Desperate Must-Win Republican’s Debate Derailed by Protester

C-SPAN Susan Collins and Troy Jackson’s fourth and final Maine Senate debate got testy, thanks in part to a protester’s interruption.

The incumbent Republican and Democratic challenger sparred Thursday over their voting records, campaign financing, and Donald Trump.

Collins aimed to portray herself as someone with a bipartisan voting record, while Jackson sought to tie her to the president and his agenda.

One unscripted moment in the debate at Husson University in Bangor—the first in front of a live audience—came when a protester interrupted Collins.

“Susan Collins, I am so sorry to interrupt...

I’m terrified,” the man, one of about 200 audience members, yelled about twenty minutes in.

“A.I. data centers are destroying our climate.

They are poisoning our water...” As the protester was escorted out of the theater, he shouted, “30 years for what?”—a reference to Collins’ Senate tenure.

Collins, 73, then commented, “So, this is obviously one of Troy’s supporters.” Jackson, 58, took offense.

“Oh, shut up,” he said.

“I don’t even know that kid.” Another notable exchange in the debate, hosted by MainePublic, the Portland Press Herald and NewsCenter Maine, came when Collins was asked to name a time when she voted against Trump in a way that was outcome-determinative.

Collins replied that there were “several examples.” She mentioned how she tried to block Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s nomination, but that one of her Republican colleagues changed his mind at the last minute.

The moderator then noted, “So, that didn’t change the outcome.” “Well, but it came—it would have, had that person stayed there,” she replied.

“There actually are 56 times when the outcome was changed, according to an analysis that was done by the press,” Collins then said, in what her office told the Daily Beast was a reference to a Bangor Daily News review of her roll-call votes.