Collins complained that “everybody ignores” her vote to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial.
“What bigger break could there be?” she asked. “It is never enough.”
While Collins touted her breaks with Trump, she was also a pivotal vote for key parts of his agenda. She provided a decisive vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018, despite sexual assault allegations that he denied. And though she voted against Trump’s Medicaid-cutting “Big Beautiful Bill” on final passage, she was a key vote to advance debate on it.
She absolutely was not the deciding vote. That would have meant 66 other senators voted to remove him from office. The final votes on the 2 counts were 48 and 47 (with Romney voting in favor of removal from office of the abuse of power charge but not the obstruction of Congress charge).
Changing the outcome would have required 20 total Republicans to flip. Collins changing her vote would still have left them 18 votes shy.