Al Franken Blasts Susan Collins: She'll Let Trump 'Get Away With Anything'

By Marty Johnson, The Hill

07 February 20

ormer Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) criticized Sen. Susan Collins on Wednesday, saying that she and her fellow GOP lawmakers will let President Trump "get away with anything" after the Maine Republican announced she wold vote to acquit Trump in his impeachment trial.

In her remarks on the Senate floor the day before, Collins said that Trump was "wrong" to bring up former Vice President Joe Biden in his July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and "to ask a foreign country to investigate a political rival."

But, she argued, the House failed to meet "its burden of showing that the president's conduct, however flawed, warrants the extreme step of immediate removal from office."

Collins was one of two GOP senators who voted to allow additional witnesses in the Senate trial last week, the other being Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah). The measure failed, however, setting a final trial vote for Wednesday.

"I believe that the president has learned from this case," Collins said in a Tuesday CBS interview. "The president has been impeached. That's a pretty big lesson. I believe that he will be much more cautious in the future."

Franken resigned from Congress in late 2017 amid allegations of sexual misconduct from multiple women.