Hey CNN: Time to Redo Your Man-in-the-Street Interviews on Platner!

As we noted back on June 7th, out of hundreds of thousands of Maine Democrats, CNN, in its man-in-the-street clips, couldn't find a single one who wouldn't vote for scandal-plagued Graham Platner.

"Party loyalty über alles," as we noted. Voters held their noses, called the stories "foibles" or "none of anybody else's business," and planned to vote for him anyway. One woman, even after accusing Platner of lying about his Nazi tattoo, still said, "I'm gonna vote for him, yeah."
 
Fast-forward exactly one month: a fresh sexual assault allegation drops (which Platner denies), and suddenly top Democrats (Khanna, Gallego, Schumer, Maine party) are stampeding for the exits, urging him to drop out.
 
Hey, CNN—time for a follow-up Maine man-in-the-street! Revisit Bonnie Depp, "Zoo Cain," Sandra Braden, and the others who were ready to "hold their noses." What do they say today? Maybe you should have looked a little harder last month—you surely could have found at least one savvy Down Easter who saw the writing on Platner's wall!
 
On today's CNN This Morning, host Audie Cornish played the whataboutism card. She aired a clip of Rep. Debbie Dingell falsely claiming Trump had been "convicted" of sexual assault, and saying that the Platner situation is, as a result, "very complicated." Cornish summarized the pivot sympathetically: "It feels like you're hearing someone say, 'It's mainly complicated for us, but not with Republicans.'"
 
Even CNN's Aaron Blake, hardly a conservative partisan, subtly walked back Dingell's misrepresentation, noting Trump had been held "civilly liable" for sexual abuse. They don't need another defamation lawsuit. 
 

CNN found far-left streamer Hasan Piker ("HasanAbi") respectable enough to air a clip of him denouncing Platner as "irredeemable" and "curtains." Why platform Piker? He's notorious for despicable statements such as:

• “Hamas is a thousand times better than the fascist settler colonial apartheid state” of Israel, and he “would vote for Hamas over Israel every single time.”
• Referring to ultra-Orthodox Jews as “inbred ultra-Orthodox psychopaths” and calling West Bank settlers “the Jewish KKK brigades” of “inbred hicks literally doing pogroms.”
• Comparing liberal Zionists to “liberal Nazis” who want a “Jewish ethno-state.”

Panelist Karen Finney claimed she was "one of the people who said, no, I wouldn't have voted for him."

Republican strategist Doug Heye offered an interesting personal take. Saying that Platner's downfall was "predicted by folks like myself" who know Platner, Heye mentioned that from 2010-2015, when he and friends would enter a certain DC bar, if Platner was bartending, they'd consider going somewhere else. "Because he would corner you, or he would corner somebody else, with a lot of weird stuff." 

Heye added that when earlier accuser Lyndsey Fifield spoke out, Democrats attacked her credibility because of Republican connections—"Sheldon Whitehouse owes her an apology."

What a difference an allegation by a Democrat — not a Republican like Fifield — makes for CNN!

John Fetterman has weighed in as well, calling on Bernie Sanders to apologize for backing a "predator."

One month ago: CNN’s man-in-the-street found unified “hold your nose” support for Platner. Today: Even its own panel won’t defend him, and Democrats are bailing en masse. Funny how that works.

Here's the transcript.

CNN This Morning
7/7/26
6:00 am EDT

GRAHAM PLATNER: We are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.

AUDIE CORNISH: But is it curtains for Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner? He is taking a step back to reflect. The Democrats are jumping ship. 

Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. We're gonna start with the pressure mounting on Graham Platner after new accusations emerged Monday. A woman he dated coming forward saying that he raped her while he was heavily intoxicated. This allegation stems from an event nine— about five years ago, and they are accusations Platner denies.

PLATNER: I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of non-consensual behavior is categorically false.

CORNISH: Democratic support all but collapsing, several key leaders have called for him to drop out, others rescinding their endorsement. Is it too little, too late to salvage the Democrats' chances in Maine?

HASAN PIKER: That is curtains. In hindsight, yeah, I mean, he had, he had a lot of red flags, red flags that I also pointed to. This is beyond red flags though, this is, is irredeemable.

CORNISH: So today in the group chat, we've got Aaron Blake, CNN's senior political reporter, Doug Heye, Republican strategist and former RNC communications director, and Karen Finney, CNN political commentator and former senior advisor for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. You guys, welcome back. Thanks for being here after Independence Day. 

For those of you who were smart enough to not pay attention to the news over the weekend, I wanna play for you, sound from the victim, the person making allegations, so that you can understand the context of what we are saying. Our own Jake Tapper sat down with her, and here's a portion of that conversation.

JAKE TAPPER: Just to underline the point, you're not coming forward because you have any political motivation. 

JENNY RACICOT: No, not at all. That was actually one of the huge reasons that I didn't come forward and, and still struggled, like that was a huge moral conflict to, to feel like --

TAPPER: Because you'd like a Democrat to be in the Senate.

RACICOT: Yeah, I like the things that he speaks about. They're important. They're important to people, and I'm one of those people.

TAPPER: But at the end of the day, you feel he's not being honest.

RACICOT: He's not being honest, no.

CORNISH: Okay, Aaron, I want to start with you, because I think a lot of Democrats have been waiting to push send on their draft post saying, "Please drop out." 

AARON BLAKE: It happened pretty quickly last night. I think we, we saw the kind of culmination of all these controversies coming to a head, and they, they decided this was the moment that they wanted to cut bait. And I think they'd been kinda getting there for a while, but, but this became the moment. 

I think it's difficult to see how he continues in this race. Certainly, when you see a candidate come forward and say, "I'm going to reflect on my candidacy," it's very rare for that person to then come back and say, I'm just gonna try to stick it out for a little while.

CORNISH: But you know what, that was a weird statement, right? It's like he comes out with a video that doesn't say I'm dropping out, it doesn't say I'm staying in, it might as well have said, I'm waiting to see if y'all are gonna back me on this, and in the meantime, I'll wait quietly. 

KAREN FINNEY: But that's exactly what it means, right? It means I'm buying myself time to get with my advisors and figure out can I get out gracefully. Especially given how quickly, because, let's be honest, since the last allegations came forward, there were a lot of concerns in the Democratic party. He said once again, like he told Manu Raju the first time, nothing else, no more to see here. Obviously, he came to Washington and reassured people. 

CORNISH: And to be clear, she did come forward and she noted that, you know, people sort of glossed over the allegations I raised because one of the other accusers had Republican connections.

DOUG HEYE: Yeah, Lindsey Ficula was named. Sheldon Whitehouse owes her an apology. And frankly, this wasn't predictable, it was predicted. And it was predicted by folks like myself who know Graham Platner. 

He used to be a bartender at the Tune Inn, a few blocks from here, and you'd walk in, this is 2010 through 2015, you'd walk in and you'd say, "Oh, that guy's working again," and you'd say, "Do we wanna go somewhere else or not?" Because he would corner you, or he would corner somebody else, with a lot of weird stuff. And so when the accusations started coming, myself and other people said, "There will be more."

CORNISH: Wait, around women? Or I wanna understand what you are claiming here.

HEYE: All of it. All of it. And so when Lindsey Ficula spoke out and was attacked by Democrats: you can't believe her because she's a Republican. I thought the message was, we believe women. Turns out that's not always the case. Now this is deemed as credible? Frankly, this was predicted, it was predictable. He was a terrible candidate, he always was, and this is an own goal by Democrats.

CORNISH: This is one more person who's being called on to apologize, okay? And this comes from John Fetterman of Pennsylvania. On Monday, he told Fox News this.

JOHN FETTERMAN: I would really call on Bernie Sanders to apologize for pushing this kind of predator more than anyone he helped him elect, and now apologize to the victims, especially the woman that she claimed that he raped her. So I don't know why you wanna keep pushing these kinds of people. maybe he should consider, set a few out, and stop pushing these kind of communists.

CORNISH: Does Bernie Sanders need to be involved in this?

FINNEY: I mean, he certainly should apologize and acknowledge that he was wrong. 

But I, I want to make sure we don't miss something here, because yes, he has been a flawed candidate, all of those things, but the people of Maine did vote for him. And part of, I mean, whether you're Republican or Democrat, part of what had created the challenge was, is the national party really gonna tell voters of Maine, "No, that guy, he can't be your person." 

Now it is, it is a position where people can say, we're gonna pull our support, and the Maine Democratic Party has pulled their support, and they're gonna have to decide. There's a process by which they can decide how they would replace him on the ticket. And so, I mean, that's the, the challenge. Many of us said, I was one of the people who said, no, I wouldn't have voted for him, but --

CORNISH: Can I play for you something, another thing Democrats argue though, which I think is pretty specific, pretty consistent, which is, well, look, in, in Trump, we got a real problem with women--and so maybe we shouldn't care about this so much. 

Here's Debbie Dingell of Michigan.

DEBBIE DINGELL: I will always, be concerned about domestic violence allegations, sexual assault allegations.

But I'm also, we got a man in the White House that's a predator, has been convicted of sexual assault, and people's lives are being impacted by this every single day. 

So it's a very complicated situation, and it is ultimately up to  the people of Maine, who I suspect he is going to talk to and listen to.

CORNISH: It feels like you're hearing someone say, "It's, it's mainly complicated for us, but not with Republicans." Meaning, when it comes to Trump, you know, something needs to be done, someone needs to step in. It's not, "Well, the voters decided," but for Democrats, it's, "Well, voters have to do it now." I mean, it's not as bad as having a predator in the White House, that kind of language.

BLAKE: Yeah, I think that's emblematic of why Democrats held out for as long as they did with Graham Plattner. They're kind of wondering why, why the rules of gravity apply to their candidates, but not to the guy in the White House. But we have seen when Republicans have put up flawed candidates for, for Senate, voters have rebuked those candidates. You know, Herschel Walker didn't do very well in Georgia. There's been a series of Senate candidates, especially who haven't done well in, in, in recent years. So I think there, there is an argument for, you know, why does Trump skate on this stuff? Why does he get past being held civilly liable for sexual abuse, but this doesn't necessarily transfer to other candidates, and that's both Democrats and Republicans. 

FINNEY: I think that was part of the question that, or when this first came, these allegations first came out or questions came out, wait a second, does this mean have the standards changed because of Trump? 

And look, Graham Platner came out initially, and he had his rationale about being now a changed man. Again, the voters of Maine seemed to accept that. But then, I think when we got to a place where we're talking about violence, people, you know, that's it.

CORNISH: I think one problem for Democrats is they have struggled in the post-Me Too era to understand where their own line is --

FINNEY: I think the country has struggled. 

CORNISH: --and to understand, but Democrats made it a defining issue for a time, and now that it is not, they don't know where their line is. You're saying violence, and I think that's a great one, but I don't think it's clear, as you go into these races. We're gonna talk about who might step into the breach in Maine.