Sen. Collins says Trump has been ‘very uneven’ on coronavirus

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) hit President Trump for his “uneven” response to the coronavirus outbreak in an interview Tuesday, calling the president “spot on” for some issues and “off message” for others.

In an interview with Politico, the Maine senator said that Trump was at his best when deferring to public health officials such as members of the coronavirus task force, including Deborah Birx and Anthony Fauci.

“It’s been very uneven. There are times when I think his message has been spot on and he has really deferred to the public health officials who have been with him at these press conferences,” Collins told Politico. “And then there are times when I think he’s been off message and has brought up extraneous issues. So I think it’s been mixed.”

“It’s been uneven. I don’t think that that is helpful. I think when he stays on message it’s helpful. But when he gets off message or brings up issues that have nothing to do with the coronavirus, it is not reassuring to the American people,” she added.

The comments are some of the most direct criticism of Trump’s coronavirus response from a Senate Republican. Collins faces a difficult reelection contest this year in a state that sent three of its four electoral votes in 2016 to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Collins has hit the president on the issue of his response to the outbreak before. In March, she advised him to take a step back from the administration’s public efforts to fight the virus, instead encouraging Trump to appoint an official spokesperson for the crisis response.

“I would like the president to step back and appoint one of our public health officials to be the spokesman as we go through dealing with this novel virus,” she said last month, calling his messaging “inconsistent” at the time.