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A senator from Maine is the latest Republican to abandon Trump
(Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine at a news conference on Capitol Hill in 2011 in Washington.Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has announced that she will not be voting for Donald Trump, adding herself to the rapidly growing list of high-profile Republicans distancing themselves from their party's candidate.
"This is not a decision I make lightly, for I am a lifelong Republican," Collins wrote in a column for The Washington Post published Monday. "But Donald Trump does not reflect historical Republican values nor the inclusive approach to governing that is critical to healing the divisions in our country."
Collins wrote that she felt "increasingly dismayed" by Trump's behavior, citing three incidents that she said cemented her decision: Trump's mocking of a reporter with disabilities, his attacks on a Mexican-American judge presiding over a case involving Trump University, and his feud with the parents of a slain Muslim-American soldier after they criticized him at the Democratic National Convention.
"It was his attacks directed at people who could not respond on an equal footing — either because they do not share his power or stature or because professional responsibility precluded them from engaging at such a level — that revealed Mr. Trump as unworthy of being our president," Collins wrote.
In rejecting Trump, Collins joins a list of notable Republican members of Congress that includes Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois, Rep. Scott Rigell of Virginia, Rep. Richard Hanna of New York, and Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois.
Like Kirk, Collins did not indicate a preference for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton or any other candidate in the race. Rigell and Hanna have crossed party lines, endorsing Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and Clinton, respectively.
Collins' announcement came on the same day in which 50 former top Republican national security officials declared their opposition to Trump's candidacy, signing an open letter in The New York Times warning that Trump would be "the most reckless president in American history."
Read Collins' full column in The Washington Post
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