CNN smacks Susan Collins with brutal flashback ahead of debate: 'Life comes at you fast'

CNN hit Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) with a brutal reminder of her past vote for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh just hours before she was set to face her Democratic opponent in their first debate.

“Life comes at you fast,” CNN’s Kasie Hunt said Tuesday after airing a 2018 interview in which Dana Bash pressed Collins about Kavanaugh and Roe V. Wade.

“You’re 100% certain, without a doubt, that Brett Kavanaugh will not overturn Roe v. Wade?” Bash asked.

“I do not believe that Brett Kavanaugh will overturn Roe v. Wade,” Collins replied.

Kavanaugh ultimately joined the Supreme Court majority to knock down Roe in the landmark 2022 Dobbs decision.

But CNN wasn’t done handing it to Collins just yet. Hunt then turned to the Maine Republican’s first debate Tuesday night against Democratic challenger Troy Jackson, whose campaign released a new video signaling that her Kavanaugh vote would be “front and center.”

“I would not support a nominee who demonstrated hostility to Roe v. Wade,” Collins says in another flashback montage featured in the ad.

“To her credit, she only voted for four of them,” comedian Jon Stewart says in an archived clip. "Get your priorities straight!" a woman is heard shouting at Collins during an event in another clip.

“Ouch,” Hunt said as the video ended.

CNN analyst Ron Brownstein said Collins faces an even tougher political environment this year than she did during her successful 2020 reelection campaign.

“The gravity pulling her down is even stronger than it was in 2020,” Brownstein said Tuesday, noting that Kavanaugh had not yet voted to overturn Roe at the time.

“No one will ever count out Susan Collins,” he added, “but I think she will have to defy gravity to an even greater extent than she did six years ago.”