Rep. Ro Khanna went on national television Sunday and conceded what everyone paying attention already knew: his endorsement of Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner was a mistake. Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," the California Democrat told host Kristen Welker he regretted backing a candidate whose campaign collapsed under the weight of sexual assault allegations, abuse claims, a tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol, and online posts that blamed survivors of sexual violence.
"I got that call wrong," Khanna said. He wasn't alone in getting it wrong. But the timeline of how long he, and much of the Democratic establishment, stood by Platner before pulling the plug tells its own story.
Welker laid out the record in her question to Khanna. Before sexual assault allegations forced the issue, Platner had already drawn scrutiny for a tattoo described as resembling a Nazi symbol, for online posts that blamed survivors of sexual assault, and for allegations from ex-girlfriends, reported by The New York Times, describing a pattern of emotional abuse and aggressive behavior. Platner has denied those allegations.
Khanna stood by him through all of it. The Washington Examiner reported that Khanna attended a campaign rally with Platner just two days after The New York Times published allegations of an extramarital affair, publicly claiming at the time that Platner had "taken accountability."
Only when sexual assault allegations surfaced, a former girlfriend, Jenny Racicot, alleged Platner forced himself on her in late June 2021 while "deeply intoxicated" and despite her repeated objections, did Khanna withdraw his endorsement. He told Welker he was "the first person" to do so.
But the question Welker posed was the right one: why weren't the earlier controversies a breaking point?
On "Meet the Press," Khanna offered a partial answer. As Breitbart News reported, the congressman framed his personal threshold as sexual assault or sexual violence, suggesting everything short of that was tolerable in a candidate he chose to champion.
"For me, the line always was sexual assault or sexual violence. And as soon as that came out, I was the first person to withdraw my endorsement. But I will say I got that call wrong. And if there's some self-reflection, it is that we all need to see the signs earlier of people who may engage in domestic violence. Look, I wasn't the only one who had Planned Parenthood. You had Senator Warren. You had the entire Democratic Party. But I did get that wrong."
The instinct to spread the blame was unmistakable. Khanna named Planned Parenthood, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and "the entire Democratic Party" as fellow endorsers, a true statement, but one that only widens the scope of the failure rather than narrowing his own responsibility.
When Welker pressed again, Khanna kept it short: "Yes. I got that wrong. I endorse a lot of people. But when I make a mistake, I take accountability."
It's a familiar pattern among Democrats caught in politically damaging associations. The reversal comes only after the situation becomes untenable, not when the first warning signs appear. Wisconsin Democrat Kristin Lyerly scrambled to distance herself from a far-left streamer only after the political cost became clear, following the same playbook of late-breaking damage control.
Khanna was far from the only prominent Democrat forced into an embarrassing about-face. The fallout from Platner's candidacy swept through the party's progressive wing like a reckoning.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren had called Platner "my kind of man" at an April rally. After the rape allegations emerged, she reversed course, saying, "Now more than ever we need leaders in Washington who reflect our values. There can be no tolerance for sexual assault." Sen. Bernie Sanders, who had vowed to "do everything I can" to get Platner elected, also recommended he step aside, as Fox News detailed.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee announced it would not spend any money in Maine if Platner remained the nominee. Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand issued a joint statement demanding he "immediately withdraw" and allow Maine Democrats to choose a new candidate capable of defeating Sen. Susan Collins.
Progressive media figures were caught in the same trap. Pod Save America hosts Jon Favreau, Tommy Vietor, and Dan Pfeiffer had all publicly backed Platner through prior scandals, including the Nazi tattoo and lewd Reddit posts, before reversing after the rape allegation. Favreau had called Platner "a good, decent man who's struggled and grown and is always trying to do better." That endorsement did not age well.
The spectacle of so many high-profile figures racing to delete their association with a candidate they had championed echoes other recent episodes of Democratic damage control, where the instinct is always to scrub the record rather than explain the original judgment.
Platner ultimately dropped out of the Maine Senate race. NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whose political orbit overlapped with Platner's through shared advisor Morris Katz, deflected questions about whether the collapse signaled a broader crisis within the progressive movement. "I think my focus right now is how do we ensure that we bring this chapter to a close and then start to write a new chapter," Mamdani told reporters, as the New York Post reported.
NY1's Errol Lewis framed the situation more bluntly: "There's a national discussion that this has triggered about whether or not the push by some progressives to sort of push the traditional mainstream Democrats aside... they came up with a candidate who was simply unfit or not prepared for the responsibility."
The Maine Democratic Party now faces a July 27 deadline to select a replacement candidate. Multiple Democrats have entered the race, including Troy Jackson, Dan Kleban, Jordan Wood, and Nirav Shah. Khanna, for his part, has already pivoted to endorsing Jackson, a progressive logger, declaring himself "all in" for Jackson "to continue the populist progressive movement in Maine."
The speed of that pivot, from mea culpa on national television to a fresh endorsement, is itself worth noting. Khanna and Rep. Ruben Gallego had already abandoned Platner once the political ground shifted, and the rush to attach to a new candidate suggests the lesson learned was more about optics than vetting.
The Platner debacle raises a question that Khanna's Sunday appearance did not resolve: what does it say about a party's vetting process when a candidate with a Nazi-adjacent tattoo, a history of blaming assault survivors online, and multiple allegations of abusive behavior toward women can secure endorsements from sitting U.S. senators, a major reproductive rights organization, and the party's national infrastructure?
Khanna's answer, that his "line" was sexual assault, and everything before that was apparently within bounds, is not the defense he seems to think it is. A tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol was not a disqualifier. Posts blaming survivors of sexual assault were not a disqualifier. Allegations of emotional abuse and aggressive behavior from multiple ex-girlfriends, published in The New York Times, were not a disqualifier.
Only when the political cost became unbearable did the endorsements evaporate. This is the same dynamic that plays out across the Democratic Party's progressive wing with striking regularity, whether it's governors trying to shed inconvenient labels or lawmakers scrubbing their records after the backlash arrives.
Khanna said he takes accountability when he makes a mistake. Fair enough. But accountability without changed behavior is just a press strategy.
The voters of Maine deserved better vetting from the people who asked for their trust. What they got instead was a party that endorsed first, asked questions never, and apologized only when it had no other choice.
