„President Trump was not my choice for the Republican nominee…“
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said on Sunday that the multiple sexual harassment allegations against President Donald Trump “remain very disturbing” amid the current cultural backlash against powerful men abusing their status.
“More than a dozen women came forward during the campaign. [Trump] says that every single one of them are lying,” ABC News host George Stephanopoulos said to Collins.
“He did say that,” Collins responded. “President Trump was not my choice for the Republican nominee for president and I did not support him in part because of the way that all of these reports about how he was treating women.”
“But those allegations remain very disturbing,” the Maine senator added.
As the wave of women coming forward to tell their stories of sexual harassment reaches Washington, scrutiny over the more than a dozen allegations against the president has been renewed, especially after Trump slammed Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) over his new alleged sexual misconduct.
“The Al Frankenstien picture is really bad, speaks a thousand words. Where do his hands go in pictures 2,3,4,5 & 6 while she sleeps?” Trump tweeted after former model and performer Leeann Tweeden alleged Franken gave her an unwanted kiss and groped her while she slept during a USO tour in 2006.
Following Trump’s tweet, critics called it hypocritical for the president to attack Franken over sexual harassment allegations while having more than a dozen of his own and a tape floating around with him bragging about grabbing women by their privates because he’s “a star.”
On Friday, however, the White House stated that the president maintains his previous stance in denying all the allegations against him.
Watch Collins’s comments below, via ABC News:
. @SenatorCollins says she did not support Trump in part because of allegations of sexual misconduct, and that they “remain very disturbing.” pic.twitter.com/o2JnCdmyfC
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) November 19,2017
