The Platner Story Won't Quit!

The big lesson for me in the evolving Platner saga is how easily mainstream leftists let themselves be conned. Scott Jennings claims he was in fact "vetted":

All of this whole thing is disgusting but to say that they hadn't vetted him, or that they didn't know about all this is totally false. They knew it and they signed up for it and I don't know why they're backing away from this scumbag today when they had already signed off on all that other crazy behavior.

Strictly speaking, the specific Jenny Racicot allegations of sexual assault (and now sneaky behavior relative to contraception) became public only as of the past few days; they weren't general knowledge, for instance, before the Maine primary.

What was actually going on was that, as I pointed out yesterday, Platner was merchandised by DSA talent spotters as though he had been vetted, and the Democrat machine and out-of-state donors took this on faith. He looked authentic, as only someone out of the L L Bean catalog can look. (Full disclosure: the first big change in my lifestyle that my wife announced after our marriage was that I would no longer be sourcing my wardrobe from L L Bean.)

A better take is from Michael Cohen at MS NOW:

The first lesson is don’t fall in love with an unvetted political outsider — or, for that matter, any politician. When he announced his candidacy, Platner told a compelling story. He was a political outsider with no experience in electoral politics, a Marine combat veteran and an oyster fisherman in a state where working on the water is a badge of honor.

. . . It turned out that, far from being a successful oyster fisherman, his biggest customer was his mother, who runs a restaurant. Platner’s claims of a hardscrabble youth were contradicted by stories of living off his parents’ generosity and stints at an elite private school.

But even Cohen misses a central point: like many modern Democrats, if Platner is anything, it's entitled. Platner is People Like Us. Why vet him? We already know who he is! I think this is also key to what's likely next in this saga. Scott Pinsker gamed this out a little over a month ago at PJ Media:

1. Graham Platner drops out in shame and is replaced by a DNC establishment favorite who’s safer, fully vetted, and more likely to win (and follow orders).
2. Graham Platner stays on the ballot, but because the scandal(s) dropped in May/June, it’ll be “old news” by the first Tuesday of November.

As of this morning, the state of play appears to be number 2: Platner so far is either refusing to drop out entirely, or refusing to drop out unless he can name his successor:

Stay strong king you got this https://t.co/DNGWQcIH28

— The Drunk Republican (@DrunkRepub) July 8, 2026

One take I've seen on the Platner story is that this scandal is now actually a bid by establishment Democrats to retake the party from DSA. The biggest piece of evidence is that the latest Jenny Racicot allegations emerged while there's still time for Platner to drop out and be replaced by an establishment Democrat. But as of right now,

according to a source with knowledge of Platner’s campaign, the candidate, his campaign and Democrat strategist Morris Katz are discussing a plan for him to drop out “only if his replacement shares his left-wing values.”

Katz, a former advisor to Socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s campaign, is described in the Washington Free Beacon as a “26-year-old Nepo Baby Theater Kid.”

. . . But Katz, according to the Post, is recommending that Platner stay in the race. The candidate “appears to be holding the Democratic Party hostage,” the Post said.

“His team is delusional,” the source declared, adding that Platner seems to think “whoever might replace [him] would want a rapist’s endorsement.”

But here's the problem: only Platner can decide to drop out. If he doesn't by next Monday, the Democrats are stuck with him on the ballot -- but the Democrats also want to retake the Senate, and the route to that lies through beating Collins in Maine. If Platner hangs on through next Monday, the Democrats will have to get back on board and re-endorse the rapist.

If Platner stays in -- and there are two ways he can do it, either by insisting on choosing a DSA-aligned successor, or simply refusing to drop out at all -- then the Democrats will need to return to the fold if they have even the remotest hope of retaking the Senate. The DSA will still be on board; Platner is People Like Us. I suspect this will be the end game:

It’s quite funny that the case for Platner, up until about 15 hours ago, was, “well, yes, he has a Nazi tattoo and a history of saying terrible things and treats women abominably, but on the other hand he’s a communist.”

— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) July 7, 2026

The Democrats will simply fall back on this former line, because they'll have no choice. For Platner, as the saying goes, when you ain't got nothin', you got nothin' to lose.