Sen. Susan Collins heckled by protesters at Maine ribbon-cutting event
The Republican senator is one of several politicians who've had to deal with angry protests in recent months.
By Brennan Leach and Dareh Gregorian
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, was heckled and drowned out at times by demonstrators at a ribbon-cutting ceremony in her home state Tuesday, the latest in a series of confrontations between protesters and members of Congress.
"Shame! Shame! Shame!" protesters yelled at Collins as she cut the ribbon to mark the completion of the long-running Route 1 construction project in Searsport.
The demonstrators were yelling about cuts to Medicare, Israeli attacks on Gaza and President Donald Trump's nominees on the Supreme Court, video of the event shows.
"Could you please just listen, for just one ..." Collins said at one point, before she was again interrupted.
"We'd like you to listen!" one of the demonstrators yelled, while another chastised Collins for not holding any town halls with constituents.
At another point, Collins, said: "I have a suggestion. Would you listen to the suggestion?"
"Vote Graham Platner!" one of the protesters offered, referring to a Democrat running for Collins' seat.
Collins tried reasoning with the crowd, asking them to let her “get through this brief ceremony,” before being interrupted again.
Collins, a moderate Republican and sometime Trump critic, gestured to the organizers behind her and asked the crowd to show them respect. One of the demonstrators yelled that they did respect them but that “we don’t respect you!” a video of the protest posted to TikTok by a user who goes by the handle @HikeMaineWithMe shows.
Collins told NBC affiliate WCSH/WLBZ later in the day that she had met and spoken with some of the protesters on her way out.
“Demonstrators seem to be part of the political world nowadays,” Collins said.
“It was interesting to see how much misinformation they had.”
Collins' office did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
Protests and demonstrations against elected members of Congress in recent months have led some politicians on both sides of the aisle to cancel town halls or avoid them altogether.
Two of those who bucked that trend were Republican Reps. Mark Alford of Missouri and Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma, who held town halls in their districts Monday.
Both got into heated exchanges with constituents over Trump's decision to deploy the National Guard in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles.
Attendees engaged in shouted exchanges with one another and with Alford at his event in Harrisonville, at times making it difficult for him to answer questions uninterrupted.
Brecheen got into an extended back-and-forth with a person at his event over the deployment, eventually telling him to leave. "You're not going to continue to be selfish," Brecheen said.
I would say misinformation in a republican's ear would likely be the truth to the rest of us.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congre ... rcna227510
