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Graham Platner was supposed to be yesterday’s problem. Fat chance.
Instead, the former neo Nazi Maine Senate candidate has apparently decided to become the Democratic Party’s version of that mysterious brown stain on the carpet that refuses to disappear no matter how much everyone insists the room has been cleaned.
Platner was forced out of the Senate race after his disturbing social media history, Nazi tattoo, domestic abuse allegations, and a credible rape allegation became impossible for Democrats to ignore. There’s damaged goods, and then there’s Graham Platner, who somehow managed to make damaged goods look like a luxury product.
Naturally, like an ugly puss pimple on a hot date, he’s back.
Comrade Platner is now scheduled to headline a Labor Day rally in Maine, prompting Democrats who had desperately hoped to move on from the controversy to react with gastroenteritis and flatulence.
According to the Bangor Daily News, Democrats are confused and frustrated that activists in Hancock County announced the rally featuring this alleged sexual abuser. The event comes as the party attempts to rally behind its new Senate nominee, former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, who is trying to build a national campaign against five-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
Jackson has his own Platner-ish problems, but that's a story for another time. I'll just say, not only is he married to his second cousin, he's alleged to be abusive toward her.
Republicans have already spent weeks trying to tie Jackson to Platner. So naturally, the last thing Democrats need is for Platner to grab a microphone, step onto a stage, and remind everyone why they spent so much time trying to make him disappear.
“I don’t know what they were thinking,” former Maine Democratic Party Vice Chair Peggy Schaffer said. “He’s not an elected official, not a union member, and he’s an accused rapist.” [She left out alleged domestic abuser.]
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| "And this one is my Totenkopf. Nice, right?" |
Jordan Wood, who ran for the Senate and House earlier this year and is working to elect Jackson and other Democrats, was equally concerned.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Wood said. “I think it’s important for the many Democratic campaigns to move on from that. Highlighting him at an event is unproductive and unhelpful for those campaigns.” Because when you pull the curtain back, you see the slime bucket this guy is.
That seems like a fairly straightforward message: Please stop inviting the controversial former candidate to Democratic events.
Unfortunately, Democrats have never been particularly good at following their own advice when a politically useful ally is accused of sexual misconduct.
Just ask Bill Clinton, Anthony Weiner, Eric Swalwell, Al Franken, or Andrew Cuomo,.
Platner’s alleged victims are not laughing.
Jenny Racicot and Lyndsey Fifield, who have accused Platner of rape and domestic abuse respectively, released a statement condemning the decision to give him another public platform. And they are Democrats!
"Last month, we came forward at great personal cost to tell the world who we knew Graham Platner to be. We shed light on some of the darkest, most painful days of our lives and detailed the toll – physical and emotional – that his abuse took on each of us. Neither of us wanted to be forced into the spotlight, but we came forward because we believe in building a future where no other woman has to endure what we did.
"In the weeks since we spoke out, Graham Platner has had every opportunity to take accountability for the pain he has caused. Instead, he has continued to double down – discrediting us and telling blatant lies about his past. And now, he’s trying to sweep the truth under the rug and pretend things are back to normal.
"While Graham’s behavior sucks, it’s hardly surprising. What is surprising is that there are people who are still willing to give him a platform despite his refusal to take any accountability for his actions. It’s a slap in the face, not just to us, but to survivors everywhere. Our message to Mainers: stand with survivors and refuse to platform abusers."Cheyenne Hunt, executive director of Reckoning Action, also demanded that Democrats reconsider the invitation.
“Continuing to give Graham Platner a bully pulpit is irresponsible, reckless, and antithetical to the direction we should be headed as Democrats. If we want to be a party that supports survivors, we cannot also be a party that continues to platform abusers. Full stop.At this point, the Democratic Party appears to have created the political equivalent of Frankenstein’s monster, only to discover that the monster keeps showing up at Labor Day rallies demanding a microphone.
"We call on the Hancock County Activists to rescind his invitation to speak, and we call on Democrats everywhere to stand with survivors.”
Democrats wanted Platner gone.
Platner apparently had other plans. Perhaps his oyster farm isn't doing so well.
And now the party that desperately wants voters to forget about him is being forced to explain why its own activists are putting him on stage.
There are political candidates who refuse to die.
Then there is Graham Platner, apparently rolling toward the next campaign event like der Fuhrer's Panzers in the Ardennes, leaving Democratic campaign strategists behind him frantically searching for the political equivalent of an anti-tank weapon.
He's a fool, but a dangerous fool. Maybe, however, he'll open the eyes of Democrats who finally realize how far their party has gone over the edge and they'll switch to the Grand Old Party.
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