On June 9, Graham Platner won the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate in Maine, securing approximately 72% of the vote in the primary to challenge incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November.
His campaign was highly scandal-ridden due to revelations, including a chest tattoo resembling a Nazi SS symbol, sexually explicit texts sent to other women while married, allegations from multiple ex-partners of emotional volatility, heavy drinking, and physically threatening or abusive behavior, and resurfaced Reddit posts containing remarks many found offensive, homophobic, and inflammatory.
Despite these controversies, Platner prevailed with strong grassroots and progressive support.
BlazeTV’s Pat Gray was surprised by the lack of outrage. “None of these scandals have had any effect on his candidacy,” he sighs.
But what shocked him even more was Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) comments to reporters on Tuesday. Following Platner’s victory, the democratic socialist — and one of the most vocal critics of Republican scandals — appeared to hypocritically shrug off his numerous controversies.
“When it comes to the substance of this reporting, obviously there’s a lot in that behavior that’s really challenging. It’s hard to stomach … but at the end of the day, I think that this is a choice,” she told CNN’s Manu Raju.
“If the choice on the ballot is between that and a senator who’s voted to take health care away from millions of Americans, that’s the situation that we have to weigh,” she added.
Co-host Keith Malinak translates her words: “Is he sexting with women and wearing Nazi tattoos and mocking those that serve in our armed forces? Yeah, but he would vote for the government to spend money for other people’s health insurance.”
“I mean, she literally said something like, ‘at the end of the day, it’s a choice.’ What a profound statement that is,” scoffs Pat. “Obviously it’s a choice, and you made the bad choice there.”
Jeffy speculates that the scandals surrounding Platner are likely even deeper, considering progressive activists Daniel Moraff and Leanne Fan, who recruited Platner, admitted in an interview with Wall Street Journal reporter Aaron Zitner to paying a professional vetting/opposition research firm “a whole chunk of money” to scrub Platner before his campaign even began.
But it wasn’t wholly effective given the scandals that have dominated the news cycle of late — including a deleted post from 2021 where Platner wrote, “I got older and became a communist.”
“It’s despicable,” says Pat.
To hear more, watch the episode above.
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