The Democrat Senate Primary in Maine is next Tuesday, and the presumptive nominee Graham Platner is facing a new revelation of sexting with woman outside his marriage, to go along with several previously reported Reddit posts where he referred to himself as a “communist,” called “all” police officers “bastards” and said rural White Americans “actually are” racist and stupid, and then there is his Nazi tattoo.
But if you were watching CNN's Inside Politics Tuesday, Host Dana Bash's segment on Platner covered almost all of this up, even though it was CNN's KFILE who broke the story on Reddit posts last October.
Bash headed into a break, teasing the segment with, "We have new details on Graham Platner meeting today here in Washington with Senate Democrats as another revelation rattles his race to flip a GOP seat." Nice tease,but there would be barley a mention of that new revelation.
Bash began the segment by disclosing that Platner was headed into the meeting carrying "new political baggage," claiming that it is "giving his party new reasons to worry." But she made no mention of new or old reasons to worry, instead tossing to a clip from Platner supporter Bernie Sanders, who asked of Platner, "Is he a saint? I guess not. I don't know too many saints." She then gave the floor to Bloomberg Political Columnist Nia-Malika Henderson, who also kept quiet about any specifics.
HENDERSON: Progressive Democrats were first out of the gate in backing Platner. Now they have to hope that he is Teflon....They have to in some ways, hope that he's like Trump, who has had many, many scandals, obviously survived the primary in 2016, in the presidency. There is probably a little bit of buyer's remorse.... This is a bit of a mess.
What bit of a mess? Why does he need to be Teflon? She didn't give a clue, yet she brought up Donald Trump. Next, Semafor Politics Reporter David Weigel, came the closest the segment would come to revealing anything that Platner had posted or done.
WEIGEL: What happened with his former campaign adviser going to the press and saying, his wife told me that he sent texts that we've not seen, but texts to women who he wasn't married to right after he got married. That's a different kind of story, that complicates the narrative that this is a man who went through PTSD, and remade his life.
Nine hours later on Fox News's Hannity, Sean handled his Platner segment in a completely different manner, with honest reporting.
HANNITY: We begin in Maine tonight where a rich kid turned communist Graham Platner is now trying to unseat moderate Republican Susan Collins but unfortunately for Democrat, Platner's extremist views are not even his biggest problem. Tonight, sex acts. Apparently he can't pass a porta potty without being attracted to the porta potty to.. pleasure himself. A sexting scandal during his current three-year marriage and of course nearly 20 years that disgusting Nazi tattoo. Graham Platner is clearly unfit for office.
He then played a clip of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer being asked over and over again if he still supports Platner, after meeting with him earlier in the day, and the Democrat kept repeating, "We're going to beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate."
HANNITY: He's like a robot. Now chuck Schumer is refusing to condemn a candidate with a tattoo based on a symbol used by the Nazi SS guards at death camps. That is moral cowardice. Chuck Schumer, you are a moral coward.
Hannity would go on to welcome in Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz with, "You look at this guy, the Nazi thing should have been enough. It wasn't. Sexually explicit messages. Porta potties pretty bad. Blaming sex assault victims suggest women take responsibility.... All cops are bastards, an admitted communist. He called people in his state of Maine, white men, he said they are racist.
Hannity told his audience who Platner is, and because it doesn't fit the left wing media narrative of taking the Senate, Bash and CNN kept their viewers totally in the dark.
