Dem
47
GOP
53
Sometimes, Donald Trump's complete irrationality comes shining through. When he invades another country and captures its leader, he doesn't think that has any downside. And in some scenarios, it may not. As long as the new Venezuelan president, Delcy Rodríguez, keeps order, he might get away with it. It is kind of a calculated risk.
But when he said that Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) (and four other Senate Republicans) should be defeated because they have voted with the Democrats to rein in his power, that is just crazy. As everyone knows, Maine is a blue state and Collins is the only Republican who could win that seat due to her personal popularity. She is also the Democrats' #1 target in the Senate. Democrats can now use his attacks on her in the northern part of the state to try to convince Republican voters to stay home rather than come out and vote for someone Trump hates. In effect, Trump is making it easier for Democrats to win the Senate in November.
Trump really and truly can't play one-dimensional checkers. If the Democrats capture the House, they are likely to impeach him, or at least one of the members of his administration. But if the Republicans control the Senate, majority leader John Thune (R-SD) will not allow a real trial, so he will probably just let each side have an hour to make their case and then call a vote. The defendant will be acquitted on a party-line vote and we will move on to the next thing.
But if the Democrats capture the Senate, too, there will be a real trial, possibly going on for a week or more, on national television, with law school professors, former federal judges, former federal prosecutors, disaffected former Republican politicians, and many more making a clear case that Trump (or his underlings) broke the law, abused power, and should be convicted. He will not enjoy that at all. Helping the Democrats defeat Collins brings that scenario quite a bit closer. If Collins wins, it will be nearly impossible for the Democrats to get a Senate majority. However much Trump dislikes her, from the perspective of what is best for himself (the only perspective he knows), trying to defeat her makes no sense at all. This is a recurring theme of our posts this week: Even if you grant Trump's me-first, America-second outlook, the things he's doing these days just don't make sense.
Gov. Janet Mills (D-ME), who is running for the Democratic nomination for the Senate seat, also went after Collins' vote. She said that Collins does the right thing only when it is politically expedient for her, otherwise not. The other Democrat running for the nomination, Graham Platner, didn't comment on the whole matter. We see this as a missed opportunity for him. He is the underdog in the primary and a fiery statement about Collins' hypocrisy and why she is failing the people of Maine would have gotten some attention. (V)