Rush Transcript: Steve Robinson: Senator Collins, just less than an hour ago, I got done interviewing William Turton, who is one of the ProPublica reporters who published the story earlier this week. I’m sure you’re familiar with the story I’m talking about. I don’t want to mischaracterize what he said during our interview, but I asked him essentially what evidence he has that you were directly aware or involved with the scheme that he describes in his story, and, you know, he said that it came—it really comes down to Martin Kao and an email that said you would call Martin and some FBI agents that he talked with. What is your reaction to that story? Can you address it? And—and can you say unequivocally that you had no information, no knowledge, no involvement in the pay-to-play operation that’s described in that article? Sen. Susan Collins: Well, first of all, the allegations against my staff, whether it’s campaign or official, and me are absolutely false and absolutely outrageous. And who knows me knows that I’m a person of integrity, that I’ve served Maine honestly my entire time I’ve been honored to represent Maine in the United States Senate. And honestly, I cannot tell you how offended I am by this partisan hit job. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that ProPublica has, as some of its funders, George Soros, Donald Sussman, and other left-wing billionaires. And the timing of this is not a coincidence. They tried six years ago with the same kinds of allegations, and the Biden administration Justice Department and the FBI found that there was no truth to any—the allegations against me or my staff. The person who is the convicted liar is Martin Cow, and he is in jail right now. He was convicted twice, two separate trials: one in Hawaii, one in D.C. He—he is the felon, and that anyone would take the word of a convicted felon over the FBI, the Justice Department, and me—I just don’t understand that. This is just a hit job, and it’s really offensive and outrageous. Robinson: When I was talking with William, he was adamant that ProPublica is an independent and nonpartisan organization, and said that the timing of the piece was just, you know, that’s—that’s when the reporting is—is—is finished. It was reported as soon as they were ready to put it out. What can you tell us about the—the timeline of your interactions with investigators six years ago as they were looking into this case? Because I know your chief of staff said something along the lines of the cooperation that you offered, and was there ever any indication from the FBI that they were looking at you, looking at the—the scheme that was described in the ProPublica story? Collins: To the contrary, none of us were targets. None of us. What we did is cooperate fully with the FBI and provided documents that they asked for. We cooperated fully. I think it’s important to remember that Martin Kao started making these outrageous accusations when he was awaiting sentencing, and he was trying to spin a news story in the hopes that the judge would be more lenient on him. The judge didn’t buy it, the prosecutor didn’t buy it, the FBI didn’t buy it, and the people of Maine shouldn’t buy it either. Graham Pollard: I was going to say just the number one thing everyone in our chat is asking, real quick. What are the chances of getting the Save Act passed? Collins: Well, it’s possible that it could come up next week after the data center bill and the name, image, and likeness bill will be finished. Frankly, I don’t think the name, image, and likeness bill is as important as others, but I do expect the data center bill to come up next week, and it’s possible that the House version of the Safe Act may come up. It’s really important that only American citizens vote in American elections, and those are provisions of the Safe Act that I do support. I think requiring people to show evidence that their citizens, when they register to vote, just makes sense, and I supported that for some time. So it may come over. It—it has been passed by the House, and I would support the House version. Robinson: Now I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask you a question about Chinese organized crime operating in the state. I know you were writing letters to the main drug enforcement agency before I had—had even started investigating the story, and we’ve talked several times about it. And you’ve interviewed intelligence heads or asked them to make it a priority. But for all of the attention that’s been drawn to the—the Chinese mafia operating in rural Maine, it seems like their activities are only growing. The amount of money that they’re earning is only increasing. What—what more can be done to combat Chinese organized crime in the state of Maine? And—and I guess as a secondary, maybe layup question to that, are you surprised that state actors like Janet Mills and Troy Jackson have just been totally silent on the issue that’s a really big problem in the second congressional district? Collins: It’s a huge problem, and Troy has totally ignored it. Totally. I’ve brought this up a couple of years ago. I first found out about it from a former staffer of mine who lived down the street from a grow house, could smell the marijuana, and all being processed. And the house burned down, and she called me and told me about it. She was the first one. I then reached out to Maine sheriffs who have done an outstanding job in trying to close down these grow houses, and I have brought it up to attorney generals who, in the federal level, to the head of the FBI, to the head of the DEA, to the head of the IRS, and I think we’re making progress now that we have a new U.S. attorney in Andrew Benson who is taking it seriously and who realizes that these are transnational criminal organizations from China. They are destroying houses in rural Maine. They are growing marijuana illegally. They are not—I personally don’t favor the legalization of marijuana, but they’re not following any of the state rules or regulations at all. But too often, when they were charged in state courts, they got just a slap on the wrist. If we can charge them in federal courts, I think it will be way more effective, and I’m convinced, based on the briefings I’ve had and the public hearing responses from federal witnesses, this goes way beyond illegal marijuana growing. It involves money laundering, mortgage fraud, and also likely human trafficking. So this is very serious. Robinson: Actually, I believe this is a picture of the house that caught fire that you were just referencing in your response, Senator, in Winterport. Instead of repairing the house, they threw a tarp over it for a couple of Maine winters. So I don’t think anyone’s going to be living in that particular house anytime soon. But just as—as corollary to what you said about the Chinese organized crime going deeper, about two weeks ago there was a U.S. Customs agent in Calis, Maine, on the Maine Canada border who was caught in an FBI sting. He was cracking open Department of Homeland Security computers and installing custom hard drives and memory cards. The court records haven’t come out and said that he was acting as a spy for the CCP or a foreign agent. But are you concerned that this might just be the tip of the iceberg in terms of how the state of Maine has been infiltrated due to its proximity to Canada and big Canadian border, and is being taken advantage of by foreign actors to slip whatever they’d like, whether it’s drugs, weapons, military personnel into the country? And what can we do about it, given how big and understaffed the main Canada border is? Collins: Well, I’ve been concerned for some time that the northern border does not get the same kind of attention as the southern border. We’ve had studies done on that that has shown that to be the case, and it’s a very porous border, but on the marijuana illegal grow houses, it’s interesting because the top two states appear to be Maine and Oklahoma, and I wouldn’t have guessed Oklahoma, but those appear to be the top two states. The arrest of this border patrol agent is very troubling because the allegations are that he infiltrated a lot of the computer systems. I still—these are allegations, and I still don’t know all the details yet. I’ve not been briefed, but this is something that we’ll have to be watching very closely.

"A photoshoot inside Lewiston High School revealed pride and Black Lives Matter flags in classrooms, messaging supporting transgender ideology for minors, a group specifically for black students, and a giant Zyn can. “Lewiston High School is an incredibly special place to work, as is the entire district because diversity is our strength and is our superpower. Lewiston is the most diverse school in Maine. 40% of our students across the district are multilingual learners,” said chemistry teacher Abigail McCoy in a video for the Maine Department of Education (MDOE) and Maine Teacher of the Year organization. themainewire.com/2026/09/pho…