On Thursday’s broadcast of “CBS Evening News,” host Tony Dokoupil said that Graham Platner got support because he was polling well, but this week, “for some Democrats, he had committed the one offense no political party can tolerate, he started to look like a loser.”
Dokoupil began by saying, “The big question tonight is why did so many in the Democratic Party, the party of Black Lives Matter and believe women, continue to see Graham Platner as a future star, despite scandal after scandal that seemed to undermine those principles and more? Despite his old Reddit comments about, among other things, why Platner thinks black people don’t tip, despite his chest tattoo with a Nazi history, and despite the accusations of abuse against women, through all of that and more, Platner downplayed or denied the claims and was defended by the party and some of its biggest voices.”
He added, “So, what’s behind all that support for him until now? Could it simply be that he was winning, that he had blown out the sitting governor in the Democratic primary and sure seemed like the Democrats’ best chance to beat Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME)? In political circles, the answer, it appears, was yes. Many Democrats knew Platner had character issues. The theory, from Daniel Moraff, the political strategist who plucked Platner from obscurity and made him into a star, was that the voters wouldn’t care, that they wanted, quote, real people who have lived real lives.”
Dokoupil concluded, “But after Platner was accused of rape this week, it turned out that theory had its limits, character does matter. Platner denied the accusation, but for some Democrats, he had committed the one offense no political party can tolerate, he started to look like a loser.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
