Warren pulls support for Platner after new allegations

It took an actual sexual assault allegation to get Elizabeth Warren off the Platner train, and even that took a beat. Remember, this is the same candidate who was already carrying baggage over old racist and antisemitic online comments, a swastika tattoo he claimed was a cover-up gone wrong, and a general vibe of "oops, didn't think this through" that somehow didn't disqualify him in progressive circles. Warren backed him anyway, presumably because unseating Susan Collins mattered more than vetting the guy she was helping put on the ballot.

Now that a woman has come forward with a specific, serious allegation, Warren wants him out. Fine. Better late than never, we suppose. But the timeline here tells you something about how these calculations actually work. The tattoo and the comments were treated as messaging problems to manage. An assault allegation is the thing that finally triggers an actual withdrawal request, and even then it's framed gently, as a request rather than a demand.

Maine voters were about to be asked to send this man to the Senate. Nobody forced Warren or anyone else to endorse him before doing basic homework. If the standard for national endorsement is "we'll figure out who this person really is after the local paper does our job for us," that's not a personal failing unique to Platner. That's a party-wide habit of prioritizing the seat over the candidate, and it keeps producing these late, awkward reversals that fool no one.