PRESS RELEASE
In Third Debate, Jackson Holds Collins Accountable For Selling Out Mainers To Trump
New York Times: “Senator Collins wants credit for her power. I believe you have to be responsible for what you do with it.”
Bangor Daily News: Jackson closes on Biddeford: Collins ‘paid for the bullets’
BANGOR, ME — Fifth-generation Mainer, logger, and Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Troy Jackson won last night’s third debate by holding Susan Collins accountable for how she uses her power — and who pays the price.
On the three-month anniversary of the fatal ICE shooting of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford, Jackson challenged Collins over her support for funding the agency without adequate oversight. He also pressed her on the costs of Donald Trump’s trade war, the war in Iran, and the federal investigation into her ties to a defense contractor and donor.
As Jackson said in his closing statement “Senator Collins paid for the bullets at Donald Trump’s command. Now she wants credit for not pulling the trigger.”
What Mainers are seeing about Jackson’s victory in debate #3:
Bangor Daily News: Jackson closes on Biddeford: Collins ‘paid for the bullets’
“Senator Collins paid for the bullets at Donald Trump’s command. Now she wants credit for not pulling the trigger,” Jackson said.
He again said Collins gave ICE $70 billion “without the reforms that Mainers deserved” weeks before the shooting.
Portland Press Herald: Jackson reaffirms call to abolish ICE
Jackson made a point to name the man killed by ICE in Biddeford three months ago: Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero.
Jackson said he supports law enforcement investigating bad guys, but he said ICE has grown incapable of doing so effectively. Instead, he'd put money into Customs and Border Protection, he said.
Bangor Daily News: Jackson seizes on Collins’ admission that ICE agents lacked training
“I think what happened is far too many ICE officers were hired and deployed without adequate vetting and training,” Collins said.
Jackson turned that against her. He said the agent who killed Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero in Biddeford was part of a force Collins herself says wasn’t properly vetted, and he called ICE “a rogue agency that’s doing Donald Trump’s bidding.” He said Customs and Border Protection could take over ICE’s work on trafficking and drug smuggling, which Collins cited as reasons not to abolish it.
Maine Morning Star: Three takeaways from the latest Senate debate between Collins and Jackson
Jackson described Mainers’ choice as one between “a senator who helps Donald Trump hurt Maine, then tells us how concerned she is, or somebody will stand up against him before another family in Maine has to pay the price,” referring to the fatal U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shooting of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford three months ago.
Bangor Daily News: Jackson: ‘We should have never had a list’
Jackson said those wins don’t make up for a trade war Congress could have stopped.
“I’m not going to give Senator Collins credit for getting some things off the list when we should have never had a list,” Jackson said.
After Collins raised the issue of Medicaid fraud, the Democrat brought up recent ProPublica reporting about the FBI investigating whether Collins’ orbit was steering federal funding to a defense contractor and donor. “I’m shocked that you’re talking about fraud, because there’s only one person up here that’s been accused of that by the FBI,” he said.
Jackson has repeatedly hit Collins for advancing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which extended tax cuts for the wealthy and slashed $1 trillion in public health funding. Many of the cuts will take effect after the midterms.
“I don’t know how you could stand up here and argue that it’s a good thing to let them out onto our population, out onto the American public, when we’ve seen consistently that they will murder people if you don’t comply explicitly with them,” Jackson said.
WABI: Collins, Jackson spar over energy costs, health care in third Maine Senate debate
Jackson attacked Collins’ record on the Iran war, noting she chairs the Appropriations Committee: “She talks about how she voted nine times against the war... she’s the chair of Appropriations. If she wants to stop the war, she can cut the funding off.” [...] Jackson claimed she first voted five times to enable it before opposing it.
Jackson fired back, referencing a ProPublica article from last week: “I’m shocked that you’re talking about fraud because there’s only one person up here that’s been accused of that by the FBI.”
Hill: Collins, Jackson duke it out in third Maine Senate debate: 3 takeaways
On the Iran war, Jackson accused the senator of voting to support Trump’s military authorization “because she does whatever Donald Trump wants.” “And when Susan Collins had the chance to stop him, because she’s chair of [the Senate Appropriations Committee], she would not do that,” Jackson said. “And that’s where we are right now.”
Jackson said during Tuesday’s debate that he was shocked to hear Collins talk about routing out fraud at the state level because “there’s only one person up here that’s been accused of that by the FBI.”
USA TODAY: Iran War and heating oil take center stage in Maine Senate debate
Jackson argued that Collins could have stopped Trump from starting the war, then she opposed it when it was too late. Collins stressed that she has joined Democrats in voting against the war several times, but that they didn’t have the votes. “Well, that sounds like then we probably ought to have Democrats in charge of the U.S. Senate so that we have the votes to stop this war,” Jackson replied.
Jackson leaned into the oft-cited argument against Collins: that despite stressing her moderation, she doesn’t stand up to Trump enough. “Senator Collins wants credit for her power. I believe you have to be responsible for what you do with it,”
Daily Beast: Desperate Must-Win Republican Throws Trump Under the Bus
Jackson said Trump got America into the war, then noted, “He doesn’t have a plan about how to get out of it. It isn’t going the way that he expected and we’re in a real mess. We’re in another forever war, that again, Senator Collins could have stopped.”
He added, “Right now, there is no plan to get out of this war, and it might go months, it may go another year... you’re gonna see people that are gonna go bankrupt, you’re gonna see people that’ll lose their homes... because Donald Trump wanted to play war games and when Susan Collins had the chance to stop him, because she’s chair of Appropriations, she would not do that.”
New York Times: 5 Takeaways From a Heated and Personal Maine Senate Debate
“Tonight I believe you heard two very different ideas of what a senator owes the people of Maine,” Mr. Jackson said. “Senator Collins wants credit for her power. I believe you have to be responsible for what you do with it.”
“Senator Susan Collins says that she voted against it nine times, but she didn’t have the votes,” Mr. Jackson said. “Well that sounds like then we probably ought to have Democrats in charge of the U.S. Senate so that we have the votes.”
WMTW: Sen. Susan Collins & Troy Jackson Meet For Third U.S. Senate Debate
Troy Jackson: I think we did have an agreement before Donald Trump tore it up and decided to go to war, and you know, Senator Collins says she voted against it nine times, but she didn’t have the votes, that sounds then like we probably ought to have Democrats in charge of the U.S. Senate so that we have the votes to stop this war."
Bloomberg Radio: Third Maine Senate Debate
Host: Jackson went after Collins when she said she was concerned about fraud in Medicare and Medicaid.
Troy Jackson: I'm shocked that you're talking about fraud, because there's only one person up here that's been accused of that by the FBI.
Host: Troy Jackson pointed to a political report that the FBI looked into Collins' contacts with a donor who was seeking federal contracts.
Jeff Evan Gold, CNN [@jeffgoldsq]: Susan Collins wanting 4 debates was calculated to show off her experience but in the end it is making Jackson a familiar and acceptable candidate. #2ndMaineSenateDebate
Jordan Wood [@JordanWood]: I hope all my fellow Maine voters are watching this debate. Troy is 🔥🔥.
Jon Cooper [@JonCooperTweets]: Anyone who watched tonight’s debate between Troy Jackson and Susan Collins knows that Jackson won the political night. Collins needed a win tonight, but the most memorable attacks and the best viral clips belonged to Jackson.
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