The Scandal Is Real. Democrats Know It. They're Proceeding Anyway.

Graham Platner, the Democratic insurgent running against Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), has been confirmed to have sent sexually explicit text messages to multiple women while married. His own wife flagged it to campaign staff as a potential liability, according to reporting by The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. The campaign didn't deny the texts — they quibbled over the number. Campaign says up to six women. A former aide says up to a dozen.

The campaign's response was a negotiation over severity, not a denial.

Then there's the Kik account — a messaging app profile with what appears to be a semi-nude photo of Platner in front of a bathroom mirror, bearing tattoos that match his, using a username he's used elsewhere. The Daily Signal confirmed the campaign acknowledged the authenticity of the wife-to-aide communications.

The Kik account is new since our last report. It joins a growing list: online posts suggesting women "act like an adult" to avoid rape, mocking rural white voters and Black people, calling a wounded American serviceman a "dumb motherf*er who didn't deserve to live," and a Nazi Totenkopf-adjacent tattoo he claims he wore for years without knowing what it meant.

Sunny Hostin of ABC's The View didn't mince words Monday. "I think all the allegations are true," she said, calling Platner "a cheater, an antisemite, a liar, a racist, a homophobe." Then she said Democrats should probably still support him because the country is in "grave, grave peril."

The Establishment Circles the Wagons

Despite all of it, Senate Democrats met with Platner on Tuesday in Washington, according to NewsNation. The D.C. trip was dual-purpose: meet with senators and hold fundraisers. In the middle of a sexting scandal with a Nazi tattoo in the background, the man is fundraising in D.C.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) told reporters Monday he is not rethinking his endorsement. Sanders said Platner is "getting through" his marriage problems.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) went on CNN's The Arena Monday with the week's most contorted defense. His argument: Platner admitted his mistakes, therefore he's better than Trump, who denies his. Admitting you sexted multiple women and wore a Nazi symbol makes you morally superior because at least you said sorry.

Former Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) went on MSNBC and argued Collins voting with Trump 96% of the time might be "more offensive" than Platner's behavior. That 96% figure has been floating around liberal media without much scrutiny of its sourcing or methodology. But Boxer's framing is revealing: the Democratic argument is now explicitly "yes, he's bad, but the alternative is worse."

What Mainstream Media Is Getting Wrong

Left-leaning outlets are spending enormous energy on the Collins 96%-with-Trump angle as a deflection. It may be a legitimate political data point — but using it to minimize a candidate's confirmed personal misconduct is editorial malpractice dressed up as context.

Right-leaning outlets, meanwhile, are treating this purely as a character story and largely ignoring a crucial strategic question: Can Democrats actually afford to lose this race? Collins is a genuine political survivor. Maine is a purple state trending more competitive. The Platner scandals are handing Collins a gift — but that doesn't make Collins's record immune from scrutiny either.

Neither side addresses the obvious question: Who vetted this guy? National Democrats poured resources behind a candidate whose wife had already warned his own campaign about the sexting. That's an institutional failure.

Mills Is Watching and Waiting

Gov. Janet Mills (D-ME) is still on the ballot, a fact being overshadowed in the scandal coverage.

Mills reminded Maine voters Monday — directly and pointedly — that she is running in this primary. According to The Hill, her message was simple: "I am still on the ballot." No drama. No attack. Just a statement of fact aimed at voters who may be reconsidering their Platner support.

Mills is the sitting governor. She has statewide name recognition, a functional record, and zero baggage. She has been trailing Platner badly in polling, largely because national progressive infrastructure and money flooded to Platner early.

Primaries shift fast when scandals hit. With less than two weeks before Maine votes, every Senate Democrat rallying behind Platner in D.C. is making a calculated bet that his controversies won't sink him in the general — or that they'd rather lose with him than win with Mills.

What Comes Next

The Democratic Party is about to find out whether its base voters in Maine will accept the "lesser evil" argument when the candidate's own wife is the source documenting his behavior.

Platner's campaign is betting on policy anger at Collins to outrun personal disgust at him. That might work. Maine is blue enough. Voters can be transactional.

But if Platner wins the primary and then loses to Collins in November — handing Republicans a Senate seat they might otherwise have lost — every senator who flew him to D.C. for fundraisers this week owns that outcome.

Character matters until it doesn't. Then it suddenly matters again in November.