Thread by @CollinsWatch

In anticipation of Susan Collins inevitable PR offensive to mitigate the reputational damage of Roe getting reversed after she set herself out as a reliable last line of defense for abortion rights...some thoughts. #mepolitics 1/X

Though media reflexively called Collins "pro-choice" till recently, her abortion record has actually always been pretty mixed.

E.g. in 2000s she voted for the Unborn Victims of Violence Act and was silent re: a Bush admin rule meant to limit contraception access. #mepolitics 2/X

Collins also voted to put Alito on the Supreme Court even after it emerged he'd written a memo explicitly affirming that he didn't believe the Constitution protected the right to an abortion and that he was super proud of his efforts to kill Roe under Reagan. #mepolitics 3/X

For these reasons, Planned Parenthood took the unprecedented step of endorsing Collins challenger in 2008--the first time the org had taken sides against an incumbent it had previously supported.

In a release, @PPact described defeating Collins as "pivotal." #mepolitics 4/X

During the Obama years, Collins took some pro-choice votes...but she also voted to defund @PPact and waffled on whether she'd support a 20-week abortion ban (before ultimately voting against it), all the while funneling $400,000+ to anti-choice GOP candidates. #mepolitics 5/X

Under Trump, famed institutionalist Collins voted to scrap the filibuster for Sup Ct nominees to confirm Gorsuch, a judge handpicked by the right-wing, vehemently anti-choice @FedSoc, which viewed Roe's overturn as central to its mission. #mepolitics 6/X

https://twitter.com/CNNSotu/status/1013409182287056902

She also put out a plan to ban abortion coverage on the Obamacare health exchanges, a curious move for a "pro-choice" senator since it would've cut off abortion coverage for tens of millions of Americans.

Planned Parenthood blasted the plan in scathing terms. #mepolitics 7/X

And then we come to Kavanaugh.

Before he was announced as Trump's pick, Collins said she wouldn't vote for any nominee hostile to Roe. But she never came close to explaining why Kav's public speeches/rulings clearly evincing such hostility weren't disqualifying. #mepolitics 8/X

Collins then played a key role in GOP efforts to denigrate Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford, making elliptical attacks and e.g. amplifying an Alex Jones conspiracy theory re: Ford's yearbook to distract from Kavanaugh's gross behavior and his lies about it. #mepolitics 9/X

Ultimately, Collins threaded a political needle, positing Ford told the truth but was mistaken about the attacker.

This was icky but in blue Maine it was a keener rationale for backing Kav than saying she discounted Ford's claim--or didn't care about the issue. #mepolitics 10/X

With pro-choice/anti-choice groups and virtually all experts on all sides convinced Kav would vote to gut Roe, Collins then voted to confirm him.

She followed this with a fundraiser @FedSoc head Leonard Leo's home, where she mingled w/ bigwig anti-choice donors. #mepolitics 11/X

Almost as if to underscore her lack of enthusiasm for abortion rights, Collins then closed out her 2020 race by accepting the backing of Maine's leading hard-right, anti-choice org, whose leader disclosed that he/Collins had been in touch regularly for a decade. #mepolitics 12/X

Now, under Biden, in the face of a clear threat from the Supreme Court, Collins has repeatedly filibustered Dem efforts to safeguard abortion rights, complaining e.g. that the Dem bill would prevent states from forcing disinformation on those seeking abortions #mepolitics 13/X

Finally, just a couple weeks ago Collins went out of her way to talk up the presidential prospects of Tom Cotton, as strident a foe of abortion rights as there is in the Congress.

Collins suggested he was one of a handful of pols she's hoping will run in 2024. #mepolitics 14/X

If you look at this fact-pattern, developed over decades, and conclude that Susan Collins is a firmly pro-choice pol who accidentally stumbled into triggering the evisceration of abortion rights through a sloppy blunder...

...I don't know what to tell you. #mepolitics 15/15