The Nazi Tattoo Should Have Been Enough
Scandal-ridden Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner has been accused of rape. Democrats are finally turning on him. They should have done so a long time ago.
Politico is out with a bombshell report from a woman who dated Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner five years ago: One night, he broke into her home, grabbed her, and forced himself on her over her protestations:
Jenny Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner, who is now the Democratic Senate nominee in Maine, for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.
“I remember him grabbing my pelvis and being really forceful of me,” she said. “I remember the specific moment where I thought to myself, like, ‘This is no longer my choice.’”
Politico for some reason is calling this a “sexual assault” allegation. It’s not. Racicot is accusing Platner of raping her.
Platner denies the accusation, though he also posted a video in which he said his campaign is “taking time to reflect on the best path forward.”
The rape accusation joins a host of other scandals plaguing Platner.
He once wrote on Reddit that women need to “take responsibility” for being sexually assaulted. Oh the irony! He wrote racist things about Black people, and mocked veterans. He has a Nazi tattoo on his chest, which he had for 18 years and only covered with another tattoo when it was revealed during the campaign. The New York Times reported the story of another ex-girlfriend who accused Platner of roughing her up and leaving bruises, even locking her in a bedroom. That ex-girlfriend was dismissed because she’s a Republican. The new accuser, though, “was torn over coming forward in part because she agrees with Platner politically.” Thanks to these Left-wing bonafides, some Democrats have begun rescinding their endorsements of Platner.
Obviously, it’s better for the Democrats to drop an alleged rapist than stand by him. But it also only underscores just how long they were willing to defend him, just how much they were willing to forgive.
I joked that Graham Platner’s campaign was like a gameshow: How low will the Democrats go? They defended him from accusations of physical abuse. They defended him from mocking veterans. They defended him blaming women for their own sexual assaults. Worst of all, they defended his Nazi tattoo.
The Nazi tattoo really should have been a dealbreaker. There is just no coming back from defending a Nazi tattoo. And yet, for the country’s top Democrats, it just wasn’t.
Platner denied that he knew it was a Nazi symbol, but that claim was disputed by two ex-girlfriends and his ex-campaign manager, all of whom confirmed that Platner knew exactly what it was.
And Democrats still defended him.
The list of those who ran defense is long: Bernie Sanders. Elizabeth Warren. Ruben Gallego. The Pod Same America Obama Bros. Ro Khanna flew to Maine to cut an ad for Platner after the physical abuse story dropped.
Will there be any soul searching?
Let me put an end to the suspense: There will not.
Some Democrats are rescinding their endorsements of Platner. But there will be no deeper discussion about how they got here, and how they got this so wrong.
Because a party that will defend a man with a Nazi tattoo—after spending a decade calling its political opposition Nazis—has no standards.
Just to be clear - the Dems aren’t turning on him because he’s a Nazi sympathizer. They’re turning on him because they think he will lose.
But he was their Nazi. And that makes all the difference.