Jake Tapper Shuts Down Susan Collins' Attempt To Spin Trump Hush Money Payments

The Maine senator said we don't have the full picture, but the CNN host was quick to show otherwise.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) thinks more information is needed before she can speak definitively on President Donald Trump’s mounting legal troubles.

On CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday, host Jake Tapper asked Collins what she thought of allegations that Trump personally directed his former lawyer Michael Cohen to distribute hush money payments to two women to help protect his bid for the presidency.

“We need to wait until we have the entire picture,” Collins responded.

But Tapper didn’t let her off so easy.

“I get that when it comes to the Russia investigation,” the host said. “But when it comes to Michael Cohen, we kind of do have the whole picture.”

Tapper noted that prosecutors with the Southern District of New York ― and not just Cohen ― say the payments were not only campaign finance violations, but that they were made at the direction of Trump.

“And now Michael Cohen is going to jail as a result of that and other crimes,” Tapper said. “Don’t we have the whole picture there?”

The CNN host pushed the senator further, asking about the infamous audio tapes in which Cohen can apparently be heard discussing the aforementioned hush payments with Trump.

Collins again refused to address the question and instead repeated her earlier line: “I don’t feel that I have the entire picture yet.”

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