Collins: No ‘political calculus’ in Kavanaugh decision

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Sunday that she did not weigh the political consequences in her decision to vote for Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court.

“I did not try to weigh a political calculus to this decision,” Collins told “60 Minutes,” after agreeing that it was “likely true” that her decision would appeal to voters in Maine.

“It’s too important for that,” she said. “I just had to do what I think is right.”

{mosads}Collins was one of the few swing votes on Kavanaugh’s confirmation and she helped secure his position on the Supreme Court Sunday when she chose to back him.

She gave a passionate speech on the Senate floor explaining her vote, in which she slammed how the confirmation process had progressed and stated that the allegations of Kavanaugh’s sexual misconduct did not meet the “more likely than not” standard. 

“Today we have come to the conclusion of a confirmation process that has become so dysfunctional, it looks more like a caricature of a gutter level political campaign than a solemn occasion,” she said.

“Our Supreme Court confirmation process has been in steady decline for more than 30 years,” she said. “One can only hope that the Kavanaugh nomination is where the process has finally hit rock bottom.”

Her remarks have been criticized by some on the left, such as Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), who said Collins’s statements were “insulting” to one of the women who accused him of sexual misconduct.