WASHINGTON, D.C. – Tonight, the acclaimed CBS News magazine 60 Minutes aired a profile of U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine), focused on how Senator King’s approach to politics can serve as a “guide for repairing the tattered fabric of both the United States Senate and the country at large.” During the interview, Senator King discussed how his status as a political independent gives him the freedom to look for commonsense solutions without party pressures. The full interview can be viewed HERE. 

Some key quotes from Sen. King on:

• The President’s responsibility for Wednesday’s insurrection: “Words have consequences, and the higher up you are on the hierarchy, the words have more and more consequences. And the President of the United States has the bully pulpit.” 
• The reckless electoral college challenge of his colleague Senator Ted Cruz (and Josh Hawley): “I'm disappointed because he knows better. He's a really smart guy. I think it's interesting that he and Hawley are probably in the top 10% of IQ in the U.S. Senate. And that makes it less excusable what they did, because they knew damn well that what they were doing was wrong, and that it was inimical to the interests of this country. “  
• Maine’s culture of community: “If you're in a small town and if you're in a business, repeat business is all there is. You've got to, as we say up here, use people right, or they're not gonna come back. That engenders a sense of community, and relationship, and sort of reciprocity of good will.”
• Bringing Maine’s measured, reasonable mindset to Capitol Hill: “I think those qualities exist all over America, in many parts of America, and we just have to try to ring the bell of common sense.”

Interviews for the segment were conducted by 60 Minutes correspondent Jon Wertheim in Brunswick, Maine shortly before Christmas, and in Washington, D.C. the day after the violent insurrection at the United States Capitol.