my next guest just won her fifth u.s
senate term
though not a single poll showed her
ahead prior to election day
in fact the final poll before the
election showed senator susan collins of
maine
down by six points a quinnipiac poll a
few weeks earlier had her down by 12.
yet senator collins ended up winning her
home state by nine
points and she captured all but two
counties in the state of maine
so this makes her the only republican
senator to win a state
that was also won by joe biden now
senator collins a moderate is poised to
become a powerful senate
influencer as politico notes with
republicans likely to hold us only a
slim
majority the moderate maine senator will
play a key role
in legislation here now exclusively for
her first post-election interview
gop senator susan collins of maine
senator collins congratulations to you
on your win and thanks for being here
tonight thank you martha it's great to
join you
so when you hear those poll numbers you
know what what goes through your mind
why do you think they were so often can
people trust these
polls anymore after this election after
this selection i think the polling
industry
needs to take a hard look at what it
does
i noticed that all of these polls had an
online component
which i believe makes them less reliable
they clearly had a hard time
reaching rural and independent voters
and i also think there's more of a
reluctance of voters
to participate in polls another related
issue which you mentioned
a newspaper in my state published a poll
the day before the
election showing that i was six down
i think the news media needs to take a
close look
at how it reports on these polls yeah i
think those are great points
um in terms of joe biden you had a
conversation with him
you've been friends worked together in
the senate obviously in the past
uh what do you think you can work with
on him if you are going to
provide this bridge potentially where
will it be where will it happen
well i hope for example that we could
work on an infrastructure package
we need a lot of repairs and
replacements not only of roads and
bridges and
improvements in our seaports and
airports but we need
rural broadband if there's anything that
this pandemic has shown us is the
inequities that exist
in rural america where there is not
access to rural broadband
which has made everything from
telemedicine to
working at home to teaching children
much more difficult so that's one issue
and for me
jobs and the economy helping our small
businesses
another round of the paycheck protection
program which
preserved so many jobs during this
pandemic which i was the chief
architect of and also making
health care more affordable those are
all priorities where
i hope that we can come up with common
sense
solutions you know so some people say
look unity is not a goal that is
achievable you're either conservative
or you're not and this is bernie sanders
talking about how he
sees the way that he looks at things
which i think is probably very different
than the way you and a lot of folks in
maine do watch this
i've come to sometimes find it amusing
when our opponents talk about the far
left agenda raising the minimum wage to
15 bucks an hour
when you're talking about expanding
health care to all people
as a human right making public colleges
and universities tuition free
these are not far left ideas these are
common sense
ideas that the majority of the american
people support
and we're going to fight to make sure
that they're implemented
i mean you know i think a lot of people
would see those as far left
ideas almost socialist ideas i mean he's
a democratic socialist
there's a big disconnect here between
your party and his party
absolutely and i think one of the
messages that voters sent
was they are rejecting that far-left
agenda
which includes packing the supreme court
defunding our police officers
and also ending the filibuster
medicare for all which would decrease
the quality and accessibility of health
care
in this country caused many of our rural
hospitals to close
those are for our left ideas and
i know bernie sincerely believes in them
but i think it's pretty clear that most
of america does not
how are you going to work with mitch
mcconnell the majority leader at least
he is now and and he hopes he will be
after those georgia races
um if you're going to try to do some
things in the in the middle lane here
he he may not be in the mood to do that
he wants to
win even more seats in the senate in
2022
and uh he may not be wanting to
compromise on a lot of these things
well i don't think we should compromise
on the
far left agenda that bernie and
others are pushing but i do think
there are ways to work together on
everything from another coveted relief
bill
to deal with the health and economic
consequences of the pandemic to an
infrastructure package as i just
mentioned
and also making the market more
competitive
for prescription drugs to help bring
down
the price that's something that we ought
to
president trump has talked a lot about
that and surprised billy
uh as well before i let you go just you
know i'm curious about the amy coney
barrett
vote and if you had known that you were
ahead by as much as you won by
would you have supported her it would
have made no difference
to me and how i voted because
i said before ruth bader ginsburg
died that i felt that we had established
a president
four years ago and to be fair that we
should not
confirm a supreme court justice prior to
the election
particularly when it was so close to the
election
it's not a comment on her or her
qualifications
and let me say i was appalled at some of
the anti-catholic and anti-religious
rhetoric that was thrown her way
but so was not a matter of
her qualifications or temperament or
experience
it was a matter of fairness and playing
by the same rules and being consistent
senator susan collins uh thank you very
much we look forward to talking with you
as you
um work in the senate uh in the coming
session
good to have you here tonight thank you
thank you martha