For a long time, it looked as though the only accountability for pushing a violent, Nazi-tatted Kik creeper for US Senate would come from John Fetterman and Fox News. The Pennsylvania Senator's demands for apologies and retreat mainly come on Fox News' platform these days, as the rest of the media has largely run away from the Graham Platner story. Whereas before, they covered Der Osterführer as the "authentic voice of the middle class," as the Wall Street Journal put it this week, most of the media has suddenly discovered the power of It's A Local Story after allegations of rape emerged this week from former girlfriend Jenny Racicot.
Last night, however, CBS News and Tony Dokoupil entered the chat – and perhaps Bari Weiss as well. Not only did the CBS News anchor cover the Platner debacle, but Dokoupil also held Democrats' feet to the fire over why they backed Platner in the first place. Dokoupil named names and brought receipts, too, and then accurately summed up why they all headed for the hills this week. And it's not because of that hit song, "All Alone In Muh Principles":
WATCH: CBS's @tonydokoupil SAVAGES the Democrats' embrace of Graham Platner, despite the many obvious red flags that emerged throughout the campaign. On the nose for sure, but Tony D missed a spot: the media coddled Platner as well. The media hall monitors will rage nonetheless.… pic.twitter.com/452IZIebwY
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) July 9, 2026
TONY DOKOUPIL: The Big Question tonight is why did so many in the Democratic Party, the party of Black Lives Matter and Believe Women, continue to see Graham Platner as a future star? Despite scandal after scandal that seemed to undermine those principles and more? Despite his old Reddit comments about, among other things, why Platner thinks black people don't tip? Despite his chest tattoo with a Nazi history? And despite the accusations of abuse against women? Through all of that and more, Platner downplayed or denied the claims and was defended by the party in some of its biggest voices.
CHRIS Van HOLLEN: I do believe people should have second chances.
CHRIS MURPHY: If this is a character election, the incumbent has a lot to answer for as well.
BERNIE SANDERS: I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that Graham Platner is the next senator from the State of Maine.
DOKOUPIL: So what's behind all that support for him until now? Could it simply be that he was winning? That he had blown out the sitting governor in the Democratic primary? It sure seemed like the Democrats’ best chance to beat Maine's Republican Senator Susan Collins. In political circles, the answer, it appears, was yes. Many Democrats knew Platner had character issues. The theory, from Daniel Moraff, the political strategist who plucked Platner from obscurity, and made him into a star, was that the voters wouldn't care. That they wanted, quote, “real people who have lived real lives.”
DANIEL MORAFF: I think we want people who didn't run for student council, right? We want people who have not been spending their entire lives planning their ascent to political power.
DOKOUPIL: But after Platner was accused of rape this week, it turned out that theory had its limits. Character does matter. Platner denied the accusation, but for some Democrats, he’d committed the one offense no political party can tolerate. He started to look like a loser.
That is precisely why Democrats started bailing on Platner this week. It's not because he's practically a Soviet May Day parade of red flags; that's been true all along. That became acutely obvious on June 4, when the New York Times tried to help Platner with a "tamp and tame" story that made the allegations from Lyndsey Fifield, Jenny Racicot, and an unnamed third woman look enough like a partisan attack to rationalize continuing their support. If they thought Platner could sell Racicot's allegation as a partisan smear, they'd still be raising money and campaigning for the middle-aged parental mooch as the "authentic voice of the middle class."
Dokoupil hit the nail on the head. Democrats are running away from the Der Oysterführer's stench only because they realize that voters are noticing the stink, and it's attaching itself to anyone standing close enough to Herr Totenkopf. And if Platner refuses to withdraw, most of them will slink back to the Kik creeper eventually, hoping that the smell will have dissipated after Labor Day.
Lucky for them, Platner's apparently serious about withdrawing. Axios reports that staffers have been told to expect the campaign to end officially on Monday, although the timing still looks odd:
Graham Platner privately told staff that he is planning to officially file paperwork to end his Senate campaign on Monday — the drop-dead deadline for him to exit the race.
Why it matters: Though Democrats largely appear to think Platner is done with his bid, his last-minute timing is likely to cause a final pang of anxiety within the party.
Driving the news: Platner made the comments to his team Wednesday night shortly before he announced publicly he was suspending his campaign.
That doesn't mean Platner hasn't changed his mind since then, though. It doesn't explain why Platner wants to wait until the last minute, either. It's more likely than not that Platner will exit and go back to middle-age parental mooching, but given the stakes involved, it's certainly possible that he and his team will leverage that withdrawal to get whatever they can from this debacle.
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