Susan Collins (R - ME) Definitely Yes
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October 5: In a speech on the Senate floor, Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins said, “I will vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh.” (The Washington Post)
October 4: It appears to be a very thorough investigation. (Twitter)
October 2: In an interview Tuesday, Collins said she will decide whether to run for reelection next year and is fixated in the meantime on making sure she makes the right decision on what could be the biggest vote of her career. “All I can do is cast the vote I think is correct. If I try to do a political assessment on this vote, it would be wrong given that we’re talking about a Supreme Court nominee,” she said. “No matter how I vote, there will be people who are very unhappy with it.” (Politico)
September 28: Shortly after 4 p.m. Friday, Collins sent out a tweet containing a statement from the Judiciary Committee on the decision to ask the White House to order the FBI to reopen the investigation into Kavanaugh, as long as it is completed within a week. Collins tweeted, “I support this sensible agreement” and then added another comment saying she was “pleased to hear Mark Judge has indicated he would cooperate with the investigators.” (Portland Press Herald)
September 26: Collins reviewing Avenatti allegations and says she takes it “very seriously.” Wants hearing to go forward but unsure if Senate could be voting on Kavanaugh over the weekend (Twitter)
September 25: “I had not made a decision, and obviously the hearing Thursday is an important one,” Ms. Collins told reporters on Tuesday. She expressed concern about Ms. Ramirez’s accusation and suggested that the Judiciary Committee question her under oath as well as Dr. Blasey. (The New York Times)
September 24: Collins said the Judiciary Committee needs to interview Ramirez “under oath.” “I’m eager for the hearing to take place this Thursday and hear from both Judge Kavanaugh and Dr. Ford,” Collins said. “I have not made a decision.” (Note: We have not yet confirmed the exact date of these comments, but they appear to have taken place on or around 9/24/2018.) (Politico)
September 21: Well, first of all, I do not believe he's gonna repeal Roe v. Wade...I am [undecided]. How could I decide before hearing the testimony of Professor Ford?...I'm close. I'm very close. But I'm not all the way there yet. And Professor Ford deserves to be heard. (Twitter)
September 21: Collins said she discussed the Roe decision extensively with Kavanaugh in the context of whether he believes in precedents, “including decisions made in 1973 and reaffirmed by the court again and again.” Collins said Kavanaugh told her he did believe in such precedents. In fact, Collins said, the answer he offered her was similar to statements affirming the concept of precedents that she got from John Roberts and Elena Kagen before she voted for them to join the Supreme Court. The remark was her biggest tip of hand yet on how she might vote on Kavanaugh...However, Collins said she really wanted to get to the bottom to the allegation made by a woman who said Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her when they were both in high school. She wants both to testify under oath and said it would be “very helpful in making my assessment” on how to vote. In response to a question whether she would hire someone accused of sexual assault to join her staff and whether the same standard applies to Kavanaugh said she would never hire someone credibly accused of sexual assault, “if it’s credible, of course not.” “We don’t know enough yet, so I can’t reach that conclusion” she said of the question about Kavanaugh in particular. “In the end,” Collins said, “I have to be able to look in the mirror and say I did what I thought was right.” (The Boston Globe)
September 21: Maine Sen. Susan Collins said she was “appalled” by President Trump’s tweets Friday morning that criticized Christine Blasey Ford for not coming forward sooner with her allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Speaking at an event in Portland, Collins appeared to offer support for Ford, who has said Kavanaugh tried to sexually assault her 36 years ago, when they were both in high school. The senator stopped short, though, of saying whether she believed Ford’s explosive allegations. “I was appalled by the president’s tweet,” Collins said. “First of all, we know that allegations of sexual assault – I’m not saying that’s what happened in this case – but we know allegations of sexual assault are one of the most unreported crimes that exist. So I thought that the president’s tweet was completely inappropriate and wrong.”...“I do think that both she and Judge Kavanaugh need to testify under oath, but I believe we should attempt to make this as comfortable a process for her as possible,” Collins said. “To me, Monday is the preferred date but I don’t see a problem with delaying to Wednesday or Thursday.” Collins said, for her, hearing from Ford directly is critical. “It’s very difficult to assess credibility if you don’t get to see the person or hear them and that’s what I want,” she explained. (Portland Press Herald)
September 19: Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) on Wednesday said while she believes it “reverses the normal order of things” to ask the FBI to reopen its background investigation of Supreme Court nominee Judge Kavanaugh, in order to investigate Christine Blasey Ford’s claim of sexual assault against him, she would consider involving the bureau at some point. “It is the Senate’s constitutional responsibility to assess the nominees, and then if we need additional help from the FBI, the committee could ask for it,” Collins said in an interview on Maine radio station WVOM. (Talking Points Memo)
September 19: I hope that Dr. Ford will reconsider and testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday. It is my understanding that the Committee has offered to hold either a public or a private session, whichever would make her more comfortable. (Twitter)
September 18: I'm writing to the Chairman & RM of Judiciary Cmte respectfully recommending that at Monday’s hearing, counsel for Prof. Ford be allocated time to question Judge Kavanaugh & counsel for the Judge be granted equal time to question Prof. Ford, followed by questions from Senators. (Twitter)
September 17: One key GOP lawmaker, Susan Collins of Maine, told reporters Monday that if Kavanaugh was lying or holding back about the episode, it would be disqualifying. "For my part, I believe that it's very important that both Professor Ford and Judge Kavanaugh testify under oath about these allegations," Collins told reporters. "I need to see them and listen to their answers to the questions in order to make an assessment." (Houston Chronicle)
September 17: Professor Ford and Judge Kavanaugh should both testify under oath before the Judiciary Committee. (Twitter)
September 16: Ms. Collins said in an interview on Sunday night that she considered the allegations serious and that Ms. Ford needed to be personally interviewed to get a fuller account. But Ms. Collins, who could conceivably decide the outcome in the narrowly divided Senate, said Democrats had done a disservice to both Ms. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh with their handling of the accusations. “What is puzzling to me is the Democrats, by not bringing this out earlier, after having had this information for more than six weeks, have managed to cast a cloud of doubt on both the professor and the judge,” she said. “If they believed Professor Ford, why didn’t they surface this information earlier so that he could be questioned about it? And if they didn’t believe her and chose to withhold the information, why did they decide at the 11th hour to release it? It is really not fair to either of them the way it is was handled.” (The New York Times)
September 16: Collins told CNN on Sunday that she was "very surprised" by the now-public allegations, but did not know enough to make a judgment. She said she raised the allegations during a phone call with Kavanaugh on Friday before the accuser went public over the weekend. Asked if she wanted the Senate Judiciary Committee to delay its planned vote this week on Kavanaugh's nomination, Collins was noncommittal. "I'm going to be talking with my colleagues, but I really don't have anything to add at this point," Collins said Sunday. (CNN)
September 12: I am still completing my due diligence. I spent an hour today going through the committee’s sensitive documents at the Judiciary Committee that have not yet been released. I would note, however, that every document Democrats asked to have cleared and released was released by the order of the Justice Department and President Bush. So what I’m finding is that a lot of the information has not necessarily been accurately presented, and that’s why I think it’s really important I continue my review. I am also going to be talking to the judge later this week with a few more questions that I have. (KPAX.com)
August 22: 🔥SUSAN COLLINS tells me she sees "NO BASIS" for delaying Kavanaugh hearings. (Twitter)
August 21: In a more than two-hour meeting in my office today, Judge Kavanaugh and I had a productive, informative discussion about a wide range of issues, including: his judicial philosophy, his respect for precedent, and the importance of an independent judiciary. We also discussed Roe v. Wade, the role of the Special Counsel, executive power, the 2nd Amendment, the Affordable Care Act and protections for those with pre-existing conditions, as well as the circumstances surrounding his nomination. I specifically asked Judge Kavanaugh if he had made any commitments or pledges to the Federalist Society, or the White House, about how he would decide any legal issues. He unequivocally assured me that he had not made any such commitments and he expressed his deep respect for the independence of the judiciary. I also was pleased to learn that Judge Kavanaugh believes, as I do, that Article III of the Constitution was intended to include the concept of precedent and that he sees precedent as much more than simply a matter of practice and tradition. In addition, he expressed agreement with Chief Justice Roberts’ confirmation hearing statement that Roe is settled precedent and entitled to respect under principles of stare decisis. I look forward to Judge Kavanaugh’s public hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 4th. As has been my practice, I will continue to review Judge Kavanaugh’s record and will closely follow the hearings before reaching a decision on whether to support the nomination. (senate.gov)
July 27: I'm going to apply, and I am applying, the same standards that I've applied to the previous five Supreme Court nominees that I've been called to vote on...And what I've been doing is I've been meeting every other day in my office with a group of my staff, with a law professor who used to work for me who calls in, and other people, and I'm going over Judge Kavanaugh's record. And it's voluminous, so it's taking a long time. And I will then have, once I'm prepared, I'll have a one-on-one, hour-long meeting with him, where I'll grill him on a lot of issues that I really care about. And then I'll wait for his hearing, because you never know what's going to come up at a hearing that goes several days of questioning. And then I'll make my decision. (News Center Maine)
July 24: Collins on Tuesday told reporters that she was still reviewing Kavanaugh’s extensive archive of writings before setting a date for a meeting. “It’s not going to be any time immediately because I still have a ton of work to do on his decisions, his law review articles, a lot of others,” she said. “I’m still going through his very voluminous 300 decisions and speeches before AEI, for example. There’s a very interesting speech he gave there.” In the September AEI speech that Collins referenced, Kavanaugh expressed effusive admiration for the work of former Chief Justice William Rehnquist — including his dissent in the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that guaranteed a woman’s right to an abortion. (Vox)
July 10: “When you look at the credentials that Judge Kavanaugh brings to the job, it’ll be very difficult for anyone to argue that he’s not qualified for the job. He clearly is qualified for the job,” Collins told reporters on Tuesday when asked whether she faced an easier decision with Kavanaugh than Judge Amy Comey Barrett, who was on the president’s short list and is seen as more hostile to reproductive rights. The moderate GOP senator added, however, that she would take into consideration “other issues involving judicial temperament and his judicial philosophy” before making a final decision. (The Huffington Post)
July 9: Judge Kavanaugh has impressive credentials and extensive experience... I will conduct a careful, thorough vetting of the President’s nominee to the Supreme Court, as I have done with the five previous Supreme Court Justices whom I have considered. (CNN)