Democrats have a huge problem on their hands, and his name is Graham Platner. When Gov. Janet Mills dropped out last month, it was seen as a major blow to Sen. Chuck Schumer, who had personally recruited her to run for the U.S. Senate. He saw her as the party's best shot at flipping the seat held by Susan Collins. Now, as the dirt keeps piling up about Platner, it's looking more and more like Chuck had the right idea all along. How bad has it gotten?
On Saturday, PJ Media reported on Platner's sexting scandal. Within a day, what was already a bad story got worse… a lot worse. The scandal has now morphed into something uglier: a campaign cover-up.
Morris Katz, a Democrat strategist who works for the Platner campaign, reportedly tried to intimidate former Platner staffer Genevieve McDonald into silence. McDonald served as Platner's political director and is a sitting state representative. Katz allegedly reached out to her as multiple outlets were already investigating Platner's infidelities and the sexting story. The Bangor Daily News confirmed the authenticity of Katz's messages to McDonald.
"Just want to be clear on where we are right now," Katz wrote to McDonald, adding, "If the story goes in its current iteration we'll communicate directly on the record, and by name, that Genevieve violated the personal trust of Amy and Graham and shared explicit falsehoods to sabotage the campaign." That's an unmistakable threat.
McDonald says she first spoke with a Wall Street Journal reporter off the record months before any story ran, well before anyone could credibly accuse her of a revenge campaign. She later learned the outlet was preparing to publish a story independently verified by multiple sources, and she provided a comment at that point. When the Journal reached out to the Platner camp for a response, Katz called McDonald and demanded she retract her statements. He also insisted she record herself walking back what she told reporters and send him the recording as proof.
She didn't comply. Instead, McDonald took her story directly to the New York Times, putting the alleged threats front and center on a national stage.
Related: Graham Platner's Senate Campaign Is Finished
Katz and other Democrats have publicly framed McDonald as a disgruntled former operative who went to the press out of spite. McDonald had something to say about that. "I did not wake up this morning and think, 'you know what, my life is pretty good and peaceful, I should burn it down,'" she wrote publicly, and added, "There is a back story here. I will never allow myself to be threatened and intimidated by some punk kid consultant from NYC."
Katz was rather colorful in his defense of Platner. "It's no one's f---ing business what happened in Graham & Amy's marriage before he was ever a candidate for office," he said while blasting "incompetent, opportunistic operatives who violate privacy, betray trust, and prioritize vengeance over decency." That’s some good spin there, but it won’t hold up. This story is no longer about Platner’s marriage. It’s about a campaign cover-up. In fact, according to the Bangor Daily News, the Platner campaign offered McDonald $15,000 to sign a non-disclosure agreement when she resigned. She turned down the money and refused to be bound by an NDA.
The scandal now sits at the center of two intertwined stories: the underlying infidelity and sexting allegations against Platner, and his top consultant's apparent effort to pressure a former aide into silence before Maine Democrats formally hand him the nomination on June 9.
This is not the kind of drama the Democrats need if they want to win the election. And I can’t help but think Chuck Schumer is sitting around somewhere, thinking, “I told you so.”
Let's be honest about something else. Janet Mills, had she won and been elected, would not have voted any differently than Platner would. She’d have been a loyal Democrat vote, and she had already won statewide election in Maine. She was vetted. Platner clearly wasn’t. Schumer's instinct was about electability, and he was right to be worried. He saw the warning signs. The rest of the party didn't listen.
In the end, the moral of the story is simple: don't trust a guy with a Nazi tattoo. The fact that Maine Democrats rallied behind Platner so quickly and so strongly, brushing past every red flag, says something about how desperate the party has become. Platner won’t go quietly, not while he’s leading the polls, but there’s only so much that his campaign can survive.
