CNN Mangles Its Own Timeline on Platner's Bogus 'I Said It 15 Years Ago' Spin

CNN is not always the Competence News Network. On Friday's CNN This Morning, host Audie Cornish relayed that Democrats are rallying around their Senate candidate in Maine, Graham Platner despite all the crazy things he's put on the internet in the last few years.

In October 2025, the network’s K-File investigative team published an article documenting Platner’s posts through 2021. It found many of his most outrageous remarks were among the most recent. As the headline of CNN’s own report put it: “I got older and became a communist.”

But today, Cornish ran a clip of Platner's "redemption" story, where he claimed he used to say crazy things "15 years ago." That's not what CNN reporters found. 

CORNISH: CNN's own K-file reporter last October uncovered a lot of his social media posts, where he once called himself a communist. He dismissed all police as bastards, said that rural white Americans actually are racist and stupid. There are some Reddit posts with some sort of misogynist commentary. 

The reason why I'm bringing this up is because, when you listen to the Jon Stewart interview, one of the things Platner does is tell a sort of story of redemption: I was this guy. I was this guy on social media. I'm the kind of guy you actually want to flip, and bring into the party. Here's what he said to Jon Stewart. 

GRAHAM PLATNER: To see myself being framed by people who have never met me, who know absolutely nothing about my background, really, uh who like just latched on to this like, oh, this guy said dumb things on the internet 15 years ago. 

And I'm like, yeah man, I did because I was, like, an angry young dude who got back from my fourth combat tour and, like, was isolated and lonely, and spent time bitching on the internet. 

That "I became a communist" blather was Platner in 2021, when he was 37—some “young dude.” How does Cornish run this clip and not correct the time line? That’s not a small miss. It’s a glaring one—because CNN’s own reporting demolishes Platner’s narrative.

Instead, Cornish teed up her fellow former NPR host Lulu Garcia-Navarro to embrace Platner’s spin. Garcia-Navarro happily obliged on the redemption spin: “I think that’s a compelling argument.”

Not one person challenged the timeline. Not one. And Cornish chose not to set the record straight.

Cornish's instinct to downplay any controversy surrounding Platner surfaced again when liberal contributor Elliot Williams pointed out the double standard: if a Republican candidate had written similar things—suggesting, for example, that women sometimes “deserve” rape—Democrats “would be screaming bloody murder.”

Cornish’s response? A shrug: “Well, since woke is over, I’m not sure.”

CNN enabled Platner’s defense—while ignoring its own reporting that refuted it.

For viewers, the message was clear: this is all ancient history, nothing to see here. Except it isn’t. And CNN knows it.

Here's the transcript.

CNN This Morning
5/1/26
6:41 am EDT

AUDIE CORNISH: You also mentioned Maine. This is a good example of what people are talking about, because you have Senate Democrats there rallying around a new choice for senator. Governor Janet Mills has ended her campaign. And Governor Mills had been recruited into the race by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer just last year. However, the 78-year-old quickly found herself trailing against a more progressive candidate, Graham Platner. 

CNN's own K-file reporter last October uncovered a lot of his social media posts, where he once called himself a communist. He dismissed all police as bastards, said that rural white Americans actually are racist and stupid. There are some Reddit posts with some sort of misogynist commentary. 

The reason why I'm bringing this up is because, when you listen to the Jon Stewart interview, one of the things Platner does is tell a sort of story of redemption: I was this guy. I was this guy on social media. I'm the kind of guy you actually want to flip, and bring into the party. Here's what he said to Jon Stewart. 

GRAHAM PLATNER: To see myself being framed by people who have never met me, who know absolutely nothing about my background, really, uh who like just latched on to this like, oh, this guy said dumb things on the internet 15 years ago. 

And I'm like, yeah man, I did because I was, like, an angry young dude who got back from my fourth combat tour and, like, was isolated and lonely, and spent time bitching on the internet. 

. . . 

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Oh, I mean, sure, I'll take that. I think that's a compelling argument. 

CORNISH: Is the pre-Trump concept of candidate quality dead and gone? 

TONY KINNETT [of the Daily Signal]: I think it's a little interesting that grace is selectively given. Obviously, over on the right side of the aisle, I would be more readily happy to criticize his past in certain areas because that's what we do. 

And on the left, I notice a lot of, oh, it was 15 years ago, come on. But the comments were saying, sometimes those who are raped deserve it. 

CORNISH: Can I just say, in the era of Nick Fuentes, can we not, like, maybe --

KINNETT: I was part of the organization that kicked him out ten years ago. 

CORNISH: That's fine, but I'm just saying, there's very clearly a modern widening of the window of the political discourse that neither party has adequately explained away, that I don't understand. 

ELLIOT WILLIAMS: Yeah, but, you're talking about sexual assault here, and I just think Democrats would be screaming bloody murder. 

CORNISH: Talking about sexual assault -- he had not. Because right now there's a lawmaker who is facing sexual assault claims who's not being kicked out of Congress. 

WILLIAMS: Understood. But Democrats would be screaming bloody murder if a Republican candidate had --

KINNETT: -- Said sometimes she deserves it. 

CORNISH: -- under their old rubric, yeah. 

WILLIAMS: Like, 15 years ago, I was a younger guy. 

CORNISH: Well, since woke is over, I'm not sure.