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'That's not the fight right now': Sen. Collins' protesters react to backlash, focus on elections

The backlash facing Senator Collins has reached a boiling point, and protestors say some have taken it too far.

PORTLAND (NEWS CENTER Maine) – The recent backlash to Sen.Susan Collins’ vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court even has some of her harshest critics speaking out in disapproval as activist look to shift gears.

"It's just been crazy,” Amanda DoAmaral said.

DoAmaral was one of dozens of protestors from Maine who traveled to Washington, D.C. to protest Collins ahead of the confirmation vote.

She told NEWS CENTER Maine that, while some of her counterparts are rightfully angry about Kavanaugh’s confirmation, some have taken it too far.

"It's, like, all just building up. Everything that's happened in the last month has been wild,” DoAmaral said.

This week a suspicious letter was sent to Collins’ home in Bangor claiming to contain a potentially lethal substance, ricin. That incident launched an FBI investigation that is still ongoing.

This incident has added to countless threats, an ever-growing PAC to fund her opponent in 2020 and even calls to revoke an honorary degree she received from St. Lawrence University.

The University rejected those requests.

"I'm very concerned about Susan,” Collins’ husband, Tom Daffron, said this week. “You know you can't help but be concerned about security."

Although DoAmaral was among those who stormed Collins’ D.C. office and confronted her at her home in Washington, she admitted that threatening others’ lives takes it too far.

"I don't condone any sort of violence,” DoAmaral said. “I don't think being angry about what's going on means that you should harm other people.”

Instead, she said she and others are trying to refocus their energy away from Collins and back to where they can make change in the upcoming November election.

"She's not the one. That's not the fight right now,” DoAmaral said. “It's all about the election, and it feels like that's the historic thing we need to put everything into.”

Sen. Collins’ staff said she is set to stay at home in Bangor for the rest of the week.

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