President-elect Donald Trump announced Thursday that he would appoint Doug Collins to lead the Veterans Affairs Department in his new administration. Here are five things to know about the former Republican congressman from Georgia who would lead the agency tasked with providing health care to former members of the U.S. armed forces: Collins is a Baptist minister who has served in the Navy and Air Force Reserve Collins, 58, holds a master’s degree in divinity from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and pastored a church for 11 years. He served as a U.S. Navy chaplain for two years in the late 1980s. After the Sept. 11 attacks, he joined the U.S. Air Force Reserve as a chaplain. Collins deployed to Balad Air Force Base in Iraq for five months in 2008. He remains a colonel in the Air Force Reserve. Collins became a lawyer well into adulthood. Collins’ political career was shaped representing one of Georgia’s most conservative regions Collins was elected to the Georgia state House in 2007 and served three two-year terms. He was a floor leader for Gov. Nathan Deal, a fellow northeast Georgian, for one of those terms, helping to broker a budget cut that kept Georgia’s lottery-funded HOPE Scholarship program going at a time when leaders feared it would go bankrupt and not be able to pay promised college tuition for all beneficiaries. Collins won a seat in Congress in 2012 representing northeast Georgia’s 9th Congressional District, one of the most Republican districts in the country. The former incumbent, Tom Graves, was drawn into a new northwest Georgia district when the state added a 14th congressional seat because of population growth. Despite his right-wing positions, Collins faced serious primary challenges in 2016 from other Republicans who claimed he wasn’t conservative enough. While in Congress, Collins rose to vice chair of the House Republican Conference, the fifth-highest post in GOP leadership. Collins rose to national notice defending Trump in the Mueller probe Collins acquired a national reputation while defending Trump as the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee during the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into whether Russia improperly influenced Trump’s 2016 election victory. Collins wrote a book about Trump’s first impeachment over allegations that he improperly withheld military aid from Ukraine in order to push Ukraine into announcing an investigation into Joe Biden, who went on to beat Trump in 2020. That book, “The Clock and the Calendar,” argued that Democrats were impeaching Trump to get revenge for him beating Hillary Clinton in 2016 and to prevent him from being reelected in 2020. “From the very moment that the majority party in this House won, the inevitability that we would be here today was only a matter of what date they would schedule it. Nothing else,” Collins said on the House floor in 2019 when representatives were debating before voting to impeach Trump. Trump wanted Collins appointed to the U.S. Senate Trump was displeased when Collins was not appointed to the U.S. Senate in 2019 when incumbent Republican Johnny Isakson stepped down because of health problems. Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp instead decided to appoint Kelly Loeffler, but not before a frantic last-minute push by anti-abortion groups and people close to Trump to undermine Loeffler’s appointment. Collins ran for Senate anyway, finishing third in an all-party special election in November 2020 in which he was

CNN said Kaitlan Collins will host a new hourlong show at the center of the prime-time lineup, filling a slot left vacant since the firing of Chris Cuomo and as the network’s ratings are at a low ebb. Collins will begin regularly hosting the 9 p.m. Eastern show next month, the network said Wednesday, making the announcement during a Warner Discovery sales presentation to advertisers. The ex-White House correspondent moderated CNN’s town hall with former President Donald Trump last week, but was generally held blameless for criticism the event received. “She is a smart and gifted journalist who we’ve all seen hold lawmakers and newsmakers accountable,” CNN Chairman Chris Licht said in a memo to staff members. “She pushes politicians off their talking points, gets real answers — and as everyone who’s worked with her knows — breaks a lot of news.” It’s the biggest move by Licht, who became CNN’s leader last year, to put his imprint on the prime-time lineup, which has lagged far behind Fox News and MSNBC in viewership. In continuing Collins’ meteoric rise at CNN, Licht has something in common with his predecessor Jeff Zucker, who noticed and hired Collins full-time based on her occasional guest appearances on CNN. Collins had been working for The Daily Caller, a conservative website launched by Tucker Carlson. Licht had named Collins to host a revamped morning show with Poppy Harlow and Don Lemon that began last November. With Lemon fired and Collins elevated, Harlow will work with guest anchors until morning changes are announced in the months ahead, Licht said in his memo. CNN has rotated guest hosts in the evening since December 2021, when Cuomo was fired after the network said he was not forthcoming about help offered to his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. At the time, Cuomo hosted CNN’s top-rated show. The network has struggled to gain traction without him. On Monday, for example, CNN averaged 454,000 viewers in the time slot, compared to Rachel Maddow’s 2.41 million viewers on MSNBC and Sean Hannity’s 1.97 million on Fox, the Nielsen company said. Last Friday, with Anderson Cooper on duty for a second hour at 9 p.m. and reaching an audience of 293,000, CNN slipped behind the conservative Newsmax network and host Chris Plante’s “Right Squad” in viewership, Nielsen said. CNN last month announced the pairing of Charles Barkley and Gayle King for another prime-time show starting later this year, although that will be once a week. To the advertisers, CNN tried to increase anticipation by showing clips of King and Barkley. “She’s going to be a straight shooter,” Barkley said. “You know I’m going to be a straight shooter.” In his appearance, Licht emphasized CNN’s newsgathering and said it was more important now than ever. “We prioritize reporting over punditry and separate the news from the noise,” he said. (AP)

Donald Trump’s town hall forum on CNN on Wednesday is the first major television event of the 2024 presidential campaign — and a gigantic test for the chosen moderator, Kaitlan Collins. Both sides of the political divide expressed suspicion when the CNN forum at New Hampshire’s St. Anselm College was announced last week. Some Democrats question whether the former president should be given the airtime, while Republicans wonder if a network Trump has long disparaged can be fair. Once it begins, Collins must give audience members the chance to ask questions while determining when to step in with her own. She’ll weigh how to correct misinformation in a potentially hostile environment: Invited town hall participants are those who expect to vote in a Republican primary. “It’s a balance beam and it can be walked,” said Frank Sesno, a former CNN Washington bureau chief now at George Washington University. “We’re going to see if Kaitlan is worthy of the Olympics.” CNN would not make Collins available to talk before the event, scheduled for 8 p.m. Wednesday. It speaks to Collins’ stature that she was given the assignment at a network with no shortage of experienced political journalists — Dana Bash, Anderson Cooper, Jake Tapper, Chris Wallace. She worked at The Daily Caller, the conservative website launched by Tucker Carlson, before turning occasional guest appearances on CNN into a full-time job in 2017. She covered the Trump White House and became CNN’s chief White House correspondent in 2021. She moved to New York late last year for a co-hosting role on “CNN This Morning.” For the 31-year-old Collins, now in the mix for a role on CNN’s prime-time lineup, Wednesday’s event may also be an important audition. “She has had a pretty meteoric rise at a young age because of her talent,” said Maggie Haberman, New York Times correspondent and author of the Trump biography “Confidence Man.” “She was a formidable White House correspondent, always calm under pressure, but she is also incredibly fair and facts-focused.” Collins had her run-ins with the Trump White House. She was barred from a Rose Garden event in 2018 when the Trump team got upset with her shouted questions in the Oval Office earlier in the day. She has fact-checked on the fly as a morning anchor. “That’s not true, Senator,” she said to Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida recently when he made a claim about President Joe Biden and Medicare spending on “CNN This Morning.” Alyssa Farah Griffin, once on Trump’s communications team and now a panelist on “The View,” tweeted after the forum was announced that Collins “is one of the toughest interviews out there. Anyone thinking that Trump will get away with lying without being called out needs to watch her past interviews. Honestly surprised he agreed.” Remarkably, it’s Trump’s first appearance for a CNN interview since before he was elected president in 2016. Since announcing his 2024 candidacy, he’s generally confined himself to television interviews with outlets that appeal to conservatives. During his presidency, Trump continually attacked CNN as “fake news.” CNN’s reputation among Republicans sunk, and although the network’s new management has sought to inhabit more of a middle ground politically, it’s an uphill battle among his supporters. “It’s obvious to everyone with half a brain that Trump won’t get

Gov. Brian Kemp on Thursday endorsed Mike Collins in Georgia’s 10th Congressional District runoff, a move that once again puts him at odds with former President Donald Trump while helping him settle the score against a former opponent. Kemp is the latest member of the Republican establishment to back Collins, a trucking company owner and son of the late congressman Mac Collins. Collins is running against Vernon Jones, a former primary foe of Kemp’s who has received Trump’s backing. In Georgia’s Republican primary last month, Kemp soundly defeated another Trump-supported candidate: former U.S. Sen. David Perdue. Jones, a longtime Democrat who began backing Trump and switched parties when he left the state House in 2021, abandoned a Republican bid against Kemp to clear the field for Perdue at Trump’s behest. In exchange, Trump endorsed Jones in the 10th District, which covers 18 counties east of Atlanta, including Athens. Collins won 26% of the vote on May 24 and Jones won 22%. Because no one won a majority, state law required a runoff. The winner of Tuesday’s contest will advance to the November general election against the Democratic nominee, also to be decided in a runoff Tuesday between Tabitha Johnson-Green and Jessica Fore. The Jones-Collins winner will be the heavy favorite in this district, which legislators drew to elect a Republican. The seat is open after former U.S. Rep. Jody Hice stepped down in an unsuccessful Trump-backed bid for Georgia secretary of state. Both Jones and Collins have pledged allegiance to Trump, who remains popular among GOP voters. Kemp, who lives in the 10th District, said he would vote for Collins and called on Republicans “to join me in sending a trusted conservative to Washington.” His message echoed themes underscored by Collins, who asserted during his campaign that Jones can’t be trusted because of his long history as a Democrat. Collins also cited numerous allegations that were made against Jones when he was DeKalb County’s elected CEO, including that he handed out construction projects and had an expensive security detail. In addition, a woman claimed Jones raped her in late 2004. She dropped the charges, but never recanted. Jones said the sexual encounter was consensual. Other officials who have endorsed Collins include 11 county sheriffs and 17 state lawmaker, although Jones got the nod from the National Rifle Association. Jones said Kemp’s endorsement was further proof that he’s not the favorite of establishment Republicans. “That’s something to be proud of — not ashamed of — and is exactly why President Trump endorsed me,” Jones said in a statement. “I’m not running for Congress to join the establishment. I’m running for Congress to destroy it.” (AP)

When Republican Sen. Susan Collins had to vote on a Supreme Court justice in 2018, she deliberated under the spotlight for weeks, building suspense that ended with a dramatic floor speech. When she announced her support for President Donald Trump’s nominee, she triggered an onslaught of Democratic anger. On Monday, Collins cast her vote against Trump’s pick without any speech and quickly headed home to Maine to try to save her political career. Collins’ contrasting moves on the Supreme Court nominations of Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett underscore the difficulty for a senator trying to find middle ground in an election in which the battle lines appear starker than ever. Her vote in favor of Kavanaugh rallied Democrats against her and angered some moderate supporters, while her vote against Barrett may not do much to win them back. Throughout the campaign, the four-term senator has had to fight off accusations that her years in Washington have changed her and that she puts Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the GOP over the interests of regular Mainers. “I was taught to give back to my community, to serve others and to act with integrity. That’s what I’ve always done,” Collins told The Associated Press. “I certainly have not changed.” But Maine and American politics are changing. The state known for its fierce independent spirit as much as its lighthouses and lobsters is becoming less so, and Democrats, not independents, now comprise the biggest voting bloc. Throw in a well-funded opponent, along with a polarizing president, and the last Republican member of Congress from New England finds herself battling for her political survival. Collins’ Democratic rival, Sara Gideon, the speaker of the Maine House, called the senator’s vote against Barrett “nothing more than a political calculation.” Collins’ spokesperson fired back by accusing Gideon of making “a craven political calculation seven months ago when she shut down the Legislature to focus on her campaign.” Polls show an extremely close race despite more than $120 million allocated for ads by the candidates and their allies. And the money is still pouring into the race, one of a handful that could decide which party controls the Senate. Losing the fundraising battle, Collins is focusing on her message that she’s an experienced, bipartisan senator who’s in line to become chair of the appropriations committee, which directs all federal spending. That would be in stark contrast, she said, to a “rookie” senator. Gideon is using the latest battle over a Supreme Court nominee to remind voters that Collins backed most of Trump’s judicial nominees, resulting in a rightward shift in the judiciary. She’s also attacking Collins’ vote for Trump’s tax cuts that she says favored the rich over working-class Mainers. Gideon said for all of Collins’ talk about seniority, she doesn’t have much influence in her caucus, as demonstrated in her inability to stop the vote on Barrett. Collins, who has never missed a vote, said she voted against Barrett out of fairness to Democrats, who were denied an election-year vote on then-President Barack Obama’s nominee in 2016. “It doesn’t seem like her seniority has much influence in her caucus, or that ability to bring things home for Mainers,” Gideon said. Collins easily won her last election, and it was just a couple of years

It’s so on brand for Sen. Susan Collins to be in a pressure cooker over how she’ll vote in a showdown riveting the nation. This time, it’s unclear how the battle over President Donald Trump’s effort to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court will affect the Maine Republican’s bid for a fifth term. It comes six weeks from an Election Day when Trump might lose and Democrats could win Senate control, and it’s further complicating perhaps her toughest reelection race. A day after Ginsburg, 87, succumbed to cancer, Collins said Saturday that Ginsburg’s replacement should be nominated “by the President who is elected on November 3rd.” She said the Senate shouldn’t vote until after the election. She told reporters Tuesday she’d oppose any Trump pick if the vote occurs before Election Day, not because of the nominee but out of fairness. She cited Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s 2016 decision to block President Barack Obama’s effort to fill a court vacancy that occurred nine months before Election Day, claiming the next president should make the selection. Ginsburg died 47 days before the coming election. “I now think we need to play by the same set of rules,” Collins said. Collins and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski are the only GOP senators to say they’d vote no, not enough to derail a nomination in the Republican-run chamber. But for Collins, 67, a no vote could risk support she’ll need in her reelection from conservative Republicans demanding fealty to Trump. At the same time, she can’t afford to alienate independents and cross-over Democrats who value moderation. If the Senate’s Supreme Court vote occurs before Election Day, Collins’ position will be magnified as an issue in her race. Even if it doesn’t, her stance will be high on voters’ minds. “It ties her into a pretzel,” said Dan Eberhart, a major GOP donor to Trump and Senate candidates, though not directly to Collins. “She needs the base, but she also needs the center or she will lose.” Trump plans to announce his selection Saturday. McConnell, R-Ky., has said the Senate will vote this year but hasn’t specified when. Democrats hope the nomination fight will remind liberal voters of Collins’ support for Trump’s controversial last Supreme Court pick, Justice Brett Kavanaugh. It might also focus progressives on how abortion rights and President Barack Obama’s health care law could be threatened by a conservative-dominated Supreme Court. The justices plan to hear arguments on a GOP effort to annul the health care law the week after Election Day. Collins’ Democratic opponent, Sara Gideon, began airing a TV ad Tuesday saying “our children and our grandchildren” will be affected by Trump judicial nominees the McConnell-led Senate is rubber-stamping. “We have to change the people who make him majority leader. That includes Sen. Susan Collins,” Gideon says. Until Tuesday, Collins’ carefully worded statements hadn’t specified how she’d vote if McConnell forced the issue. “People don’t know what she stands for,” said Lauren Passalacqua, spokeswoman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the party’s Senate political arm. She also cited Collins’ refusal to say if she’ll vote this year for Trump, with whom she’s had a fraught relationship. Republicans say Collins’ stance illustrates an independence that Maine voters have long prized. “Our state and our country

The first member of Congress to endorse Donald Trump to be president was sentenced Friday to two years and two months in federal prison after admitting he helped his son and others dodge $800,000 in stock market losses when he learned that a drug trial by a small pharmaceutical company had failed. Ex-Congressman Christopher Collins, 69, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Vernon S. Broderick in Manhattan after the Republican pleaded guilty in October to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and lying to law enforcement officials. Collins broke down and apologized to his family and his former constituents and colleagues. “I stand here today as a disgraced former member of Congress,” he said. “My life has been shattered.” The sentence came even after Collins’ lawyers argued he was sorry and should face no prison time in the insider trading case. Prosecutors, however, argued he should go to prison for nearly five years. They said Collins and his son, Cameron, were worth a total of $35 million when they conspired to sell shares in a pharmaceutical company before devastating news was made public. The trading, prosecutors said, enabled Cameron Collins and friends to dodge $800,000 in losses. Collins’ attorneys requested leniency, citing his contrition, advanced age, charitable works and a low chance that he would commit any more crimes. “This is a sad and tragic day for Chris and his family,” defense attorney Jonathan Barr said. “He stands before you humbled, penitent and remorseful.” Collins had been a vocal Trump supporter, becoming the first member of Congress to endorse him as a presidential candidate. He also called for an end to special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into possible campaign collusion and blamed former President Barack Obama’s administration for failing to push back on Russia. He vehemently denied wrongdoing when he was charged in 2018, with a spokeswoman calling a House Ethics Committee inquiry into Collins a “ partisan witch hunt.” When he spoke Friday, he fought back tears and displayed the Boy Scout’s three-fingered sign, breaking down several times as he spoke about the scout code he violated, including a vow to be trustworthy, and his family. “I violated my core values and there is no excuse, none whatsoever,” he said, looking at members of the media seated in the jury box during much of his remarks. “My life has been shattered. My reputation has been shattered. Worst, my family has been shattered,” he said. He added that he was in a “dark, dark place,” wondering how to go on when his daughter pleaded with him to recover. “I climbed out of the hole because of her,” he said as his wife and daughter, who fought tears of their own. Collins had represented western New York since his election to the state’s 27th Congressional District in 2012. He resigned when he decided to plead guilty to a single conspiracy count, leaving the district’s constituents without representation in Congress. “Lawmakers bear the profound privilege and responsibility of writing and passing laws, but equally as important, the absolute obligation of following them,” Geoffrey Berman, the Manhattan U.S. attorney, said in a statement. “Collins’ hubris is a stark reminder that the people of New York can and should demand more from their elected officials, and that no matter how powerful, no lawmaker is above

Former Rep. Chris Collins pleaded guilty Tuesday in an insider trading case, a day after he resigned from Congress and set off a scramble to fill his seat in his Republican-leaning district. Collins had initially denied charges he leaked confidential information about a pharmaceutical company and was set to go to trial next year in federal court in Manhattan on conspiracy, securities fraud and other charges. But on Monday, the Republican from western New York withdrew his not guilty plea and resigned from Congress. After his plea Tuesday, Collins expressed regret and said he had failed his constituents. Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 17. He faces more than four years in prison. With Collins’ departure, it will be up to Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo to set a special election to replace him. The governor said in radio interview Tuesday that the timing remains uncertain for an election that’s expected to now draw even more candidates to an already crowded field. “The question is, when can I do it?” Cuomo said. “But sooner rather than later is my inclination.” The case against the 69-year-old Collins stemmed from his business dealings with Innate Immunotherapeutics Ltd., a biotechnology company headquartered in Australia. He was the company’s largest shareholder and sat on its board. According to the indictment, Collins was attending the Congressional Picnic at the White House in 2017 when he received an email from the company’s chief executive saying that a drug developed to treat multiple sclerosis had proven to be a clinical failure. The next morning, according to the indictment, Cameron Collins began selling his shares, unloading enough over a two-day period to avoid $570,900 in losses before a public announcement of the drug trial results. After the announcement, the company’s stock price plunged 92%. Cameron Collins is accused of passing along the information to his fiancée’s father, so he could also dump his stock, avoiding nearly $800,000 in losses. The son is expected to plead guilty Thursday. Before Collins’ resignation, three Republicans had launched campaigns since the spring while others had said they were waiting to see whether Collins would seek another term. The declared Republicans are attorney and former judge Beth Parlato, state Sen. Christopher Jacobs, a former New York secretary of state and Erie County clerk, and state Sen. Robert Ortt, a veteran and former North Tonawanda mayor. Meanwhile, an effort to recruit Medal of Honor recipient David Bellavia to run has been underway for months, led by Republican strategist Michael Caputo, who advised President Donald Trump’s campaign. The Iraq war hero ran for Congress in 2012 and lost to Collins in the Republican primary. Bellavia has not said whether he will enter the race. For the Democrats, Nate McMurray, whom Collins narrowly defeated in 2018, already had committed to a rematch. (AP)

A spokeswoman for Sen. Susan Collins says the envelope a letter writer said contained deadly ricin was addressed to the senator’s husband. Collins’ husband, Thomas Daffron, told WCSH-TV and WLBZ-TV that he saw the letter while walking the dog. He says he saw the word “ricin” and then returned the letter to the envelope, sealed it in a plastic bag and dialed 911. A hazardous materials team responded Monday, and the FBI said preliminary tests indicated there was no threat to the public. The couple stayed in the Bangor home. Collins and her staff have been subjected to threats over her vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Daffron said Tuesday that if civility isn’t restored, “it’s going to be very difficult for this country to function.” (AP)

A hazardous materials team was called Monday to investigate a suspicious letter sent to the home of Republican Sen. Susan Collins, police officials said. Police and fire vehicles were parked outside her home, and several people in hazmat suits were seen entering the home. Yellow police tape was wrapped around the perimeter of the property. The senator’s husband, Thomas Daffron, was at home but Collins wasn’t there at the time. “Her husband is at the house now, and she’s on her way home,” said Annie Clark, spokeswoman for Collins. Critics have vowed that Collins will for voting to confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. But it was unclear who sent the letter or why. Bangor Police Sgt. Wade Betters said that the public isn’t believed to be in any danger. Contents of the letter were being analyzed by law enforcement officials. Further questions were referred to the Capitol Police Department in Washington, D.C. (AP)

Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine isn’t up for re-election until 2020, but critics vowed Saturday she’ll pay a political price for voting for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Collins, meanwhile, insisted she “will not be intimidated.” Crowdpac tweeted that it’s secured pledges for more than $3 million for Collins’ future opponent. “We’re taking back Maine’s Senate seat, and claiming it for someone who knows how to listen to her constituents,” tweeted Mainers for Accountable Leadership, which organized protests at Collins’ office. Collins said Saturday that crowdsourced funding targeting her was tantamount to “a bribe, or extortion.” “I did not do any kind of political calculation in making my decision. I have to apply my best judgment. I cannot weigh the political consequences. In this case it was obvious there were going to be people very angry at me no matter what I did. I have to do what I think is right, and that’s what I did,” she told WCSH-TV. Saturday’s vote for Kavanaugh was 50-48. So far, no serious contender has stepped forward to challenge the only Republican senator from New England, who has found herself among a dwindling number of GOP centrists. But Republicans are aware that her position could make her vulnerable. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Collins is a “top priority” when he was asked Saturday if she could be targeted by Democrats in 2020. Collins was viewed as a potential swing vote for a Supreme Court nominee whose path to confirmation was shaken by misconduct allegations made by three women including Christine Blasey Ford. Kavanaugh denied the accusations. In the end, Collins said she found Ford’s allegation of assault “sincere, painful and compelling” but said that absent any corroborating evidence she could not allow that to be the basis for voting against a nominee she thought was otherwise qualified. “We still have in this country certain fundamental principles, due process, fairness, a presumption of innocence,” she said. While her vote spurred criticism, Collins was cheered by Republicans including current and former presidents. In Washington, President Donald Trump said Saturday that he thought Collins was “incredible” and that she “gave an impassioned, beautiful speech.” Former President George H.W. Bush tweeted support for Collins from Kennebunkport, praising her before the final vote for “political courage and class.” Democrats, however, are incensed. Diane Russell, a Democratic activist, said Collins voted to “betray Maine women and Maine survivors” by ignoring their stories. “There is a special place in hell for women who cover for rapists,” she said in an email blast after the vote. Collins ruefully noted it appears some women are turning on her after she’s been a reliable advocate for women for 22 years in the Senate. “It’s certainly been a difficult situation,” she said of the hard feelings over the Kavanaugh nomination. She called it “the most difficult in the 22 years that I’ve been honored to represent the state of Maine in the Senate.” (AP)

Indicted U.S. Rep. Chris Collins of New York will remain on the November ballot despite previously suspending his campaign, confounding Republican Party leaders in his district Monday who had counted on Collins’ cooperation to replace him. The surprise decision by Collins, who pleaded not guilty to insider trading charges in August, throws the race for the western New York seat further into turmoil. Erie County GOP Chairman Nick Langworthy said Collins confirmed his plans to him Monday morning, suggesting in a phone call that removing himself from the ballot could undermine his legal defense. “As of last Monday, Mr. Collins was fully prepared to work with party officials to substitute himself from the ballot, so we had no reason to expect this,” said Langworthy, who said he felt “a little bit like a jilted groom at the altar.” In a statement later, Collins’ attorney Mark Braden said: “Because of the protracted and uncertain nature of any legal effort to replace Congressman Collins we do not see a path allowing Congressman Collins to be replaced on the ballot.” There was no immediate comment from Collins, and it was not clear whether he would actively campaign. Collins, an early and ardent supporter of President Donald Trump, has a $1.3 million campaign war chest. Since his indictment, Republican leaders across the eight counties of the right-leaning district between Buffalo and Rochester had been working to remove Collins from the congressional ballot by making him a place-holding nominee for another position such as county clerk. They were expected to announce their choice to replace Collins on the congressional ballot as early as this week. Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez happened to be in the Buffalo area Monday for the opening of the campaign headquarters of Nate McMurray, who is running for Collins’ seat. As about 150 supporters gathered for the event in Hamburg, news of the Republican’s decision to stay on the ballot was spreading via mobile phone news feeds. After addressing the crowd, Perez, who was critical of the plans to substitute Collins off the ballot, said: “Everything he’s doing right now is a fraud.” McMurray, town supervisor in suburban Grand Island, downplayed any impact on the race. “We were always running against team Collins. It’s not just him, it’s the system. … We’re fighting against corruption, and that corruption is top-down. It’s a team of people who said, ‘This man is our standard bearer,’” McMurray said. Immediately after being charged in August with illegally using inside information about a biotech company to help his son avoid hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses, Collins said at a news conference that he would continue his re-election campaign while fighting the charges. Less than a week later, he announced he was ending his campaign, saying it was in the best interests of his constituents, the Republican Party and Trump’s agenda. He confirmed that position during a television interview a week ago. (AP)

Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine says she may change her vote on the GOP tax overhaul if her amendments are not included in the final measure. She tells WABI-TV she won’t make a final decision until she sees what comes out of a conference committee. Collins joined the majority in a 51-49 vote, after her amendments on property tax and medical expense deductions were included. She says she also secured a promise from House and Senate leaders to remove the threat of a 4 percent cut to Medicare. Collins is facing criticism in her home state over the tax plan that would provide steep tax cuts for businesses and more modest tax breaks for families and individuals. On Thursday, police arrested nine protesters at her Portland office. (AP)

John John A Senate Intelligence Committee member says Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman and the former Democratic Party head need to explain what they knew about a dossier of allegations about President Donald Trump’s ties to Russia. Maine Sen. Susan Collins says the committee should further question John Podesta and Debbie Wasserman Schultz following disclosures last week that the Clinton campaign and DNC helped fund research that ended up in the dossier. Collins tells CBS’ ‘Face the Nation” that “it’s difficult to imagine” that Podesta didn’t know about the funding. Podesta and Wasserman Schultz last month denied knowledge about payments when interviewed by congressional investigators. Sitting next to Podesta was his attorney Marc Elias, who worked for the law firm that brokered funding, CNN reported. Collins says Elias should also be questioned. (AP)

A key moderate Republican urged President Donald Trump on Sunday to back a bipartisan Senate effort to shield consumers from rising premiums after his abrupt decision to halt federal payments to insurers, calling the move “disruptive” and an immediate threat to access to health care. “What the president is doing is affecting people’s access and the cost of health care right now,” said Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who has cast pivotal votes on health care in the narrowly divided Senate. “This is not a bailout of the insurers. What this money is used for is to help low-income people afford their deductibles and their co-pays.” “Congress needs to step in and I hope that the president will take a look at what we’re doing,” she added. Her comments reflected an increasing focus Sunday on the bipartisan Senate effort led by Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., to at least temporarily reinstate the payments to avoid immediate turmoil in the insurance market, even as Trump signaled he wouldn’t back a deal without getting something he wants in return. The payments will be stopped beginning this week, with sign-up season for subsidized private insurance set to start Nov. 1. “The president is not going to continue to throw good money after bad, give $7 billion to insurance companies unless something changes about Obamacare that would justify it,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who golfed with Trump Saturday at the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia. “It’s got to be a good deal,” Graham said. In his decision last week, Trump derided the $7 billion in subsidies as bailouts to insurers and suggested he was trying to get Democrats to negotiate and agree to a broader effort to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama’s health care law, a bid that repeatedly crashed in the GOP-run Senate this summer. The payments seek to lower out-of-pocket costs for insurers, which are required under Obama’s law to reduce poorer people’s expenses — about 6 million people. To recoup the lost money, carriers are likely to raise 2018 premiums for people buying their own health insurance policies. Alexander and Murray have been seeking a deal that the Tennessee Republican has said would reinstate the payments for two years. In exchange, Alexander said, Republicans want “meaningful flexibility for states” to offer lower-cost insurance policies with less coverage than Obama’s law mandates. Still, congressional Republicans are divided over that effort. White House budget director Mick Mulvaney has suggested that Trump may oppose any agreement unless he gets something he wants — such as a repeal of Obamacare or funding of Trump’s promised wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. On Sunday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., described Trump’s demand for a sit-down with congressional Democratic leaders as “a little far down the road.” She noted the bipartisan effort in the Senate and said ultimately it will be up to a Republican-controlled Congress and executive branch whether the federal government can avert a shutdown by year’s end. The government faces a Dec. 8 deadline on the debt limit and government spending. “We’re not about closing down government. The Republicans have the majority,” Pelosi said. “In terms of the health care, we’re saying ‘Let’s follow what Sen. Murray and Alexander are doing.” Collins praised the Senate effort

Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins announced Friday that she won’t run for governor because she believes she can do more good by remaining in Washington, where she serves as an important swing vote. Her announcement was welcomed by supporters who view her as an important check on President Donald Trump, with whom she’s crossed on the GOP’s health care proposal. “My voice and vote really matter in Washington right now. The Senate is closely divided and I am able to make a difference,” Collins, 64, told The Associated Press after a local chamber breakfast. Speculation about Collins’ political future has been swirling for more than a year in her home state, where the moderate remains popular even as the Maine GOP has become more conservative. Collins acknowledged it was a difficult decision, one that she’d struggled over. The only Republican senator from New England has found herself among a dwindling number of GOP centrists like Arizona’s John McCain who are willing to work across the aisle. But she’s not afraid to buck her own party: She introduced a bill to let transgender people serve in the military and opposed efforts to kill the Affordable Care Act without a replacement. In Washington, she’s been a consistent thorn in the side of Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, as her willingness to go her own way has left him short of votes on key bills, most prominently his efforts to repeal “Obamacare.” On Friday, McConnell praised Collins for choosing to remain in the Senate, saying she “brings conviction, smarts and leadership to every issue.” Maine’s other senator, independent Angus King who caucuses with the Democrats, called her “a champion for the state of Maine.” Collins spent much of her announcement touting the importance of finding bipartisan solutions to make health care affordable for all. She said her fellow lawmakers “must stop allowing partisanship to be a pre-existing condition.” Collins was one of three Republican senators who sunk the Republican Senate health care bill. She also serves key roles on the Appropriations Committee and on the Intelligence Committee, which is investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. She’s embraced her role as a centrist who bridges the gap and will keep that role in a Senate that’s likely to remain bitterly divided as ever in the years ahead. “When you’re in the center, you expect that you’re going to get attacked from both the far left and the far right, and I certainly have been,” she said. “But there are still people on both sides of the aisle on specific issues who are willing to come together in the middle.” Her decision will likely free more gubernatorial candidates who have been waiting on the sidelines to enter the race. Republican Gov. Paul LePage cannot run again because of term limits. The gubernatorial race is already a crowded field, with more than a dozen members of the Republican and Democratic parties having announced primary runs. If she’d chosen to run for governor, Collins said, she was confident she could have won the GOP primary and the general election, despite LePage’s criticisms that she’s not conservative enough. She dismissed LePage’s complaints, saying he didn’t have an impact on her decision. Collins said most Americans are moderates like herself — and need to speak up

Sen. Susan Collins on Sunday all but closed the door to supporting last-ditch Republican health care bill, leaving her party’s drive to uproot President Barack Obama’s health care law dangling by an increasingly slender thread. Already two GOP senators, Rand Paul of Kentucky and John McCain of Arizona, have said they would vote against the legislation, and if Collins, a Maine moderate, were to join them, the bill would die. All Democratic senators oppose the measure, so “no” votes from three of the 52 GOP senators would kill the plan. “It’s very difficult for me to envision a scenario where I would end up voting for this bill,” Collins said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” A showdown vote would have to occur this week for Republicans to have any chance of prevailing. When September ends, Republicans will lose procedural protections that have prevented Democrats from killing the legislation by filibuster — meaning there is a window through month’s end for passage with 51 votes, which could include Vice President Mike Pence as a tie-breaker. Collins’ all but certain opposition leaves the White House and party leaders with one immediate option: trying to change at least one of the opponents’ minds. Collins and other Republicans have said leaders are considering changing the bill to attract votes. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, has yet to decide how she’ll vote. She voted against earlier versions of the bill this summer. Murkowski has said she wants to see how the measure would affect her state, which has extremely high medical costs because of the remoteness of many communities. The measure would repeal much of Obama’s 2010 health care overhaul and shift money and decision-making power to the states. Collins said she was troubled by the bill’s cuts in the Medicaid program for low-income people. She expressed concerns that the measure would result in many people losing health coverage and didn’t like a provision that would let states make it easier for insurers to raise premiums on people with pre-existing medical conditions. (AP)

President-elect Donald Trump is filling key posts in his second administration, and it’s shaping up much differently than his first. He’s prioritizing loyalists for top jobs. Trump was bruised and hampered by internal squabbles during his initial term in office. Now he appears focused on remaking the federal government in his own image. Some of his choices could face difficult confirmation battles even with Republicans in control of the U.S. Senate. Here’s a look at whom he has selected so far. Cabinet nominees: SECRETARY OF STATE: Marco Rubio Trump named Florida Sen. Marco Rubio to be secretary of state, making the critic-turned-ally his choice for top diplomat. Rubio, 53, is a noted hawk on China, Cuba and Iran, and was a finalist to be Trump’s running mate on the Republican ticket last summer. Rubio is the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “He will be a strong Advocate for our Nation, a true friend to our Allies, and a fearless Warrior who will never back down to our adversaries,” Trump said of Rubio in a statement. The announcement punctuates the hard pivot Rubio has made with Trump, whom the senator once called a “con man” during his unsuccessful campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. Their relationship improved dramatically while Trump was in the White House. And as Trump campaigned for the presidency a third time, Rubio cheered his proposals. For instance, Rubio, who more than a decade ago helped craft immigration legislation that included a path to citizenship for people in the U.S. illegally, now supports Trump’s plan to use the U.S. military for mass deportations. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Matt Gaetz Trump said Wednesday he will nominate Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz to serve as his attorney general, naming a loyalist in the role of the nation’s top prosecutor. In selecting Gaetz, 42, Trump passed over some of the more established lawyers whose names had been mentioned as being contenders for the job. “Matt will end Weaponized Government, protect our Borders, dismantle Criminal Organizations and Restore Americans’ badly-shattered Faith and Confidence in the Justice Department,” Trump said in a statement. Gaetz resigned from Congress Wednesday night. The House Ethics Committee has been investigating an allegation that Gaetz paid for sex with a 17-year-old, though that probe effectively ended when he resigned. Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing. DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: Tulsi Gabbard Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has been tapped by Trump to be director of national intelligence, another example of Trump prizing loyalty over experience. Gabbard, 43, was a Democratic House member who unsuccessfully sought the party’s 2020 presidential nomination before leaving the party in 2022. She endorsed Trump in August and campaigned often with him this fall, and she’s been accused of echoing Russian propaganda. “I know Tulsi will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our Intelligence Community,” Trump said in a statement. Gabbard, who has served in the Army National Guard for more than two decades, deploying to Iraq and Kuwait, would come to the role as an outsider compared to her predecessor. The current director, Avril Haines, was confirmed by the Senate in 2021 following several years in a number of top national security and intelligence positions. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Pete Hegseth Hegseth, 44, is a co-host of Fox News Channel’s

Headlines from the satirical website the Onion on Thursday: “New Dating Site Suggests People You Already Know But Thought You Were Too Good For.” “Trump Boys Have Slap Fight Over Who Gets to Run Foreign Policy Meetings.” “Here’s Why I Decided to Buy Infowars.” Only one has the ring of truth. Sort of. The bylined author of the Infowars article, Bryce P. Tetraeder, doesn’t actually exist. And the Onion doesn’t plan to invest in business school scholarships for promising cult leaders. But the Onion’s purchase of Alex Jones’ conspiracy-theory-saturated media empire at a bankruptcy auction tied to lawsuits by the families of Sandy Hook shooting victims is very real — an effort to fight falsehoods with funny and a who’d-have-thunk-it development in an already somewhat unbelievable year. An element of doubt was added late Thursday when the judge in Jones’ bankruptcy case ordered a hearing for next week on how the auction was conducted. On Thursday, The Onion immediately shut down Infowars and said it plans to relaunch it in January as a parody of conspiracy theorists. “Our goal in a couple of years is for people to think of Infowars as the funniest and dumbest website that exists,” said Ben Collins, the Onion’s CEO. “It was previously the dumbest website that exists.” It’s the end — at least for now — of a long chapter The purchase, for an undisclosed sum, was backed by Sandy Hook families, who were awarded nearly $1.5 billion in lawsuits against Jones for his false claims that the 2012 shootings at a Connecticut elementary school were a hoax. The new Infowars will be a satire of theories Jones advanced, which themselves were so absurd that they could have seemed satirical if they hadn’t caused real-life harm. The development ends one tentacle of a loose network of podcasters, TikTok influencers and others whose content keeps people perpetually provoked and enraged, Collins said. He called Jones one small character in a universe of fear-based media. “They’ve had a free pass to this point and we don’t think that’s fair,” he said. At the very least, he said, the Onion hopes to return some fun to the Internet to offset years of doomscrolling. In Collins, who once covered misinformation for NBC News, the new venture has a leader uniquely suited to what is being attempted, said Dale Beran, who made this year’s Netflix documentary, “The Anti-Social Network,” about the topic. The Onion, founded as a newspaper in 1988, has gone through several ownership changes and was purchased earlier this year by a group that includes Jeff Lawson, co-founder of the software company Twilio. Since then, Beran said, it “feels like there is new life breathed into it.” Done well, a satirical site on conspiracy theories and those who traffic in them could meet a historical moment much like comedian Stephen Colbert did when his Comedy Central show, “The Colbert Report,” mocked pompous conservative television talk show hosts a decade and more ago. And what will happen when some of Jones’ casual fans who didn’t follow the news of the bankruptcy auction log on to Infowars in a few months only to find the Onion’s new creation? Probably not much, said Beran, who suggested it’s unlikely there’s much overlap between people attracted by conspiracy theories and those who want to mock them. Conspiracy theories abound

This presidential election, the first since the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol, will be a stress test of the new systems and guardrails that Congress put in place to ensure America’s long tradition of the peaceful transfer of presidential power. As Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris race toward the finish, pro-democracy advocates and elected officials are preparing for a volatile period in the aftermath of Election Day, as legal challenges are filed, bad actors spread misinformation and voters wait for Congress to affirm the results. “One of the unusual characteristics of this election is that so much of the potential danger and so many of the attacks on the election system are focused on the post-election period,” said Wendy Weiser, vice president for democracy at the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice. After the Jan. 6 attack, Congress set out to shore up the process and prevent a repeat of that unprecedented period when Trump, joined by some GOP allies in Congress, refused to concede defeat to President Joe Biden. Trump spent months pushing dozens of failed legal cases before sending his supporters to the U.S. Capitol, where they disrupted the electoral count with a bloody riot. He faces a federal indictment for the scheme, which included slates of fake electors from states falsely claiming he won. While the new Electoral Count Reform Act approved by Congress has clarified the post-election processes — to more speedily resolve legal challenges and reinforce that the vice president has no ability to change the election outcome on Jan. 6 — the new law is by no means ironclad. Much depends on the people involved, from the presidential winners and losers to the elected leaders in Congress and the voters across America putting their trust in the democratic system that has stood for more than 200 years. Voters are worried about post-election strife A poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that American voters are approaching the election with deep unease about what could follow. Dick Gephardt, the former House leader, now serves on the executive board of the nonpartisan Keep our Republic, which has been working to provide civic education about the process in the presidential battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. “We are concerned about one thing and one thing only: Can Americans still have valid trust in elections and can we have consistently a peaceful transfer of power in all offices, including the presidency?” Gephardt said in a briefing earlier this month. “January 6th in 2021 was really a wake-up call, I think, for all of us,” he said. It’s not just the onslaught of legal challenges that worries democracy groups, as dozens of cases already have been filed by both Republicans and Democrats even before Election Day. They say the sheer volume of cases has the potential to sow doubt in the election tally and give rise to disinformation, both domestic and foreign, as happened in 2020 when Trump’s legal team unfurled far-flung theories that proved to be wildly inaccurate. As Trump runs to retake the White House, he is already setting the stage for challenges to the election he wants to be “too big to rig.” The Republican National Committee has made legal strategy a cornerstone of its Election Integrity program. Trump is backed by Republicans on Capitol Hill, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has adopted similar language, saying he would accept

RTX Corporation, the defense contractor formerly known as Raytheon, agreed Wednesday to pay more than $950 million to resolve allegations that it defrauded the government and paid bribes to secure business with Qatar. The company entered into deferred prosecution agreements in separate cases in federal court in Brooklyn and Massachusetts, agreed to hire independent monitors to oversee compliance with anti-corruption and anti-fraud laws and must show good conduct for three years. The money the company owes includes penalties in the criminal cases, as well as civil fines, restitution and the return of profits it derived from inflated Defense Department billing and business derived from alleged bribes paid to a high-ranking Qatari military official from 2012 to 2016. The biggest chunk is a $428 million civil settlement for allegedly lying to the government about its labor and material costs to justify costlier no-bid contracts and drive the company’s profits higher, and for double-billing the government on a weapons maintenance contract. The total also includes nearly $400 million in criminal penalties in the Brooklyn case, involving the alleged bribes, and in the Massachusetts case, in which the company was accused of inflating its costs by $111 million for missile systems from 2011 to 2013 and the operation of a radar surveillance system in 2017. RTX also agreed to pay a $52.5 million civil penalty to resolve a parallel Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into the bribery allegations and must forfeit at least $66 million to satisfy both probes. At a hearing in Brooklyn federal court, RTX lawyers waived their right to an indictment and pleaded not guilty to charges that the company violated the anti-bribery provision of the Foreign Corruption Practices Act and the Arms Export Control Act. They did not object to any allegations in court documents filed with the agreement. RTX said in a statement that it is “taking responsibility for the misconduct that occurred” and is “committed to maintaining a world-class compliance program, following global laws, regulations and internal policies, while upholding integrity and serving our customers in an ethical matter.” The various legal resolutions came to light over the span of several hours. First, at the Brooklyn hearing, prosecutors revealed that RTX was to pay a $252 million penalty to resolve criminal charges in the bribery case. Then, court documents hit the docket in Boston showing another criminal penalty of nearly $147 million to resolve the missile and radar case. Finally, hours later, the Justice Department issued a press release putting the total north of $950 million. Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, said in a statement that the resolution of the cases “should serve as a stark warning to companies that violate the law when selling sensitive military technology overseas.” A message seeking comment was left for the Qatari embassy in Washington. RTX said in a July regulatory filing that it set aside $1.24 billion to resolve pending legal and regulatory matters. Its president and CEO, Christopher Calio, told investors that the investigations largely involved issues that predated the Raytheon-United Technologies merger that formed the current company in 2020. “These matters primarily arose out of legacy Raytheon Company and Rockwell Collins prior to the merger and acquisition of these companies,” Calio said. “We’ve already taken robust corrective actions to address the

Safety investigators are making “urgent” recommendations to Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration after determining pedals that pilots use to steer 737 Max jetliners on runways can become jammed because moisture can leak into a rudder assembly and freeze. The National Transportation Safety Board issued the recommendations Thursday following its investigation of an incident earlier this year involving a United Airlines plane. The FAA said United is the only U.S. airline affected by the recommendations, and it believes the parts susceptible to jamming are no longer in use. Collins Aerospace, a Boeing supplier, determined that a sealed bearing was incorrectly assembled on actuators for rudders that pilots adjust to stay in the center of the runway after landing. Collins told Boeing that the faulty work affected at least 353 actuators that were installed on some Max jets and older 737s, according to the NTSB. The NTSB recommended that Boeing change flight manuals to remove advice that pilots use maximum pedal force to overpower a jammed rudder. The NTSB said that could create sudden rudder movement that might cause the plane to go off the runway. The NTSB recommended that the FAA determine if actuators with incorrectly assembled bearings should be removed until replacements are available. On Feb. 6, the rudder pedals on a United Airlines Boeing Max 8 became stuck as the plane rolled down the runway after landing at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey. The captain resorted to steering by using the tiller, a handle in the cockpit that turns the wheel under the plane’s nose. The plane veered on to a high-speed turnoff, but no injuries were reported among the 155 passengers and six crew members. (AP)