unlikely … but not impossible

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said on ABC This Week Sunday that it’s “not likely” she would support former President Donald Trump if he seeks a second term in 2024.

“Why can’t you rule out supporting [Trump] in 2024?” host George Stephanopoulos asked Collins.

“Well certainly it’s not likely, given the many other qualified candidates that we have that have expressed interest in running,” Collins answered. 

Collins, the only Republican senator from New England, is well known as a moderate. She voted to acquit Trump the first time he was impeached but voted to convict in the former president’s second impeachment trial.

She did not endorse Trump in 2016 or 2020.

Collins and Stephanopoulos also discussed President Biden’s pledge to put the first Black woman on the Supreme Court, a move Collins said she “would welcome,” though she added that Biden’s handling of the nomination process has been “clumsy at best” so far and has contributed to the politicization of the court.

Biden’s decision to consider only Black female candidates to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer is deeply unpopular. According to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll, 76 percent of Americans say Biden should consider “all possible nominees.”

Collins voted to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in 2018 but voted against Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation in 2020.

The ABC News/Ipsos poll surveyed 510 adults and has a margin of error of 4.9 percent.