That’s Curtains: MSNOW Turns on Platner, But Levels Cheap Shots on the Way Out

Curtis Houck
July 6th, 2026 6:03 PM

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Politico dropped a new Graham Platner bombshell Monday afternoon that ex-girlfriend Jenny Racicot alleged the Maine Democrat senatorial candidate “forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections.” MS NOW surprisingly was on it within 30 minutes and made clear that, aside from one guest arguing he stay in because Brett Kavanaugh “raped” Christine Blasey Ford, they have had enough of their now-former darling.

Notably and separately, The New York Times spoke to Racicot for a June 4 story, but reportedly refused to include this allegation despite Racicot volunteering that information.

But back on MSNOW, their coverage began with The Moment as host Katy Tur had congressional correspondent Mychael Schnell summarize the Politico piece and remind viewers Platner had a week from Monday to drop out for Maine Democrats to replace him on the November ballot.

“The sentiment that I was hearing was..Democrats didn’t see him as the perfect candidate, that there were these concerns about these indiscretions and these — these poor reports. But at the end of the day, Maine is such an important pickup opportunity for them, and he was their candidate. So, they were letting it go by the wayside,” she added.

The first real sign of trouble on this liberal flagship cable network was The Weeknight co-host and longtime Swamp nepobaby Luke Russert, who said “the person who made the accusations was very conflicted about coming forward” because she’s a fellow progressive.

Because of that, he argued, “I don’t see how he can be the nominee for senator in Maine for the Democratic Party.”

“I think what you have here, though, is a pickup opportunity is incredibly important in Maine for the party if they want to get control of the Senate...but now is looking that it’s significantly worse than what was advertised, and especially for a party that was so intertwined with Me Too, and believing women, it looks very hypocritical if there is not, I think, a real examination of him moving forward,” he concluded.

New York Times columnist Charles Blow went in the other direction with a serious, double-dose of whataboutism.

Once he deployed standard platitudes that Racicot deserves to say whatever it is she wants, Blow whined “Democrats and Republicans are playing by a completely separate, separate rulebooks [sic]” because “Donald Trump was found liable of sexually abusing a woman” and “Christine Blasey Ford gave, I thought, compelling testimony against Brett Kavanaugh about what she said — she was raped.”

Going to Deadline: White House, fill-in host Antonia Hylton solemnly began with the “deeply disturbing new report, published in the last hour about Graham Platner, is shaking up the crucial U.S. Senate race in Maine” with a “new bombshell” in Politico.

Hylton’s panel consisted of Schnell as well as former fellow The Weekend: Prime co-host Ayman Mohyeldin and far-left pundit/columnist Molly Jong-Fast.

Hylton noticed Platner’s video denial included verbiage “in the past tense as though he’s about to...suspend this campaign” while Mohyeldin blasted the Nazi tattoo guy as having “a credibility problem” as the litany of denials have come with an “open-ended” tinge to leave open the possibility of more damaging stories.

Once you add in Jong-Fast’s admission that “this is not a candidate who is ready for prime time in any stretch of the imagination,” and she’s “baffled that the vetting and the vetting process for this candidate” failed so spectacularly, you have a liberal media ready to throw him overboard after months of standing by him.

Within that larger clip, however, were a series of vile attacks we have to address.

First, Mohyeldin took aim at Lyndsey Fifield, another Platner ex-girlfriend who spoke to The New York Times, falsely claiming Racicot was the first ex to have brought “receipts” or “told other people about” him and thus has “so much more credibility.”

 

Fact-check: Pants on fire. Fifield offered friends, texts, and diaries as well. The Times never spoke to her friends.

Hylton also set Racicot apart as more credible because “she’s clearly wrestling with the consequences of her coming forward, of her putting her reputation, her own personal story out there” and “you can tell this is something that she’s dealing with in real time and that she cares, it seems, about our democracy.”

But Hylton also charged Racicot with more credibility in comparison to other exes because, in Fifield’s case, she was “associated with right-wing politics.”

News flash: Believe all women is one of the biggest lies in modern politics.

Next, pay attention to how these leftists are suddenly aghast Platner lied to them (click “expand”):

HYLTON: You know, Ayman, when Graham Platner was on with our colleague Chris Hayes, he told him that nothing else was coming. Chris asked him directly, is there something else out there? Will there be more allegations? And he said, no. He brushed it off.

MOYHELDIN: This is the crisis that Graham Platner has created by his own doing, because throughout the allegations that have come forward over the course of his campaign, and there have been a few different buckets of allegations, whether it was the Nazi tattoo, whether he knew what it was, the — the previous allegations of misconduct with women, and now the sexual assault allegations, per Politico. Every time there is an allegation or a question about his conduct, he either says it was because of, as in the case of the tattoos, he was drunk. He didn’t know what he was doing. It’s attributable to mental challenges that he had or mental health challenges that he had. But then he would try to close the chapter by saying there shouldn’t be anything else to come out. As you said, when he had that interview, he said there were no more allegations. And for somebody who has had a troubled past and has acknowledged that he’s had a troubled past and is a flawed candidate, there have been more than, you know, ample moments for him to come forward in full disclosure and say, there have been a lot of mistakes that I have made, with as many specifics as you can, so that the people who are voting for him, the citizens and the residents of Maine, are aware of what those allegations are. Now, does that mean he has to come forward and name every single person? No, that’s — that’s not the case. But there’s always this sense when Graham Platner came forward to defend himself, that his apologies while he tried to project them as being sincere, always kept the door open, that there still may be more allegations, and at some point you have to wonder, when is it up? You know, enough is enough in terms of all of these problems that are — keep — that are being, you know, coming forward as a result of the reporting[.]

Hylton and Mohyeldin actually had the gall to argue viewers should feel bad for the Democrats who “have staked their reputation by standing alongside Graham Platner, people who have endorsed him and have stood by him” as well as primary voters “who so many of them have been crying out, wanting change, desperate for a younger person to represent them in the Senate, someone with new ideas to bring to the table.” 

Once Schnell further explained the process the Maine Democratic Party would use to replace Platner if he did quit, Mohyeldin gave his final thoughts by arguing “you can make a compelling argument that you have to try to find somebody within the Democratic establishment in Maine that represents closest to Graham Platner viewpoints” instead of who finished second in the primary, Governor Janet Mills.

As for Hylton, the supposed journalist agreed because “Mills does have these serious, you know, vulnerabilities, both because voters were concerned about her age,” had “different conflicts with Native American communities,” and “really didn’t travel the state to the extent that Graham Platner did.”

In other words, Platner better be replaced by a fellow socialist...or else!

To see the relevant MSNOW transcripts from July 6, click here (for The Moment) and here (for Deadline: White House).

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