As Democratic Senate Candidate Graham Platner (ME) suffers repeated scandals, the CNN News Central crew has been playing interference for his campaign, avoiding coverage of the most concerning details of the whole ordeal during their Monday show. From his sexual messages on an app referred to as a ‘Predator’s Paradise’, to his Nazi tattoo cover-up, nobody over at CNN News Central brought up any of the most important details regarding the scandals in its three-hour run time. Instead, they simply noted the scandals existed.
CNN’s most expansive coverage regarding Platner’s older scandal, his now-removed Nazi tattoo, amounted to “his other scandals.” Strange to see the media writing off controversial tattoos given their reaction to Pete Hegseth’s tattoo. This controversy was secondary, however, to the primary focus of their coverage: Platner’s sexcapades on a messaging site allegedly notorious for child predation and sexual abuse:
SARA SIDNER: The New York Times first reported the presumptive Democratic Senate nominee, Graham Platner, sent sexually explicit messages to several women a few years ago, shortly after he was married. Platner’s own wife disclosed those messages to his campaign as a potential liability.
Of course, co-host Sara Sidner and the rest of the News Central gang failed to mention the more concerning part of the scandal.
As reported by the Daily Wire, the app on which Platner was sending these messages, Kik, had a massive population of under-18 users. Alongside that, Kik had also been implicated in allegedly enabling hundreds of child sexual abuse cases, not even mentioning its general reputation as a site plagued with sexual exploitation and misconduct. Looks quite a bit more serious now.
While easily a potentially election-changing piece of information, CNN couldn’t risk actually informing its viewers about the details of the scandal - not if it meant hurting their favorite party’s chances of winning the election! Instead, they decided to shift the blame onto their favorite target: Republicans:
LEIGH ANN CALDWELL: I've talked to Democrats who are, you know, Democratic voters and a couple Democratic aides who say that Trump has absolutely changed the dynamic. They say, well, what about Donald Trump? He was elected again after being convicted for sexual harassment or sexual assault.
And then they pointed to Ken Paxton, who Republicans just elected to be their nominee in the Texas Senate primary last week. He has a long, scandalous past. And so, you know, that is one argument that some Democrats are making: that there seems to be a double standard between Republican candidates and Democratic candidates. But, the fact is, it matters in what specific race everyone is running in.
Leigh Ann was right that there was a double standard between Republican and Democratic candidates, but she had it backwards. When Trump or Paxton were implicated in some kind of scandal, the media would latch on to it for months, clawing at any rumor or shred of guilt. With Platner, they instead tell you not to look behind the curtain and point the other way.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
CNN’s News Central
June 1, 2026
07:03:16 Eastern
ANDREW DESIDERIO: For what will obviously continue to be a drip-drip of, you know, scandalous personal history to come out about Graham Platner.KATE BOLDUAN: And you mentioned the drip-drip, because this isn't the first kind of negative hit that Platner’s campaign has faced since he got into this race. I mean, as the polls would show, it hasn't cut into his support so far. I mean, Mills got out because she couldn't- her numbers were just not holding up and she wasn't fundraising. Then, he's led Collins by like nine points in a University of New Hampshire poll released last week. I wonder what this race really, then, is going to come down to. What are you hearing?
(...)
DESIDERIO: And you're right, Graham Platner has shown a very unique ability to weather many of these scandals, and I think many of his supporters in Maine are wary of what could come out next. For example, I was at a veterans town hall a couple of weeks ago with Graham Platner and a Vietnam veteran stood up and said, “look, you and I both know that there's more coming out here, and the Republican onslaught is going to be just incessant. So I want to know what your plan is for combating all of that.” So I think it shows that his supporters, his most passionate supporters, are keenly aware of the dynamics here.
BOLDUAN: That really is an interesting- that's a really interesting window, Andrew. The question not being “what is coming out, sir? Tell us now.” It's how- it's “stuff is going to come out. And how are you going to manage it?” from a supporter. That's really interesting. It's great to have you. Thanks for jumping on this morning. I really appreciate it. Sarah.
(...)
08:02:10
SARA SIDNER: And Maine's primary is not until next week, but a new scandal now rocking that race and dealing a potential blow to Democrats’ efforts to retake the state. The New York Times first reported the presumptive Democratic Senate nominee, Graham Platner, sent sexually explicit messages to several women a few years ago, shortly after he was married. Platner’s own wife disclosed those messages to his campaign as a potential liability. She released a statement accusing a former campaign official of releasing those sexts and betraying her trust.With me now is CNN reporter Patrick Svitek. Wow. This is some new information and it's going to hit hard potentially in Maine. Give us some sense of what we're looking at here for the next week and plus.
PATRICK SVITEK: A political conundrum for Maine Democrats. In many ways, they've fallen in love with Graham Platner. He's had such a strong campaign that his closest primary rival, Maine Governor Janet Mills, had to suspend her campaign a few weeks ago.
But now approaching the June 9th primary, we have this latest controversy involving those revelations, first reported by the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times and Maine Democrats are again questioning whether this is a controversy that someone like Graham Platner can weather in a general election against the Republican incumbent, Susan Collins.
(...)09:01:13
JOHN BERMAN: All right. A big day of primaries across the country tomorrow, six states casting votes. But this morning, a lot of focus is on a state that votes next week: Maine. The New York Times first reported the presumptive Democratic Senate nominee, Graham Platner, sent sexually explicit messages to several women a few years ago. The Wall Street Journal reported this also, and these messages were sent after he was married. Platner is looking to unseat longtime Republican Senator Susan Collins.Now, one twist here is it was Platner’s own wife who disclosed these messages to his own campaign as a potential political liability. She has since released a statement saying she is deeply hurt that those messages became public and is accusing a former campaign official of betraying her trust.
With us now senior Congressional reporter for Punchbowl News, Andrew Desiderio, who has been in Maine recently covering this, and chief Washington correspondent of Puck Leigh Ann Caldwell. As always, I'd like to bring Puck and Punchbowl together. I call it a puck-bowl panel. Thank you both for being with us.
Andrew, I just want to start with you because you have been up there, and kind of shift this from just a discussion about Maine to the larger question facing Democrats nationwide as elected Democrats are being asked about this, they're being forced to consider whether or not they are going to find something like this- what scandal should be disqualifying? How are Democrats approaching this?
DESIDERIO: Well, we're going to find out a lot about Democrats’ level of tolerance for these types of scandals. Obviously, there's been a lot that's already come out about Graham Platner. But it seems to be, you know, even five months out from the election, that this is going to continue to be sort of a drip-drip of opposition research and other information coming out about him.
(...)
BERMAN: And one of the questions, Leigh Ann, is, to what extent in 2026, what's a scandal in ‘26? How much is too much? And to what extent has President Trump changed the parameters of what is disqualifying in an election?
LEIGH ANN CALDWELL: Yeah, John, he's absolutely changed it. I've talked to Democrats who are, you know, Democratic voters and a couple Democratic aides who say that Trump has absolutely changed the dynamic. They say, well, what about Donald Trump? He was elected again after being convicted for sexual harassment or sexual assault.
And then they point to Ken Paxton, who Republicans just elected to be their nominee in the Texas Senate primary last week. He has a long, scandalous past. And so, you know, that is one argument that some Democrats are making: that there seems to be a double standard between Republican candidates and Democratic candidates. But, the fact is, it matters in what specific race everyone is running in.
