The Republican National Committee dropped a four-minute video Friday that stitches together one uncomfortable exchange after another, Democratic senators, House members, governors, and candidates pressed on camera about whether they still support Maine Senate nominee Graham Platner. The answers range from evasive to openly pained, and the RNC provided the footage exclusively to Breitbart News.
The video intersperses news-anchor segments and headlines about Platner's mounting controversies, a Nazi tattoo, allegations from women, resurfaced social-media posts, and more, with clips of Democrats fumbling through non-answers when reporters ask the obvious follow-up: Do you still back this man?
The result is a party caught between its hunger for a Senate majority and a nominee whose baggage grows by the week. Platner won Maine's Democratic Senate primary earlier this month and is set to face incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November. Democrats view the seat as critical to any path back to Senate control. That ambition now collides with a candidate whose record has turned him into a walking opposition ad.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, asked repeatedly about Platner, first tried to change the subject. "Any other subject you got?" he said, before eventually conceding: "I endorsed Graham Platner." Sen. Adam Schiff offered even less. Asked whether he still supports the nominee, Schiff replied, "Going upstairs, thank you," and walked away.
Sen. Mark Warner told CNN he was "focused on my own race" and added, "I'm not going to weigh in on race after race after race." Sen. Chris Murphy, pressed by CBS News's Margaret Brennan on whether Platner passes the "character test," said he "hasn't followed this story as closely." Sen. Andy Kim said, "I haven't been able to focus as much on this," adding, "I have not met him."
The pattern repeated across the caucus. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks: "I don't know him." Rep. Adam Gray: "I don't know much about him." Sen. Michael Bennet, asked on CNN whether Platner meets the "high standard" to serve, pivoted: "I'm busy running for Governor of Colorado."
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, asked on NBC whether Platner has the character to be a senator, said he was focused on making sure Democrats take back control of the House. Not the Senate, the House. The distinction was hard to miss.
Some Democrats didn't dodge. They leaned in, and the results were no less revealing. Sen. Cory Booker acknowledged the weight of the allegations but framed the calculation plainly on NBC:
"He has a lot of issues but my God we need the Senate."
Asked whether he would campaign in Maine, Booker added: "I don't have any plans." That gap, between endorsing a candidate and refusing to stand next to him, tells voters everything about how Democrats view Platner's viability.
Sen. Ruben Gallego dismissed Platner's Nazi tattoo as a "stupid tattoo." Sen. Martin Heinrich, asked on CNN whether he was reconsidering support after resurfaced posts, said flatly, "I'm not," adding that Platner has "owned" his mistakes and should be given "the benefit of the doubt."
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez offered what may be the most candid admission. Asked about abuse allegations, she said:
"There's a lot in that behavior that's really challenging, it's hard to stomach some of it, but, but... I think that this is a choice."
A choice, indeed. As we previously noted, Ocasio-Cortez essentially asked Maine voters to hold their noses for the sake of the party's Senate math.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, asked by CNBC about having campaigned with Platner despite allegations including the Nazi-symbol tattoo, his comments about rape, and praising Hamas, offered three words: "He has apologized." Sen. Ed Markey said Platner is "running on the issues Maine cares about." Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who met with Platner, declared she was "very optimistic that we are going to win Maine."
The controversies that have Democrats tying themselves in knots are not minor resume blemishes. Platner has faced a cascade of allegations and resurfaced statements: a Nazi SS skull-and-crossbones tattoo on his chest, which he implausibly claims he didn't understand the origins of until October 2025 despite getting it in 2007, as National Review detailed. He reportedly called himself a "communist," dismissed "all police as bastards," said white Americans "actually are racist and stupid," made comments about rape, and praised Hamas.
The New York Times reported Platner engaged in sexting relationships with up to a dozen women early in his marriage in 2023, 2024, shortly before launching his Senate campaign. An ex-girlfriend provided diary entries and messages corroborating abusive behavior. His "working-class oysterman" image has also unraveled: he received a $200,000 loan from his father to buy his house and sold oysters primarily to his mother's restaurant.
The Washington Free Beacon reported that Platner's oyster-farming business partner, Robert Cushman III, attended the elite St. Paul's School and Dartmouth College. The farm operates on an island owned by the Cushman family. Platner took no salary from the company and relied on $4,800 per month in VA disability benefits. An anonymous Maine commercial fisherman told the Free Beacon: "This is more of a boutique operation, closer to a hobby farm."
Yet Democratic anxiety over Platner has not translated into a single endorsement being rescinded. Not one.
Not every Democrat has stayed quiet. Rep. Josh Gottheimer went on CNBC and urged viewers to look beyond the tattoo at what had come out about Platner's alleged "abuse of women." Newsmax reported that Gottheimer publicly called for Platner to surrender his nomination, saying, "The issues are just going to keep piling up" and Platner "should get off the ballot."
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi told reporters, "I have strong concerns at this point." Rep. Ro Khanna, asked by Fox News about allegations from women, said, "I do believe those women," before adding that "almost the entire Democratic party is supporting him."
Sen. John Fetterman has been even more blunt. He has publicly broken with his party over Platner, calling the nominee "baggage" and questioning whether he belongs in the Democratic Party at all.
Meanwhile, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo appeared on The Pulse of the People to criticize Democrats for continuing to support Platner, arguing that party leaders had repeatedly excused the controversies because Platner represented a "far-lefty fringe" wing and that Democrats had prioritized ideology over nominating the strongest challenger to Collins.
Maine state law does provide a mechanism for Democrats to replace Platner on the general election ballot if he voluntarily withdraws by July 13, the Washington Examiner reported. The state party could then nominate a replacement by the end of July. Platner has shown no sign of stepping aside. His former political director wrote in The Washington Post that Platner "is not someone who would be good for Maine or for the country."
Rep. Jake Auchincloss, a Massachusetts Democrat, called Platner's Nazi tattoo and his commentary about it "personally disqualifying." That word, disqualifying, keeps surfacing from within Platner's own party.
The RNC video also highlights a confrontation involving Rep. Seth Moulton. Breitbart senior writer John Nolte reported Thursday that Moulton allegedly knocked a journalist's phone after being asked whether he endorses Platner. Moulton told the reporter, "Who are you to ask this question?" and "You need to do a better job of hanging on to your phone." His campaign told the Boston Herald the reporter was a "MAGA tracker with America Rising" and said Moulton "takes on MAGA anywhere, anytime, and won't back down."
Moulton had earlier defended Platner over the tattoo, saying, "Look, Graham clearly made a mistake... I don't think that's disqualifying."
Perhaps the most memorable clip in the RNC compilation features Hunter Biden defending Platner while Gov. Gavin Newsom stood beside him, nodding and laughing along. Biden said:
"As it relates to Graham Platner... I have not heard anything, in any way, that would say to me that he is a abusive, misogynistic, or antisemitic, or racist person."
Sen. Raphael Warnock, asked on NBC whether Platner has the character to serve, used the moment to plug his book: "Character matters, and that's what I'm saying, uh, in this new book that I've written." Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse dismissed a New York Times report about allegations against Platner as "a lot of nothing," adding that "the only one who had anything to say that seemed 'unsettling' was a woman who works for right-wing political operations."
President Trump, asked by Breitbart News earlier this month about Democrats losing ground on the generic congressional ballot, pointed directly at Maine. Republicans were "coming up strong," he said, because voters were seeing "lunatics" on the ballot, including "the guy in Maine with the swastika."
Fox News reported that Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer's preferred candidate, Gov. Janet Mills, had dropped out after trailing Platner in fundraising and polling, leaving the party with a deeply controversial nominee. One Republican-sponsored poll showed Platner and Collins tied at 46 percent after the scandals broke, a race that Democrats once expected to win comfortably now looks like a liability.
Virginia Democrat James Walkinshaw, running in the state's 11th Congressional District, tried to frame the question as one of personal growth. "I think Graham Platner has demonstrated he's taken some responsibility, he hopefully has grown as a human being," Walkinshaw said. The word "hopefully" did a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence.
Matt Dunlap, a Democrat running in Maine's Second Congressional District, said he still supports Platner. Florida Democratic Senate candidate Alex Vindman, by contrast, simply walked away when asked whether Platner should drop out.
Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, as CNN's anchor noted, was asked whether she supports Platner. "I don't make that choice for the people of Maine," she said. "I am hopeful that his candidacy is successful." Sen. Tim Kaine offered a similar deflection: "Maine voters need to make this call." Sen. Jeff Merkley: "The citizens of Maine are going to decide."
Sen. Chris Van Hollen took a different tack, praising Platner outright: "Platner has clearly proven himself to be somebody who can grab the attention of a lot of voters." That much, at least, is true, though not in the way Van Hollen seemed to mean.
The RNC video doesn't need commentary to make its point. It just needs the camera to keep rolling while Democrats try to explain why a man with a Nazi tattoo, allegations of abuse, resurfaced posts praising Hamas, and a fabricated working-class biography deserves a seat in the United States Senate.
When the best your party can muster is "my God we need the Senate," voters can see exactly what's being traded, and what it's being traded for.
