With a final Senate vote on President Trump’s impeachment coming Wednesday, one of the few Republican senators who was seen as a possible vote to convict the president made clear that she wouldn’t do so. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), speaking from the floor of the Senate on Tuesday, made clear that while she didn’t agree with Trump’s actions in pressuring Ukraine to launch investigations that would benefit him politically, she didn’t think he should be removed from office.
Speaking to CBS News’s Norah O’Donnell, Collins explained her decision.
“I believe that the president has learned from this case,” she said. “The president has been impeached. That’s a pretty big lesson.”
It may be — but perhaps not the lesson that Collins seems to think.
On July 25 of last year, Trump spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and allegedly asked for the investigations he sought. That was one day after former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III testified on Capitol Hill about his investigation into Trump’s 2016 campaign and incidents that may have constituted obstruction of justice. If Trump learned a lesson from Mueller’s probe, it apparently wasn’t that he ought not seek out the aid of foreign countries in his efforts to be reelected.
In the case of his interactions with Ukraine, Trump has shown no public contrition at all. In fact, he’s said on 75 separate occasions since questions about his interactions first arose that he did “nothing wrong” at all. Twelve of those occasions came after he had actually been impeached — after he would have learned the lesson that Collins assumes he has learned.
You may judge for yourself whether it seems as though Collins’s confidence in Trump is warranted.
Before impeachment
“Now, I will say this: I said absolutely nothing wrong. It was perfect.”
— speaking to reporters outside the White House
Oct. 4
Breaking News: Unemployment Rate, at 3.5%, drops to a 50 YEAR LOW. Wow America, lets impeach your President (even though he did nothing wrong!).
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 4, 2019
Oct. 6
Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd of “Meet the Press” had a total meltdown in his interview with highly reaspected Senator @RonJohnsonWI. Seems that a not very bright Chuck just wasn’t getting the answers he was looking for in order to make me look as bad as possible. I did NOTHING wrong!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 6, 2019
Oct. 9
Only 25 percent want the President Impeached, which is pretty low considering the volume of Fake News coverage, but pretty high considering the fact that I did NOTHING wrong. It is all just a continuation of the greatest Scam and Witch Hunt in the history of our Country!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 9, 2019
Oct. 9
So pathetic to see Sleepy Joe Biden, who with his son, Hunter, and to the detriment of the American Taxpayer, has ripped off at least two countries for millions of dollars, calling for my impeachment - and I did nothing wrong. Joe’s Failing Campaign gave him no other choice!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 9, 2019
The “president of Ukraine, who — frankly, today, was very good; somewhere in Ukraine, I guess, gave a news conference on unrelated things — was asked a question, and he said, ‘President Trump behaved in a perfectly fine manner. There was nothing wrong in any way, shape, or form.’ Something to that effect. So, I appreciate that.”
— speaking to reporters outside the White House
Oct. 10
The President of the Ukraine just stated again, in the strongest of language, that President Trump applied no pressure and did absolutely nothing wrong. He used the strongest language possible. That should end this Democrat Scam, but it won’t, because the Dems & Media are FIXED!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 10, 2019
“And by the way, the president of Ukraine yesterday came out and he said, ‘He did nothing wrong. What are you talking about?’ I think they look at our country, they think we’re all crazy. They think we’re crazy. … He said it before, he said it at the United Nations, and his foreign minister said it so strongly. He said, ‘There was nothing wrong with that call. There was nothing wrong.’ They don’t even know what the hell we’re talking about.”
— speaking at a campaign rally in Louisiana
“When [Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.)] read what I actually said, he said, ‘I can’t say this because he did nothing wrong.’ So Schiff went out and he made up a lie."
— speaking to reporters outside the White House
“And the president of Ukraine said there was nothing wrong with the call. And you heard the words; there was no pressure. He didn’t even know what we were talking about.”
— speech at the Value Voters Summit
“The president of Ukraine and his foreign minister, separately, came out and said there was absolutely nothing wrong with the conversation. The president of Ukraine and the foreign minister came out and said there was no anything.”
— speaking to reporters outside the White House
“Why do I have to go through that when everyone knows we did nothing wrong anyway? Tim Scott said it. He said, ‘He didn’t do anything wrong.’ Forget about fairness. I didn’t do anything wrong."
— interview with Sinclair Media Group
“I did nothing wrong. The only reason. I had a perfect conversation with the president of Ukraine. Perfect. … I did nothing wrong. … We did nothing wrong.”
— speaking to reporters outside the White House
Oct. 26
The Fake Washington Post keeps doing phony stories, with zero sources, that I am concerned with the Impeachment scam. I am not because I did nothing wrong. It is the other side, including Schiff and his made up story, that are concerned. Witch Hunt continues!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 26, 2019
Oct. 30
Yesterday’s Never Trumper witness could find NO Quid Pro Quo in the Transcript of the phone call. There were many people listening to the call. How come they (including the President of Ukraine) found NOTHING wrong with it. Witch Hunt!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2019
“You can’t impeach a president who did nothing wrong.”
— speaking to reporters outside the White House
“I'm fine with it; we did absolutely nothing wrong."
— speaking to reporters on Air Force One
Nov. 3
“Morrison testifies he saw nothing wrong with the Trump call.” @OANN
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2019
Nov. 3
False stories are being reported that a few Republican Senators are saying that President Trump may have done a quid pro quo, but it doesn’t matter, there is nothing wrong with that, it is not an impeachable event. Perhaps so, but read the transcript, there is no quid pro quo!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 4, 2019
“All of the things that they’ve been doing and now the absolutely crazed lunatics, the Democrats, radical left and their media partners standing right back there are pushing the deranged impeachment witch hunt for doing nothing wrong, doing nothing wrong. You know, we did nothing wrong and they’re doing nothing."
— campaign rally in Louisiana
“Mark Levin said it, Gregg Jarrett said it, you said it, a lot of very talented people said it, and if there was something wrong, they’d say that. But there was nothing wrong. There was nothing wrong with it nor is there anything wrong with the first call that they just read into the record."
— interview with a conservative radio host
Nov. 18
....that I testify about the phony Impeachment Witch Hunt. She also said I could do it in writing. Even though I did nothing wrong, and don’t like giving credibility to this No Due Process Hoax, I like the idea & will, in order to get Congress focused again, strongly consider it!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 18, 2019
“I think they have to end it now. He said there was no quid pro quo. ‘The president did absolutely nothing wrong.’ ”
— speaking to reporters about Ambassador Gordon Sondland’s impeachment testimony
Nov. 24
But I did nothing wrong. Read the Transcripts (2)! https://t.co/Ef9O5kOgrg
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 24, 2019
“[imitating a House Democrat] ‘I happen to read the transcript of his phone call and he did absolutely nothing wrong, and I’m voting — ’can you imagine? They take this perfect call and they want to impeach your president. … I have never had a direct link between investigations and security assistance. Okay, what that means, do you know what it means? It means we did zero, we did nothing wrong — nothing. We did nothing wrong.”
— speaking at a rally in Florida
Nov. 26
...lawyer has already stated that I did nothing wrong. John Bolton is a patriot and may know that I held back the money from Ukraine because it is considered a corrupt country, & I wanted to know why nearby European countries weren’t putting up money also. Likewise, I would....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 26, 2019
Dec. 2
Breaking News: The President of Ukraine has just again announced that President Trump has done nothing wrong with respect to Ukraine and our interactions or calls. If the Radical Left Democrats were sane, which they are not, it would be case over!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 2, 2019
“I did nothing wrong. I heard about it. Now they want to go to censure because they have no case for impeachment, so they want to go to censure. I don’t want them to go to censure. I did nothing — I don’t mind being censured if you do something wrong. I did nothing wrong. … I did nothing wrong. You don’t censure somebody when they did nothing wrong. … I had a very, very good conversation with the head of Ukraine. And, by the way, yesterday, he came out again and reaffirmed again that we had a very, very respectful, good conversation — that President Trump did nothing wrong."
— speaking to reporters
“I think the Democrats should be ashamed of themselves. If you look at impeachment — and the word “impeachment” — here, there was nothing wrong. Nothing done wrong."
— speaking to reporters before a meeting with the Canadian prime minister
“The Ukrainian president came out and said, very strongly, that ‘President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong.’ That should be case over. But he just came out a little while ago and he said, ‘President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong.’ And that should end everything.”
— speaking to reporters outside the White House
“It was not a strategy, we did nothing wrong. We had a great conversation with a man from another country."
— interview with a local news reporter in Miami
Dec. 10
To Impeach a President who has proven through results, including producing perhaps the strongest economy in our country’s history, to have one of the most successful presidencies ever, and most importantly, who has done NOTHING wrong, is sheer Political Madness! #2020Election
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 10, 2019
“I can't imagine they vote for it because we did nothing wrong. There was absolutely nothing done wrong."
— speaking to reporters outside the White House
Dec. 10
To Impeach a President who has proven through results, including producing perhaps the strongest economy in our country’s history, to have one of the most successful presidencies ever, and most importantly, who has done NOTHING wrong, is sheer Political Madness! #2020Election
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 10, 2019
Dec. 12
“New Polls Say Most Americans Oppose Impeachment.” @foxandfriends I did nothing wrong. This will be the first Impeachment ever where there was no crime. They don’t even allege a crime. Crazy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2019
“Look, there is — we did nothing wrong."
— speaking before a meeting with the president of Paraguay
Dec. 13
How do you get Impeached when you have done NOTHING wrong (a perfect call), have created the best economy in the history of our Country, rebuilt our Military, fixed the V.A. (Choice!), cut Taxes & Regs, protected your 2nd A, created Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, and soooo much more? Crazy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2019
Dec. 13
It’s not fair that I’m being Impeached when I’ve done absolutely nothing wrong! The Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats have become the Party of Hate. They are so bad for our Country!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 14, 2019
“ ‘The President did nothing wrong here. There is no crime.’ ”
— quoting Charlie Kirk in a tweet
Dec. 17
The Stock Market hit another Record High yesterday, number 133 in less than three years as your all time favorite President, and the Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats, want to impeach me. Don’t worry, I have done nothing wrong. Actually, they have!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 17, 2019
Dec. 17
....They want to Impeach me (I’m not worried!), and yet they were all breaking the law in so many ways. How can they do that and yet impeach a very successful (Economy Plus) President of the United States, who has done nothing wrong? These people are Crazy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 18, 2019
“By the way, it doesn't really feel like we're being impeached. The country is doing better than ever before. We did nothing wrong. We did nothing wrong and we have tremendous support in the Republican Party like we've never had before. … You are the ones interfering in America's elections. You are the ones subverting America's democracy. We did nothing wrong, nothing whatsoever. ”
— speaking at a rally in Michigan
Dec. 18
Can you believe that I will be impeached today by the Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats, AND I DID NOTHING WRONG! A terrible Thing. Read the Transcripts. This should never happen to another President again. Say a PRAYER!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 18, 2019
After impeachment
“As far as I’m concerned, I’d be very happy with the trial because we did nothing wrong. … We have absolutely — we did nothing wrong. All you have to do is read the transcripts."
— speaking to reporters at Mar-a-Lago
“[Imitating House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)] ‘I’m trying to impeach — even though he did nothing wrong.’ By the way, did you see? I did nothing wrong. They don’t even know what the hell is going on. In fact, it’s so weak.”
— speaking during a campaign rally
“The president of Ukraine said I did absolutely nothing wrong; he said I had no pressure whatsoever. He didn’t even know what we were talking about.”
— interview with Fox News
Jan. 12
Why should I have the stigma of Impeachment attached to my name when I did NOTHING wrong? Read the Transcripts! A totally partisan Hoax, never happened before. House Republicans voted 195-0, with three Dems voting with the Republicans. Very unfair to tens of millions of voters!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2020
Jan. 12
Great idea. This phony Impeachment Hoax should not even be allowed to proceed. Did NOTHING wrong. Just a partisan vote. Zero Republicans. Never happened before! https://t.co/47oV6z4RQc
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2020
“So here's the story: I did nothing wrong. It was a perfect conversation. It was totally appropriate. The best lawyers in the world have looked at it. The Department of Justice has looked at it, given it a sign-off. There was nothing wrong."
— news conference in Davos, Switzerland
Jan. 24
The Impeachment Hoax is interfering with the 2020 Election - But that was the idea behind the Radical Left, Do Nothing Dems Scam attack. They always knew I did nothing wrong!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 24, 2020
“These facts establish what we knew from the very beginning: President Donald Trump did nothing wrong.”
— retweet of an excerpt of his impeachment defense