Piker on Platner: 'That is curtains'
This story raises questions about governance, accountability, and American values.
When even Hasan Piker is reading your obituary live on Twitch, you know the campaign is over. Graham Platner was supposed to be the answer to every Democrat consultant's prayers this cycle: a veteran, an oyster farmer, a guy who could win back the working-class voters the party keeps losing. Instead he's now facing an allegation from a former girlfriend that his own online cheerleaders can't spin away.
New Republican Times Editorial Board
Left-wing Twitch streamer Hasan Piker on Monday said it was "curtains" for Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner (D) after Politico reported that a former girlfriend accused the oyster farmer of sexually assaulting her in 2021.
Piker read the story aloud on his Twitch stream shortly after it was published. He read the portion of the report
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New Republican Times Editorial Board
When even Hasan Piker is reading your obituary live on Twitch, you know the campaign is over. Graham Platner was supposed to be the answer to every Democrat consultant's prayers this cycle: a veteran, an oyster farmer, a guy who could win back the working-class voters the party keeps losing. Instead he's now facing an allegation from a former girlfriend that his own online cheerleaders can't spin away.
What's telling is the reaction, not just the allegation. Piker didn't hedge or wait for context. He read the Politico report on air and basically pronounced the campaign dead in real time. That's not a hit job from Fox News or some Maine Republican super PAC. That's the guy who was supposed to be in Platner's corner.
Democrats keep trying to manufacture these blue-collar, tattooed, "authentic" candidates as their answer to populism on the right, and it keeps blowing up before the primary even finishes. Vetting apparently still isn't part of the plan. Maine voters deserve better than a candidate whose own base found out the hard way, days too late to matter.
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.