Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) humiliated herself once again on Wednesday after she voted to acquit President Donald Trump by telling Fox News that she “hopes” he won’t abuse his power again.

Only one Republican, Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah), had the courage to vote to convict Trump for abusing his power, becoming the first lawmaker in American history to vote to convict an impeached president from the same party.

But Collins, as usual, rode the fence for weeks until finally revealing her true colors on the Senate floor by voting for acquittal despite damning evidence and witness testimony in the House making it clear that Trump withheld military aid from Ukraine to force the country to announce a sham investigation into his political rival.

The transcript of Trump’s phone call with Ukraine President Zelensky is the most damning evidence of all.

Collins had previously indicated that she would vote to hear witness testimony during the Senate trial despite Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) effort to rig the proceedings.

And then she gradually began leaning toward supporting a rigged trial, a position that came to full fruition when she voted against witness testimony, thereby paving the way for acquittal.

Prior to the vote, Collins desperately tried to justify her decision by claiming her belief that Trump had “learned” his lesson.

“I believe that the president has learned from this case,” Collins said. “The president has been impeached. That’s a pretty big lesson. I believe that he will be much more cautious in the future.”

Of course, it didn’t take long for Trump to totally contradict her, insisting that his phone call was “perfect” and that he did not learn any lesson at all.

An embarrassed Collins, who voted to acquit anyway, then made an appearance on Fox News to clarify that she merely “hopes” that Trump won’t do it again.

“The call was wrong. Parts of the call were fine,” Collins said. “He should not have done that. And I hope he would not do it again. I may not be correct on that. It’s more aspirational on my part.”

Seriously. Hope is not going to prevent Trump from abusing his power again. The only lesson he seemed to have learned is that Senate Republicans will let him get away with whatever he wants, especially Collins, who has not demonstrated a single shred of courage since Trump took office even though she often criticizes him. But criticism is not the same as actually taking action to stop him. By that metric, Collins is a failure who is too wishy-washy to be a United States Senator trusted to protect the Constitution and preserve the integrity of the Senate.

Maine deserves a senator like Senator Angus King (I-Maine), who voted to convict based on the overwhelming evidence. He is on the right side of history while Collins trashed her legacy to side with Trump.

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