Since the election of Graham Platner as Maine's Democrat Senatorial candidate, it's becoming obvious that the leftist media has settled on an early strategy designed to assist voters in getting over the litany of horrific events that have been documented against Platner, and that is by equating him with Donald Trump. That was the narrative on CNN's The Arena Saturday, but there was also a bit of a twist, as one rock solid Democrat expressed displeasure with her party for backing Platner.
Host Kasie Hunt started the segment by labeling Maine's race as, "Likely to be the most important race of the year", and "one of the ugliest." She then played a series of quick clips.
TRUMP CLIP: He's (Platner)a thug, and they're trying to make excuses for him. I mean, he's worse than any human being that's ever run for office, probably.
NRSC AD CLIP: Susan Collins doesn't have a Nazi tattoo, and she doesn't have an account on a notorious predator's paradise app. Graham Platner did for years.
PLATNER CLIP: Susan Collins doesn't serve us she serves Donald Trump. She serves the Epstein class. She serves her corporate donors and the corrupt political system that has rigged the economy against us.
Hunt then attempted to equate Trump and Platner, as she threw it to former Biden Communications Director, Kate Bedingfield, who gave a hint of where she stands on Platner.
HUNT: Do you think this is going to be a situation like what we saw with Trump in 2016, where people like the person so much, they'll overlook it? Or is he going to run headlong into the actual laws of political gravity in a general election?
BEDINGFIELD: I think what it clearly says is people are frustrated with Democrats, are frustrated with the status quo. They feel like their voice is not being heard. In Graham Platner they see somebody who they think is going to take on the standard way of doing business in Washington in a way that they like....I personally, I think it's demoralizing, that his transgressions are being overlooked in this way...But I will say, when I see Trump attacking him, what he's got to do is win Biden - Collins voters. He's got to pull some Biden Collins voters from 2020 over his way. And Donald Trump continuing to attack him is one way that some of those people may come along.
And then Bedingfield stuck it to her own party.
BEDINGFIELD: I personally don't love it, but the people of Maine, I don't live there, so they probably don't really care what I think. I'm gonna just say it, and I have said it consistently, I think it's an indictment of our party that we're willing to look the other way on this, personally.
A rarity for sure. Hunt would later play a clip of Platner hitting back at Trump, and CNN Legal Analyst Elliot Williams would be the first to respond to it.
PLATNER CLIP: Taking it to make sure that the Epstein class that Donald Trump, in all of his depraved billionaire friends who think that they can get away with disgusting acts, think that because of their money and their power and their wealth and their influence, that they're above the law, they're about to find out that they're not. And it's got them terrified. And they should be.
WILLIAMS: What's interesting is that Graham Platner, as we've all been discussing here, is a very damaged candidate. However, the words he used right there were Epstein, Trump, billionaire, class.... These are all things that are very resonant with voters right now. In a moment when the President's approval rating is certainly below 40%.... The President's not doing that well. Those are terms that resonate with people.
Then Bedingfield turned to Trump again, admittingly, attempting to use it as a way of redeeming herself from her earlier comments.
BEDINGFIELD: And I do think since I've excoriated my own party, I will say it is it is it is deeply infuriating to watch Republican operatives who have defended Donald Trump at every turn, come out and suddenly act like they have some moral high ground here.... Like, who are you to tell me that this is, you know, that this is unacceptable behavior when you're defending the guy who, you know, laundry list of offenses that we won't even lay out here.
Going forward it will be interesting to see if other big name Democrats will have the courage to denounce their party's selection of Platner, but maybe not try to win back points by comparing him to Trump.
