Editors at National Review Online assess a high-profile US Senate candidacy.
It’s hard to know what’s worse — Graham Platner’s pattern of deception, or the willful credulity of his supporters.
In a friendly interview with progressive host Chris Hayes meant to do damage control on the latest scandal involving abusive behavior toward ex-girlfriends, the socialist Senate candidate insisted, “I have been very open with the people of Maine.”
Like so many other things he says, this isn’t remotely true. The candidate claims to be a straight shooter who served his country honorably as a Marine, went through a rough period when he got back, put the past behind him, and emerged from it a better man. Yet there has been a steady stream of revelations that show his appalling behavior has continued more recently and that have consistently undermined his self-justifying explanations of his life story.
Platner has portrayed himself as just a regular “working class” oyster farmer and has relied on lies or omissions to obscure the fact that, in reality, he had a wealthy upbringing. As the Washington Free Beacon reported, he did not purchase his current house with “the support of the VA,” as he has claimed, but with a $200,000 loan from his dad, while the primary customer for his oysters is his mom’s restaurant. He claimed that he attended Hotchkiss, the elite private school in Connecticut, because his local school lacked accreditation. But when the Maine Monitor, a local publication, found that it was accredited well before he was of school age, the campaign claimed Platner “misspoke.”
Late last month, the New York Times reported that early in their marriage, Platner’s wife had caught him in sexting relationships with as many as a dozen women (his campaign put the number at “up to six.”) This happened in 2023 and 2024, months into his marriage. Asked by Hayes when it stopped, Platner responded with an answer that was as clear as lobster bisque: “It stopped when it was happening.” Huh? Even the most charitable interpretation of this conduct would place his reckless behavior in the year prior to launching his Senate campaign.
