Graham Platner is the rash that won’t go away. He was finally forced out of the Maine Senate race after he was exposed for having a graphic social media history, a Nazi tattoo, domestic abuse claims, and a credible allegation of rape. There’s damaged goods, and then there was whatever Platner was — many echelons above that. He was a disaster. 

And is he going away? Oh, no, he’s headlining some local Labor Day rally in Maine, and one local Democrat had a brutal take on the event (via Bangor Daily News) [emphasis mine]:

Democrats expressed confusion and frustration after activists in Hancock County announced a Labor Day rally featuring former U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner with many in the party looking to leave him behind after a rape allegation ended his campaign.

Sources said the announcement caught the campaign of the new nominee, former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, by surprise. The mix-up lands at a pivotal moment for him as he races to build a national operation against five-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins in one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country. 

Republicans have spent weeks trying to tie Jackson to Platner even as Jackson has opened a slim lead over Collins in early polling. Any fresh attention on the former nominee threatens to undercut that effort just as national Democrats rally behind him.

“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.”

[…]

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Jordan Wood, who ran for the Senate and House earlier this year and is working to elect Jackson and other Democrats, said in an interview about the rally. “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.”

Then again, it’s not unusual for Democrats to do this — how many stood by and defended Bill Clinton, who was credibly accused multiple times of rape. 

Need I say more? Jenny Racicot and Lyndsey Fifield, who have accused Platner of rape and domestic abuse respectively, posted this statement:

“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 is disappointing, 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.”

Statement from Cheyenne Hunt, Executive Director, Reckoning Action:

“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. 

We call on the Hancock County Activists to rescind his invitation to speak, and we call on Democrats everywhere to stand with survivors.”

The Democrats’ Frankenstein creature won’t die. This is unseemly in the extreme. 

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