Republican Senator Faces New Humiliation in Must-Win Seat
Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast Donald Trump wants to crush The Swamp.
The leaks, the sneaks, and the secrets are all there.
Our writers, David Gardner, Farrah Tomazin , Sarah Ewall-Wice , and Laura Esposito, are sifting through the ooze so you don’t have to.
Don’t miss out .
In this week’s news from the ooze: Karoline Leavitt, Milo Yiannopoulos, Salena Zito, August Doricko, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Wayne Erkkinen, Leon Black, Henry Bacon, Casey Wasserman, Piers Morgan, and Zohran Mamdani.
Why Susan Collins Should be Getting Very, Very Concerned Susan Collins can’t catch a break.
When Democrat firebrand Graham Platner was forced out of the Maine Senate race over a series of abuse allegations, the veteran Republican could have been forgiven for thinking her re-election campaign had just gotten a whole lot easier.
Instead, it’s been one headache after another: billionaire donors with ties to Jeffrey Epstein ; a campaign begging supporters for gas money to fuel her re-election tour after she voted to uphold the conflict in Iran; and Donald Trump launching a trade war with neighboring Canada.
Now comes the latest bit of campaign baggage: a former Oath Keeper.
In June, Collins, 73, announced county commissioner Wayne Erkkinen as her town chair in Greenville, which puts him in charge of grassroots campaigns and voter outreach as Collins fights to hold on to her Senate seat at November’s midterm elections.
The problem? Erkkinen, 81, was previously identified by the Anti-Defamation League as a member of the Oath Keepers, the far right extremist group that played a major role in the January 6 attack at the Capitol, with some later convicted of seditious conspiracy.
The group’s leaked membership roles included more than 38,000 names and Erkkinen was among them.
He told The Swamp he joined the group in 2010 thinking it was for law enforcement and military veterans like him, who had sworn to defend the constitution.
He also said he quit the group “years ago”—before the storming of the Capitol—because he didn’t want to be part of something violent.
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