Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is expressing her disapproval for the angered voicemails she received after she voted to acquit President Donald Trump in the Senate impeachment trial.
The Senate voted largely along party lines on Wednesday, resulting in the acquittal of the president on two articles of impeachment — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Following her vote to acquit Trump, the Maine senator received voicemails of people expressing their frustration for her decision.
During a Fox News interview on Wednesday, Fox News’ Martha MacCallum played one of the voicemails, where one constituent called her a “vile piece of garbage” and claimed she was “a traitor that you support people like Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.”
In response, Collins said, “This is a continuation of the kind of abuse and harassment that has occurred for my staff, my family and me since my vote for Justice [Brett] Kavanaugh.”
“I think it’s a sad commentary that we can’t have differences of opinion without resorting to profanity to death threats to vile language,” she continued, adding, “And yet it seems we lost the ability in this country to disagree respectfully.”
Collins and her family received threats during the confirmation process of then-Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, as IJR previously reported.
Watch Collins’ interview below:
Collins previously shared that she would be voting to acquit Trump ahead of the vote. While describing Trump’s actions as “improper and demonstrated poor judgment,” the senator said it was not enough for impeachment.
“While I do not believe that the conviction of a President requires a criminal act, the high bar for removal from office is perhaps even higher when the impeachment is for a difficult-to-define noncriminal act,” Collins said at the time.
While Collins voted for Trump’s acquittal, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) voted “guilty” on the abuse of power charge and “not guilty” on the obstruction of Congress charge.
“Corrupting an election to keep one’s self in office is perhaps the most abusive and destructive violation of one’s oath of office that I can imagine,” Romney said on Wednesday.
As for the Senate’s acquittal in his impeachment, Trump is expected to make a public statement on impeachment at 12 p.m. on Thursday.
