'Don't Know If He Lied'? Mika Implies Platner Accusers Might Be The Liars!

On Wednesday's Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski served up a shocking bit of selective skepticism as scandals continued to engulf Maine Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner.

After John Heilemann stated that Platner had "lied" to prominent Democrats like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders in saying that no more damaging revelations were coming, Brzezinski jumped in.

"All right. Well, first of all, just to one of the points Heilemann made, we don't know if he lied to Democratic leaders. Nevertheless, these accusations are out there. And they they are having a very profound effect, that is for sure."

Mika was clearly leaving open the possibility that the accusations against Platner by Jenny Racicot and Lyndsey Fifield are false—that the two women are the liars.

Mika’s suggestion seemed to shock her husband and co-host Joe Scarborough. As you'll see in the screencap, Scarborough turned to her with eyebrows literally raised.

You might have expected Brzezinski to sound at least a bit indignant at the very real likelihood that Platner also lied to HER! When he appeared on Morning Joe on June 10th after his primary win, and was asked whether more damaging stories were out there, Platner said:

"There is nothing out there that will run counter to any of the stories that I’ve talked about openly this entire campaign.”

Yet now, with fresh and far more serious allegations — including Racicot’s claim that an intoxicated Platner entered her home uninvited and forced himself on her despite repeated objections — Mika appears more protective of the candidate, casting doubt on whether he misled top Democrats while soft-pedaling the accusations themselves.

When even far-left former Platner endorsers like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Ro Khanna have publicly called on him to drop out, what does it say that Mika is still holding out the possibility of his truthfulness?

Mika's hedging illustrates a longstanding liberal-media double standard: allegations against Republicans are often treated as instantly disqualifying, while similar (or worse) claims against Democrats receive every benefit of the doubt—including unsubtle speculation that the accusers might be fabricating their stories.

Here's the transcript.

MS NOW
Morning Joe
7/8/26
6:16 am EDT

JOHN HEILEMANN: We obviously had seen, starting with the, the, the, the Reddit posts and then the Nazi tattoo and then the various allegations around sexting with women and now these, these allegations of, of aggressiveness and violence with women leading up to this, culminating in this rape allegation, that this is a candidate who had baggage, from, from here to, to Los Angeles and, and probably was gonna face many more accusations going forward, some founded, some unfounded, who knows? 

It's interesting, Nate Cohn at the, for the New York Times, just dropped a piece this morning where he said that the most recent New York Times poll showed how thin Platner's support had become even before these rape allegations. Which is to say some thirty percent of his supporters were basically saying, "We're still with him, but we're, we're not-- our support isn't unconditional, and we, if, if other shoes were to drop, we might, have to abandon this candidate." 

And so his vulnerability, despite his performance in the primary, was apparent to everyone on all sides, and, and, and so now we, we are where we are. 

I, I don't, can't imagine a world where Graham Platner thinks that it's a better future for him to stay on the ballot. And, I mean, his future in politics is, is pretty much over. 

Certainly over, given the way he looked in the eyes of these Democrats, prominent Democrats like Bernie Sanders and, and Elizabeth Warren, and lied to them about the possibility that there were more things that were gonna come out.

I don't think he has a future in Democratic politics, but I can't imagine he thinks his life would be better if he were to stay on the ballot and take the Democrats to certain defeat in November. But you're right, he still has that little bit of leverage, and everyone is still waiting on him. The state can't really go forward in terms of moving to find a replacement until he makes his decision. The sooner would be better from the state party's perspective, the national party's perspective. So a lot still hinges on him. 

But those cards are kind of a diminishing asset because the reality is after Monday, you know, the, the, the only thing that can salvage any part of his reputation is for him to get out.

. . . 

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: All right. Well, first of all, just to one of the points Heilemann made: we don't know if he lied to Democratic leaders. Nevertheless, these accusations are out there, and they, they are having a very profound effect, that is for sure.