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GOP senator not ruling out Clinton vote

by Jesse Byrnes - 06/09/16 6:01 PM ET

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) this week indicated that she’s open to supporting Hillary Clinton over her own party’s presumptive presidential nominee, Donald Trump.

“That’s unlikely, even though we work well,” Collins told MSNBC’s Chuck Todd in an interview broadcast Wednesday evening when asked if she could imagine voting for Clinton.

{mosads}”If she’s elected as president, I’m sure we would work very well together. It is unlikely that I would vote for her. I’m not ruling anything out, but it’s very unlikely,” Collins said.

Collins said in an interview with Time magazine earlier this week that she did not “anticipate” voting for Clinton and reiterated to The New Yorker that it’s “unlikely” she’d vote for the Democratic nominee.”

“I’m not going to say never, because this has been such an unpredictable situation, to say the least,” she told The New Yorker for an article published Thursday.

Collins isn’t the only Republican wavering on supporting Trump. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) reversed course this week on backing the businessman, while Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) urged Republicans to abandon Trump.

“There’ll come a time when the love of country will trump hatred of Hillary,” Graham told The New York Times.

Collins has repeatedly voiced reservations about Trump, telling MSNBC she was “truly offended and indeed appalled” by his claim that the judge overseeing fraud lawsuits against Trump University was biased because of his Mexican heritage.

She said the remarks were “of a different magnitude from his earlier transgressions.”

Collins said Trump could “right the ship and start acting presidential” and that if he focused on issues like the economy he may win her support. Otherwise, it’d be “difficult for me to support him.”

Clinton has signaled she thinks she’ll be able to work well with Republicans and named Collins when asked her favorite Republican during a town hall in March.

Collins, whom Clinton served with while a New York senator, told MSNBC she has a “personal” and “good relationship” with the former secretary of State but has never met Trump.

Tags 2016 presidential election Donald Trump Hillary Clinton Lindsey Graham Mark Kirk Susan Collins