Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) bragged during her debate with Democrat Troy Jackson Tuesday that she had talked President Donald Trump into removing tariffs on some key items for her constituents amid the administration’s trade war with Canada.
Then, she was reminded of all the things she hadn’t done, including taking a stand against Trump on the issue.
“Troy mocked it, but I was successful in getting concrete, pulp and road salt removed from the tariff list,” Collins boasted, noting that one small town in the state would have had to pay $10,000 more for road salt this winter if she hadn’t.
Jackson replied that she hadn’t done enough.
“I didn’t mock the fact that she got road salt back. I mocked the fact that – what about everything else?” he said. “We can’t eat road salt.”
Jackson also pointed out an ironic problem with her road-salt success.
“Everything that she’s doing with the Iran war and stuff like that, there’s gonna be so many less people that’ll be able to afford to drive that I’m not even sure the road salt’s gonna be worth anything, either,” he said.
Jackson noted that Collins had voted to confirm Howard Lutnick as commerce secretary despite his support for tariffs, and said that as chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, she should be doing more to rein in Trump.
“She won’t use her authority as chair of appropriations to actually push,” he said.
“I’m not gonna give her credit for getting one thing back when we have thousands of things that people are having to pay more money for because she won’t talk back against Donald Trump,” Jackson added. “And tariffs are a function of Congress, not a function of the president.”
Maine is one of several states Democrats hope to flip to regain control of the Senate in next month’s midterm elections. Polls show a tight race, with Jackson maintaining a slight lead in most of them.
See the full exchange below: