Collins: Trump’s call for China to probe Biden ‘completely inappropriate’
“I thought the president made a big mistake by asking China to get involved in investigating a political opponent. … It’s completely inappropriate,” Collins told the Bangor Daily News.
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) said in a statement on Thursday night that “Americans don’t look to Chinese commies for the truth” but also knocked House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) for running a “partisan clown show in the House.”
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) pushed back forcefully on Thursday, calling Trump’s rhetoric “wrong and appalling” and saying it “strains credulity to suggest that it is anything other than politically motivated.”
Underscoring the risk for GOP senators who speak out against Trump, the president has spent the weekend lashing out at Romney, including calling him a “pompous ‘ass'” and calling for his impeachment.
Trump’s suggestion that China should investigate the Bidens comes as House Democrats are at the start of an impeachment inquiry centered on allegations that Trump sought to withhold aid to Ukraine in an effort to get Kiev to launch a probe.
Collins told the Maine publication that she had concerns that Schiff “misrepresented and misled people about what was in the transcript in the call,” an apparent reference to the summary Schiff offered during a public hearing.
“Should the articles of impeachment come to the Senate — and right now I’m going to guess that they will — I will be acting as a juror as I did in the Clinton impeachment trial,” Collins said.
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