Arguing that her critics distorted the meaning of her prepared statement in support of Trump’s trashing of our judicial system, Sen. Collins responded, “I think my statement was crystal clear.” (“Sen. Collins takes heat for echoing Trump’s claims of political prosecution,” Maine Sunday Telegram, June 9.)

Since Sen. Collins is doubling down on her comments, we should review them carefully. Among the most revealing of them is her repetition of the now thoroughly discredited claim that the district attorney who brought the charges “campaigned on a promise to prosecute Donald Trump.” Despite there being no evidence that District Attorney Bragg ever said any such thing, Sen. Collins made the conscious decision to spread the same lie Trump and his other followers have been repeating for months.

It follows, then, that not only are Sen. Collins’ words “crystal clear” but so, too, are her intentions: to help a convicted felon win the election and establish the authoritarian regime he is promising the country.

LeRoy Mottla
Peaks Island