Hugo Gurdon on shaky Democratic support of Graham Platner

Ajouté : 2026-06-08

[00:00:00]He's called himself a communist only 5 years ago and at the same time this is just you know just 5 years before he's running for national office or public office saying that he you know he he's pretty much disgusted by America and doesn't he used to love the country but now he's disgusted.

[00:00:15]>> Welcome to the debrief where we talk with the Washington Examiner's top journalists about the headlines they're covering and where the story's going next. I'm Sarah Bedford and I'm here with editor-in-chief Hugo Gurdon and Hugo Graham Platner in Maine the likely Democratic nominee there is is kind of a mess to to to say it charitably but Democrats by and large are rallying around him, right?

[00:00:36]>> Yes, he has not lost their support although they're obviously very anxious.

[00:00:40]It's very clear when they are asked in interviews on the record on TV that they don't want to talk about Graham Platner and they very quickly switch to uh sort of unseemly Republicans like Ken Paxton who's just won in in Texas against John Cornyn.

[00:01:00]And indeed this to some extent they feel gives them gives them a pass to to nominate a really repellent character like Graham Platner whose the range of whose depravities is only now beginning I think to be exposed. There seems probably to be more but it includes sexting several women I think six or more in the early shortly after his marriage in 2023. um extraordinary vulgarity and graphic descriptions of sex in and and online.

[00:01:37]um He's called himself a communist only 5 years ago and at the same time this is just you know just 5 years before he's running for national office or public office saying that he you know he he's pretty much disgusted by America and doesn't he used to love the country but now he's disgusted. And the the the range of things goes on and on.

[00:01:56]So, he's a thoroughly unseemly character.

[00:01:59]And Democrats are asking is there more? Uh you'd think that having a Nazi tattoo on your chest for 18 years knowingly, not just a Nazi tattoo, but the a tattoo of the insignia of the concentration camp and extermination camp guards.

[00:02:17]And actually refusing to take it off until it became a political liability.

[00:02:22]You'd think that might be enough. You think any one of these things in the past would have been disqualifying in a different age, but now um the the policy of people caught in these positions or with with these revelations is to sort of tough it out and and uh you know, pretend you're a man of the people.

[00:02:41]>> Culturally, like societally, how did we get to a point where Democrats are able to skirt questions about Graham Patner and that there is an open debate about whether these litany of scandals are disqualifying. I mean, how did we even get here?

[00:02:55]>> Well, you know, one of the the one of the things that uh that Democrats say is that, you know, don't lecture us about moral character, you know, when you've embraced people like Ken Paxton and obviously before him and they've been uh Donald Trump.

[00:03:09]Uh and and and and and and they have a point in saying that.

[00:03:13]We might not have got Platner if we hadn't had Trump, but we wouldn't have had Trump if we didn't have Clinton. If you go back that far, uh a generation, President Clinton was de- defining presidential and political deviancy downward with his activities uh with Monica Lewinsky and by himself uh in and around the Oval Office.

[00:03:34]And uh his pollster at that time, Dick Morris, recalled in testimony in the in the investigations that Clinton had said to him to, you know, could you do an instant poll to find out whether I can get away with it if I tell the truth.

[00:03:48]And the and Dick Morris told him he couldn't. And so, Clinton just said, "Well, we just have to win." And that basically sort of set the example. You don't, you know, go into a room by yourself with a bottle of scotch and a and a revolver, or you don't just resign in disgrace and hide your head head in shame. You just say, "Well, we're going to fight and fight and fight and win, and we're going to just tough it out." And that's the way that politicians, ever since Clinton, have been behaving.

[00:04:14]>> So, Democrats have based so much of everything they stand for right now on being morally superior to Donald Trump, but also other Republicans. And you mentioned Ken Paxton as one of the top sort of targets for Democrats this cycle. Does it lower their credibility to go after Trump and Paxton and others like them on character concerns >> Yes.

[00:04:37]>> from a national messaging standpoint if they are going to stand by a Platner through this?

[00:04:40]>> Oh, absolutely. It's just absolute rank hypocrisy. It shows that there's no principle involved. Um, the it it the the the behavior that is alleged against Trump, and and and and much of it is extremely the the allegations are extremely dubious. Um, the but much of that what we have with Platner is factual, absolutely proven uh depravities. And of course it it it means that, you know, if Democrats stick with him, they don't really care about the underlying faults.

[00:05:18]He's essentially if he turns up, if he win, if he he still has the ability to win, he shows up in the Senate, and he votes as he's instructed, then his all of his background will get a free pass.

[00:05:30]I think that something that everybody really needs to understand about Platner is that his authenticity is a complete sham. He's not just a a man of the people, an ordinary guy, an oyster farmer.

[00:05:42]He's from a wealthy family. He went to an expensive uh prep school, $75,000 a year prep school, from which by the way he was expelled. And it would be interesting to know why he was expelled from from school.

[00:05:56]He didn't buy his house with a loan from the Veterans Administration as he claimed, but with $200,000 from his father.

[00:06:04]His oyster farm is only seems to have one customer, and that's the restaurant owned by his mother. I mean, the the guy is an utter sham. Um and uh sort of as it were plucked from obscurity because he has the ability to communicate as a people up on the coast of Maine, which I spend a lot of time on, you know, regard him as having sort of lightning in a bottle. He's he's he's good at that.

[00:06:29]But um he's he's he's a complete fraud.

[00:06:34]Um and he doesn't even understand that character is what voters are looking for.

[00:06:39]>> He's not the only candidate, I guess just this past cycle or or, you know, I guess Zoran Momdani wouldn't be part of this cycle, but you also have James Tallarico in Texas who was, you know, a little-known state legislator pastor.

[00:06:52]You have Grant Putnam. You have Zoran Momdani who is my age, wild to think about, huh? You know, why are Democrats going and finding really obscure characters with a lot of baggage and and and running them? Is it a sign of their desperation?

[00:07:07]>> I don't know if it No, I think it isn't what I think part of the it is finding people who are very left-wing.

[00:07:14]>> Mhm.

[00:07:15]>> I think that's the the there are there are people with a lot of money uh who are very left-wing, and they want to change the country. They want to they want to get rid of the sort of as it were left of center, but at least the center is is is within view. It's not somewhere beyond the horizon.

[00:07:33]>> Mhm.

[00:07:34]>> They want to get rid of the establishment left-wing party and replace it with a radical militant uh uh uh left-wingers who want to change what America is.

[00:07:45]And um you know, you if if you if you find someone who is utterly shameless and they're willing to stand in front of cameras and pretend and that they're something they're not and nevertheless vote in extreme left-wing ways um then, you know, perhaps you got you you you have something powerful. But it's very interesting that the recent the most recent we're going to have a there's going to be more about Plant for sure.

[00:08:10]He was uh he met with some of his supporters, for example, Elizabeth Elizabeth Warren in the Senate and Bernie Sanders and they were asking him if there was more to come out as if more were needed to condemn the fellow.

[00:08:25]And one of the things he said, "Well, there were no credible allegations of sexual harassment or abuse." Which means to say it pretty much guarantees that when all of the facts are known, it it will be established that he is accused of some sort of sexual harassment or abuse and he's going to argue that they're not credible.

[00:08:44]>> As you mentioned earlier this morning, there are at least six women walking around Maine with bombshells on their cell phones right now. So Hugo, thank you so much for being here today. You can get more from Hugo and the rest of the commentary team at washingtonexaminer.com.

[00:08:57]>> [music] [music] [music] [music]