Thread by @atrupar

Ahead of @SenatorCollins' speech on the Senate floor, protesters chant "believe women!" from the gallery

COLLINS is using her speech to criticize opponents of Kavanaugh as "frenzied," "spreading outright falsehoods," and representing "special interest groups."

COLLINS: "The president has broad discretion to consider a nominee's philosophy, whereas my duty as a senator is to focus on the nominee's qualifications as long as that nominee's philosophy is within the mainstream."

It sure sounds like she is going to announce a yes vote.

BOOKMARK THIS: "One concern that I frequently heard is that judge [Kavanaugh] would be likely to eliminate the Affordable Care Act's vital protections for people with preexisting conditions. I disagree with this contention."

.@SenatorCollins is gaslighting. She says people who support coverage for people with preexisting conditions "should want a Justice" like Kavanaugh.

Collins says she has no concerns about Kavanaugh's writings indicating he thinks the president should be above the law, because Bill Clinton.

Collins is out here making a case that Kavanaugh is some sort of secret liberal who supports marriage equality and believes Congress should be a check on the executive

Collins wants you to ignore Kavanaugh's entire record and take a leap of faith that he'll vote to uphold abortion rights. She seems to think he's actually progressive but just isn't self-aware about it yet.

COLLINS: "Opponents frequently cite candidate Donald Trump's campaign pledge to nominate judges that would overturn Roe. The Republican platform for all presidential campaigns has included this pledge since at least 1980!"

Oh gee thanks @SenatorCollins that's reassuring!!!!

COLLINS: "I asked the Judge point blank whether he had made any commitments to anyone at the White House, the Federalist Society, to any outside group on how he would decide cases. He unequivocally assured me he had not."

@SenatorCollins can't really be this naive, can she?

COLLINS: "That Judge Kavanaugh is more of a centrist than some of his critics maintain is reflected in the fact that he and Chief Judge Merrick Garland voted the same way in 93% of the cases that they heard together."

Finally getting around to Dr Ford's sexual assault allegation against Kavanaugh, @SenatorCollins argues that even though he wasn't on trial, he still deserves "the presumption of innocence."

Collins uses Julie Swetnick's allegation against Kavanaugh to deflect from Dr Ford's sexual assault allegation

Collins says she said found Dr Ford's testimony "compelling," but doesn't believe there's enough evidence to draw the conclusion that Kavanaugh is guilty of anything

COLLINS is trying to poke holes in Ford's testimony: "She testified that although she does not remember how she got home that evening, she knew she got a ride. Yet nobody has come forward to say that they were the ones that drove her home or were in the car with her that night."

Collins claims Dr Ford's accusation does not meet the "threshold of more likely than not" that she just made up.

She still wants you to know that she takes sexual assault allegations seriously though!

COLLINS: "I have been alarmed and disturbed that some people have suggested that unless Kavanaugh is rejected, the Senate is somehow condoning sexual assault. Nothing could be further from the truth... The #MeToo movement is real. It matters."

.@SenatorCollins shamefully suggests Ford is actually a victim of a left-wing conspiracy: "Watching her, I could not help but feel that some people who wanted to engineer the defeat of this nomination cared little, if at all, for her well-being."

What a joke.

COLLINS, SHORTER: Sure, sexual assault is bad, but the real villain here is whoever leaked Dr. Ford's letter detailing her sexually assault allegation against Kavanaugh to the media!

COLLINS makes a plea for #civility.

(Who wants to tell her about the president she's enabling?)

.@SenatorCollins concludes on this entirely absurd note: "My fervent hope is that Brett Kavanaugh will work to lessen the divisions on the Supreme Court... I will vote to confirm."

At no point during her ~45 minute speech did @SenatorCollins address the perjury Kavanaugh appeared to commit when he lied about his heavy drinking and high school antics 🤔

With exception of Clarence Thomas, all of the Justices in SCOTUS’ conservative majority were nominated by Republicans who lost the popular vote. #democracy

shot, chaser