DAM BREAK: The Elitist Media Sunday Shows Finally Cover Graham Platner's Scandals

Jorge Bonilla
May 31st, 2026 2:48 PM

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As we’ve often said: what the Elitist Media cover on their newscasts and Sunday political affairs shows is almost as important as what they DON’T cover. This was the case with the Democrat Senate candidate from Maine: Graham Platner, where there was no mention of him at all. But the latest sexting allegations have forced a change. 

In a notable exchange, perhaps the first on a Sunday show wherein an elected Democrat is challenged on Platner, CNN’s Dana Bash takes three passes at Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ)- and fails to get him to take any stance on either Platner’s sexting or his Nazi SS Death’s Head tattoo:

DANA BASH: I want to ask you about the Senate race in Maine, and the Wall Street Journal and  New York Times reporting that last August, Democrat Graham Platner wife told his campaign about sexual text messages she had found between her husband and other women early in their marriage, and they were married in 2023. The Times says Platner exchanged messages with as many as a dozen women, and his campaign said no, It was up to six. In a statement, Platner's wife said she feels betrayed by the ex-campaign aide, who revealed the information, and that the couple went to counseling. Do you have concerns about Graham Platner?

ANDY KIM: Well, first I'll say is, you know, I've been very much focused on the crisis in my home state, so I haven't been able to focus as much on this. But right now, you know, this information is out there with any campaign in the country. You know, the character and the transparency about the different candidates is going to come out. That's part of a campaign. And the voters will decide what it is that they ultimately think in terms of their ability to trust those candidates.

BASH: What do you think?

KIM: Well, look, right now for me, like I have not met him. I've never talked to him yet. But what I am- what I do hear from people in New Jersey around the country is that they don't trust this U.S. Senate right now, led by the Republicans as we are about to go back into session this coming week, and what they are pushing on is, you know, 60 to $70 billion more for ICE, for CBP, for immigration. They want that stopped.

BASH: So do what it takes to elect Democrats, regardless of questions like this?

KIM: From my standpoint, you know, I will work with whoever the people of Maine elect, but I hope that they elect somebody that is going to stand up to this president, work with me to be able to fight back against all these dangers.

BASH: Yeah. One of your fellow Democrats, Jake Auchincloss, said that because of other red flags, including the fact that Platner had a tattoo with Nazi origins that he later covered up after that came out, Auchincloss said that Platner’s tattoo and his commentary about it were disqualifying. Do you agree?

KIM: Well, look, like I said, this is up for the voters of Maine. You know, in New Jersey, I stood up against my previous senator who was indicted for corruption. I felt like that was something where we had to draw a line, you know, and we will make these decisions as they come. But again, I think right now, what I'm overwhelmingly hearing from people is that they are terrified about the trajectory of this country, that so much is at stake, especially as a Senate majority that could very well put 1 or 2 more Supreme Court justices into the Supreme Court under for Donald Trump, these are real concerns, and I think there needs to be unity that we need to make sure we're focused on the change that the American people are demanding.

BASH: Senator Andy Kim, thank you so much for being here. 

KIM: Thank you so much.

BASH: We really appreciate it.

Kim’s response, waffling on whether the Totenkopf tat is a disqualifier and ultimately dismissing it because Supreme Court picks, is perhaps why we hadn’t seen the Sunday shows address Platner in a substantive manner before today. And spoiler alert: Dana Bash was the strongest of the Sunday hosts on Plather.

Over at ABC’s This Week, Jon Karl addressed Platner with Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), albeit less intensely so than Bash. Karl’s questioning, though, centers around the truest, purest victim of the Platner allegations: Democrats’ chances of retaking the Senate.

JON KARL: One of the marquee Senate races, of course, is in Maine, where the Democratic nominee- presumptive nominee is Graham Platner. And a lot of allegations against Graham Platner, including the very latest, a controversy that the Wall Street Journal's reported on, uh, alleging that Platner, his wife, Amy, uh, flagged sexually explicit texts between Platner and half a dozen other women. Uh, to, to the campaign during the vetting period. And in a video posted on X, uh, his wife Amy said, they love each other deeply. They have a great marriage, and they've been getting counseling. But let me ask you, do you have concerns with the weight of all these controversies that it may jeopardize Democratic hopes to get that Senate seat in Maine?

CORY BOOKER: Yeah, I have concerns. That guy has questions to answer. And that's what campaigns are for. But when I go all over New Jersey and see hundreds and hundreds of thousands of New Jerseyans losing their health care and millions more seeing their health care costs go up, as I have families who say I can't afford gas for my car and child care for my children, I know that so much is riding on Democrats taking control of the Senate that this election, if we do not get the votes necessary to take care of the House and the Senate, we will continue to have an out-of-control president. And I'm going to tell you right now is- he is a lame duck president. He's becoming more and more dangerous. Just look overseas at the war we're in, the lives being lost, the billions being spent. And now he is shamefully trying to crawl back and try to get us to back to where we were before the war even started. This man is dangerous, and it's time that we take back the Senate. And that's what I'm focused on.

KARL: All right. Cory Booker of New Jersey. Thank you for joining us.

Karl asks Booker only about the sexting allegations, completely omitting the Totenkopf tat from his line of questioning. Karl then allows Booker to deflect and respond with a prepackaged set piece before ending the interview.

Platner’s tattoo would come up in the panel discussion, though. Watch as former Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) cooks senior Bernie Sanders advisor Faiz Shakir for calling it “a tattoo that was skull and bones:”

PATRICK McHENRY: But the issue in Maine, just like in Texas, is they have an unvetted candidate. And it turns out the guy with the Nazi tattoo turns out to be a pretty bad guy in Maine, which is to the benefit of…

FAIZ SHAKIR: A tattoo that was skull and crossbones, not a Nazi tattoo.

McHENRY: Okay, we can quibble about whether or not how Nazi the Nazi tattoo was.

JON KARL: He did have the tattoo removed or whatever. I mean, but yeah.

SHAKIR: So- but this is emblematic of his problems and Maine voters will have a say about it.

Karl obviously knew about the tattoo, and protected Booker from being asked about it- a (D)ifferent courtesy than what Republicans get in similar situations.

The same exchange happened on CBS’s Face the Nation, between Margaret Brennan and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT): no mention of the tattoo, focus on the sexting, deflection to Platner being essential to the Resistance™.

MARGARET BRENNAN: To that point about spirit and character, the campaign for Graham Platner, the Maine Senate candidate, had sent sexually explicit texts to women other than his wife. This is in addition to other past controversies. Does he pass the character test?

CHRIS MURPHY: Yeah, I mean, I have not followed this story as closely as others have. But- I mean, Graham is somebody that served our country. He served his community. He’s also made mistakes and he has admitted that. Character, also involves standing up to people who are bankrupting and corrupting this country, and this race is going to be a contrast between somebody that put his life on the line for this country, against somebody that is literally empowering the moral hollowing out of our nation from The White House, so he certainly admitted that he has made mistakes, but I think this is going to be a pretty clear contrast in Maine between somebody who has spent his life protecting us versus somebody who seems to be protecting Donald Trump’s corruption.

NBC’s Kristen Welker didn’t post the Platner question to her Democrat guest, Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY), choosing instead to bring it before the Meet the Press panel. Profile in courage, indeed. Watch as Stephen Hayes absolutely COOKS former Rep. Val Demings (D-FL):

KRISTEN WELKER: Val, I want to ask you about another controversial candidate for Democrats. You talked about Maine, Graham Platner. I’m going to just read from my notes because I want to get it right. He’s faced a series of controversies, including past posts about sexual assault, a tattoo that resembled a Nazi symbol that he had covered up right before he ran, by the way, and now sexually explicit texts with other women despite being married. Does Graham Platner pose a headache for Democrats?

VAL DEMINGS: Well, let me go back to Texas for just a moment. Cornyn was a beloved candidate beloved by Republicans in Washington and in Texas. I’m not sure that candidate flaws matter as much as they used to. Millions of dollars were spent to save Cornyn. Didn’t work. Paxton won by a landslide. But the bottom line is Platner, he’s a combat veteran, has served in multiple tours of duty, an oyster farmer. And I believe that sends a message to voters that he understands the working class, had to go to work every day. I think people are so worried about the future right now they’re going to look at, “Do I feel like this candidate is going to fight for me and what I care about?” If Maine believes that through all of the controversy, as we just saw with Paxton, Platner will win.

STEPHEN HAYES: But this is where– this is where people, normal people watching this at home, are so frustrated with the level of toxic partisanship where we’ve got somebody who they have to defend. You’ve got Democrats who are defending Graham Platner, who are calling him a good and decent man, and arguing that the guy with the Nazi tattoo, “We really need him because he has to beat Susan Collins,” one of the most bipartisan members of Congress in the past couple decades, who voted to convict Donald Trump. “But it’s so important. We have to have Graham Platner. We have to have somebody who savaged military veterans, said that a military veteran who was being shot at deserved to die, who’s blamed rape victims for their own assaults.” And you’ve now got a Democratic Party rallying around somebody like that?

With the sexting scandal forcing the media’s hand after months of covering for Herr Oystergruppenführer, some exit questions emerge. Did they cover Platner because of the sexting scandal, or was the sexting scandal a way of getting ahead of something else? Will the Elitist Media’s evening newscasts follow suit, or will they continue to bury Platner under tons of news minutiae?  Either way, we’ll be watching.

 

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