Schumer and Gillibrand call on Graham Platner to ‘immediately withdraw’ from Maine Senate race after rape allegation
Progressive policy ambitions meet practical realities as Americans weigh costs and consequences.
Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand suddenly find their moral compass the moment a Democratic Senate recruit becomes a liability. That's the part worth sitting with. Graham Platner was the darling of the progressive wing a few weeks ago, the oyster farmer turned insurgent who was going to show Maine voters something authentic.
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“The allegations reported today are incredibly disturbing – violence, abuse and sexual assault are absolutely unacceptable,” the New York Democrats said in a statement released by the DSCC.
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Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand suddenly find their moral compass the moment a Democratic Senate recruit becomes a liability. That's the part worth sitting with. Graham Platner was the darling of the progressive wing a few weeks ago, the oyster farmer turned insurgent who was going to show Maine voters something authentic. Now that a rape allegation has surfaced, the party's leadership drops him like a hot rock, and they want credit for it.
Nobody should be defending an accused rapist, and if the allegations hold up, withdrawal is the least he owes voters. But the speed and unity of the statement tells you something about how these calls actually work in Washington. When a scandal threatens a seat the party needs, the ethics kick in fast. When it's inconvenient, or the guy's still useful, things tend to move a lot slower.
Maine voters deserve better than a candidate whose vetting apparently happened in public, after the fact, once it became a headline. That's on the party infrastructure that boosted him, not just on Platner.
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.