Sen. Angus King often talks about the danger of authoritarianism from the Trump presidency. He defends his work to pass legislation to end the shutdown in part because of his concern that the president gained powers when the government was shut down and to end the pain that many Americans felt as a consequence of the elimination of services and benefits that they need.

We have since learned that an additional provision in the bill was inserted to allow senators to sue the federal government for $500,000 or more if they discover their electronic records were seized without notification. The provision is part of the effort by President Trump to punish Jack Smith for his investigation. There are eight Republican senators making this claim. 

Sen. King may have been unaware of it, or he agreed to its inclusion as part of the “deal.” While he spoke extensively about the bill’s provisions, he never alerted us that the bill included this new provision that had no relationship to the cause of the shutdown.

Whether by omission or choice, Sen. King has failed to resist the growing authoritarian methods of the administration that his Republican colleagues in the Senate enable. We already have one senator from Maine who routinely fails to stand up to the authoritarian administration. Regrettably it appears that Sen. King is following the same path. He has lost my support.

Nils Tcheyan
Orrs Island