternatives when Trump officials refused to show up to testify at the behest of the president, including bringing those cases to court and played a clip by Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine saying that “the House chose not to...

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Friday that she's been working with "a fairly small group" of Republican senators to make sure witnesses can be called in President Donald Trump's impending Senate impeachment trial. "We should be completely open to calling witnesses," Collins told reporters in Bangor, Maine, the Bangor Daily News reported. She declined to say who or how many GOP lawmakers she's been working with, but said “I am hopeful that we can reach an agreement on how to proceed with the trial that will allow the opportunity for both the House and the president's counsel if they choose...

State officials have reportedly been denying pieces of the recent Maine Examiner exposé showing how Janet Mills’ administration is paying a vendor to track the movements of Mainers when they drive, walk or ride a bike, but the group’s official meeting minutes from the two most recent meetings tell a different story. As previously reported by Maine Examiner, video of the November 16th meeting of the Maine Climate Council’s Transportation Working Group showed Maine DOT officials urging members of the Maine Climate Council to request driver data acquired from a new state vendor. The minutes from the meeting, posted online, show...

This didn’t take long, did it? Almost as soon as Mitch McConnell got past the 51st vote to use the rules from Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial for Donald Trump’s, he moved to seal the victory: Senate Republican leaders are preparing to move forward on a set of impeachment trial rules without Democratic support.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is on the verge of having sufficient backing in his 53-member caucus to pass a blueprint for the trial that leaves the question of seeking witnesses and documents until after opening arguments are made, according to multiple senators.That framework would mirror the...

Virginia Democrats Mamie E. Locke and Kaye Kory will introduce a measure Jan. 8 that would allow prisoners to vote from jail in the state. The bill appears to allow prisoners to vote in the jurisdiction of the jail, potentially making inmates a powerful voting bloc in sparsely populated communities. It is one of numerous radical bills that could be passed rapidly after the Democrats take control of Virginia’s legislature for the first time in years. Democratic lawmakers in Virginia, who recently won control of the state’s legislature, proposed altering the state’s constitution to allow prisoners and mentally handicapped individuals...

Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska expressed unease in an interview broadcast on Tuesday with the Senate majority leader’s vow of “total coordination” with the White House on impeachment proceedings against President Trump, a potentially significant crack in Republican unity. Ms. Murkowski, a moderate with an independent streak, told Anchorage’s NBC affiliate KTUU she opposed “being hand in glove with the defense” and voiced other concerns as the Senate prepares to hold a trial over the two articles of impeachment that the House approved earlier this month. Ms. Murkowski’s views could prove important. She rarely speaks publicly against Republican leadership, but...

After being a reliable ally to President TrumpÂ’s judicial nominees in 2017 and 2018, Susan Collins is suddenly opposing some of TrumpÂ’s court picks Some believe Collins may be trying to win some over some goodwill from Democrats in what may be a difficult reelection cycle. Per a PPP poll in October, Collins is unpopular, with only 35% of voters approving of the job sheÂ’s doing to 50% who disapprove. She trails a generic Democrat for reelection 44-41. That represents a big drop for Collins compared to a poll we did last September when she led a generic Democrat by...

The House will probably vote Wednesday to impeach President Trump. But that may not be the most significant upcoming vote. The bigger vote may be when the Senate determines the rules for the ensuing trial. And Sens. Mitt Romney and Susan Collins don’t exactly sound as though they’re preparing to rock the GOP boat — even as GOP leaders signal they’ll push for a Trump-friendly impeachment trial. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) made an extraordinary statement last week, indicating that he will coordinate how the trial will be run with White House counsel Pat Cipollone. And Cipollone may not...

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said lunch with President Trump was “delightful” despite a history of clashing with the president that stretches back to the 2016 presidential primary. Romney and Trump shook hands at the White House lunch Thursday, and Romney said there didn’t appear to be any signs of lingering tension between the two of them, even though Trump slammed the senator last month as a “pompous ass.” Romney, for his part, blasted Trump last month for calling on China and Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden as "wrong and appalling.” But the two antagonists were on their...

President Trump invited two of his biggest Senate Republican critics, Sens. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), to the White House Thursday for an unspecified discussion. The invitation comes as impeachment hearings in the House continue. The House is widely expected to impeach Trump, which would create a trial in the Senate where Romney and Collins would be two of the most scrutinized GOP votes. Romney said before the meeting that he planned to talk about his own bill, the Trust Act, and the president’s plan for regulating vaping products. “If I’m asked for questions I want to talk...

With the confirmation of White House attorney Steven Menashi to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, another federal appeals court has a 'majority' of Republican-appointed judges. Menashi, whose nomination was vehemently opposed by Democrats and civil rights groups, was confirmed by the Senate, 51-41. Republican Maine Sen. Susan Collins joined Democrats in opposing the 40-year-old's nomination. The 2nd Circuit now has seven judges tapped by Republican presidents and six named by Democrats. The 2nd Circuit is the second federal appeals court Trump has remade to have a majority of judges appointed by GOP presidents. In March, the president flipped...

The Senate on Thursday confirmed Steven Menashi to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, bringing an end to a confirmation battle that at times drew ire from members of both parties toward the judicial nominee. The Senate confirmed Menashi 51 to 41, largely along party lines. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, broke with her party to vote against the nominee. Menashi’s confirmation flips the Second Circuit to a majority of Republican appointees.

The second-largest city in Maine, home to thousands of African newcomers, has elected a Somali American to its city council. Safiya Khalid, 23, soundly defeated a fellow Democrat on Tuesday for a seat on the Lewiston City Council in a campaign that was marred in the final days by racially charged attacks and threats that were fueled by social media.

Portland Press Herald November 1, 2019 Cable companies want judge to pause new Maine law requiring à la carte channel choices BY EDWARD D. MURPHY STAFF WRITER A Maine federal judge is deciding whether to put a temporary hold on a first-in-the-nation law that requires cable companies to offer channels on an à la carte basis, a case that pits consumer choice against corporate control. Federal District Court Judge Nancy Torreson did not indicate when she might rule on the request for a temporary restraining order sought by the Comcast cable company and nine cable broadcasters, including Disney, Fox Cable...

More refugees must be resettled across the United States to fill a “void of cultural diversity” in towns that are made up of a majority of white Americans, a New York Times report states. As President Trump is set to lower refugee admissions for the third year, keeping his 2o16 campaign promise to significantly reform the program after almost four decades, the New York Times published a report this week detailing how Congolese refugees already living in the U.S. are looking to bring their foreign relatives to the country through the refugee resettlement program. hose who support expanding refugee resettlement,...

Three Republican senators have yet to back a resolution to condemn House Democrats’ secret, closed-door impeachment inquiry practices. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Senate Judiciary Committee Lindsey Graham (R-SC) introduced a resolution Thursday night to condemn House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) secretive impeachment inquiry proceedings. Graham announced Friday that the resolution had gained 50 cosponsors across the Senate Republican conference; three senators have yet to cosponsor the resolution sign on. Sen. Johnny Isakson’s (R-GA) office told Breitbart News that the senator wants to ensure that the impeachment inquiry remains a “fair process.” The three Republican senators that have...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on Friday that all but three GOP senators had signed onto his resolution condemning the House impeachment inquiry. GOP Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Mitt Romney (Utah) have not yet signed onto the resolution, according to an updated list of co-sponsors shared by Graham the day after he introduced the measure. A spokesperson for Collins didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about whether or not she would back the resolution, which formally opposes the impeachment inquiry and urges House Democrats to hold an official vote on it. A spokeswoman for...