governor? i have not made a decision. on the one hand, a lot of seniority in the senate and i started out at 99. and i serve on the appropriations committee which has allowed me to do a lot of good for the people of maine. on the other hand, governor is more hands-on. you can do more to create good jobs. so, i m weighing where i can do the most good for the people of maine. does the fact that it s president trump who you would be working with as a senator who you clearly have disagreements and play in with your decision? i want to evaluate where i can do the best for the people of maine and i m taking in a lot of advice from people. senator collins i hope if and when you make that decision, you ll come back and share it with us. i appreciate you being here with us from bangor, maine. where we are in bangor is only going to see half of today s solar eclipse, sadly. next, we ll take you to the place where this whole thing is going to be seen. you can see him there.
electoral victories using that. i wonder if at some point president trump will start talking about that, too. steve, thank you very much for joining us here on our set in gorgeous maine. we really lucked out and picked a beautiful day to be here. i appreciate you coming on. coming up next, we re talking about again the other big story of the day. the eclipse. a few minutes ago we took you live to where the whole thing kicks off on the west coast. we re going to take you to the finish line on the east coast. here is a live look at uss yorktown in south carolina. there it is as we wrap up our outside the beltway in bangor.
politically they re a mess and call for afghan leaders to get themselves together in kabul. for example, no defense minister. steve, at one point maine had the highest rate of casualties in afghanistan. this war feels very close, obviously, to folks here in maine. so, if president trump does decide to add more boots on the ground, potentially 4,000 more u.s. troops as we ve been talking about here, how is that going to go over with folks at this state? that s a good question. i think one of the when he was campaigning the idea of pulling out of military conflicts, i think, really resonated with the voters that selected him. especially in the second congressional district in maine. and, you know, i think if he s going to reengage or commit more troops, he ll have to make a good case to mainers, in particular. there s an end goal here. do you expect him to do that
ensure that it s never a haven for any groups, that the government controls it, well, it s an entirely different strategy. that s focusing on building the afghanistan government, the afghan military. that s a much, much longer timeline. but it s the only way you can ensure that you re not having to do counterterrorism in the country forever. doug ollavant, thank you very much for being with us live from washington. thank you. you re coming back, don t go too far. you should be because it s pretty impressive here. two senators from this state have seen two administrations debate what to do in afghanistan. one of those lawmakers susan collins is joining us next. we re talking war strategy, the gop agenda and, of course, her pivotal no-vote on health care. we talked with some folks in maine about that a little earlier. actually, susan collins really voted well. i m proud of her. i m proud of her for sticking to her guns. or this john smith.
states in the country, but maine actually ranks 31st out of 51 in median household income. that s low, but not the lowest. why do you think, though, people feel like they re struggling so much in maine? i think one of the big things is we lost many employers in the state. specifically in the paper industry. we had mills shuttering left and right over the past ten years. while unemployment is low here, historically low, a lot of people are underemployed and not making what they used to and not having the good, union paying job any longer. it s almost a state of mind in some ways. when the president came to maine, he came here three times to campaign, which is unusual. he talked about replacing those jobs. getting them back. bringing back manufacturing jobs. you know, good-paying jobs. so far, i mean, i think that s what people are waiting to see. one of the things when we talk about maine with senator collins or senator king is the