Monday, July 13, 2026

In condemning Platner, GOP ignores the elephant in the White House

 

In condemning Platner, GOP ignores the elephant in the White House

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/7/12/800067715/series/in-condemning-platner-gop-ignores-the-elephant-in-the-white-house/ 

In condemning Platner, GOP ignores the elephant in the White House

by Emily Singer
Staff
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Graham Platner
AP

Congressional Cowards is a weekly series highlighting the worst Donald Trump defenders on Capitol Hill, who refuse to criticize him—no matter how disgraceful or lawless his actions.

Republicans of all stripes condemned Democrats this week for having once supported now-former Maine Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner, saying Democrats should’ve walked away from the candidate after the first news reports surfaced in June that found Platner did not treat women well.

Their criticism, however, is not only unfair—as Democrats denounced and rejected Platner after he was credibly accused of rape—but it’s especially rich given that they support President Donald Trump.

Trump has himself been credibly accused of sexual assault by multiple women, including being held liable for sexually abusing journalist E. Jean Carroll—yet Republicans have not denounced him nor chased them from their party. In fact, they stand by him even as he cast doubt on Platner’s accuser, because he simply doesn’t believe women when they make sexual assault allegations.

What’s more, there are multiple Republicans serving in Congress at this very moment who have been accused of heinous treatment of women—including Ohio GOP Rep. Max Miller, who is accused of domestic violence by the daughter of a sitting U.S. senator, and Florida Republican Rep. Cory Mills, who has also been accused of domestic violence—who Republicans have not pushed out of their races and continue to support.

Here are the hideously hypocritical Republicans whose walls will shatter when the stones they are throwing blow back on their glass houses:

UNITED STATES - JANUARY 25: Dave McCormick, Republican U.S. Senate candidate from Pennsylvania, and his wife Dina Powell McCormick, greet supporters during a campaign event with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, at Lehigh Valley Sporting Clays in Coplay, Pa., on Tuesday, January 25, 2022. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)
Dave McCormick, Republican U.S. Senate candidate from Pennsylvania, and his wife Dina, greet supporters during a campaign event with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in Coplay, Pa., on Jan. 25, 2022. AP

“Elections are about choices,” Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) wrote in a post on X, lecturing Democrats from his high horse. “Even if they muscle him out of the race, Chuck Schumer and all of the Democrats who turned a blind eye to Graham Platner’s background to support him still need to answer for this all the way to Election Day.”

Hey, Dave, do you still support Trump? Thought so. 

Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) also acted holier than thou when he criticized Democrats for once supporting Platner.

“They didn’t have a problem with multiple credible allegations of abuse from multiple women,” Gill said on Fox News. “They have had no problem, really unsavory, frankly, disgusting things that he’s written on all kinds of social media platforms. We need decent people running for office, not those who are so transparently scumbags.”

UNITED STATES - MAY 6: Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, leaves the House Republican Conference caucus meeting in the Capitol on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)
Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, leaves the House Republican Conference caucus meeting in the Capitol on May 6, 2025. AP

Again, Gill supports Trump and is close with former Rep. Matt Gaetz, who faced allegations that he sex trafficked minors. Gill is the last person who should be lecturing anyone.

Meanwhile, after Democrats began rebuking Platner and rescinding their endorsements, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) bragged. “I never endorsed Graham Platner.”

Yeah, but he endorsed Trump after he bragged about grabbing women “by the pussy” and after he had been accused of sexual assault by multiple other women. What does that say about him?

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) got similarly pious. “The latest allegations against Graham Platner are very serious, but let’s not kid ourselves about what’s going on here. The Democrats were willing to look past his other serious misconduct because they agreed with his left-wing views,” Cotton wrote in a post on X. 

Buddy, look in the mirror. You support Trump! Sit your ass all the way down.

Kevin McCarthy is no longer in Congress, but as an honorable mention he must be listed here, because his comment was beyond absurd. After the latest Platner allegation surfaced, McCarthy went on Fox News and said, “The one thing I know about Republicans is when we had a very bad candidate and found out, we didn’t vote for that person. We walked away.”

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Kevin McCarthy on Platner Allegations: That one thing I know about Republicans is when we had a very bad candidate, we didn't vote for that person. We walked away. pic.twitter.com/wkm65CCGHb— Acyn (@Acyn) July 7, 2026

Are you fucking kidding me? The nerve of these people. 

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  1. Comment by Angel Of Fear.

    Rethuglicans need a tall glass of shut the fuck up. They are actively right now supporting a r*pist, don't give us your self righteous bullshit.

  2. Comment by NicktheGolfer.

    The sex addict in the White House is the President. The GOP is ok with this, but not with Platner. I'm a Dem and I don't support Platner. Can't we do better???

  3. Comment by girlgoalie.

    Yeah of course it's a neverending double standard. I still want Al Franken to get back in the ring. But anytime a Republican actually owns up to something bad they still refuse to resign and claim gawd has forgiven them.

  4. Comment by Philip S Wenz.

    Sigh. You still don't get it. The Democrats are a political party. The Republicans are a cult.

  5. Comment by AmbroseBear.

    Probably should have offered for Senate, had we known better…

  6. Comment by Judge Moonbox.

    Another Republican case of "Morality for thee but not for me."

  7. Comment by bpollen.

    They don't see the hypocrisy because it's different when it's on their side. For "reasons"...

  8. Comment by shmuelman.

    It is a complete waste of time, and has been for years, to point out that MAGA Republicans are hypocrites. It is unproductive, tedious, and it neither influences them or their supporters. I was watching Rick Wilson today, and he was saying how many messages he got from right wing media that they were disheartened that he had hard words to say about Lindsey Graham. Trump blasting McCain, Colin Powell, Rob Reiner and everyone else he doesn't like made no difference to them. Everyone gets what they're about. Emily Singer should stick to telling us how much Bernie Sanders sucks.

  9. Comment by Leftie Gunner.

    It is, in fact, possible for both Donald Trump and Graham Platner to be contemptible, Nazi-liking, rapey scumbags.

    --Shannon

  10. Comment by No Straight Lines.

    I saw this GOP talking point being ratioed some places on Facebook, at least.

    Impeach and remove Trump. Then we'll talk.

    • Reply by Jim956.

      That should be a billboard: Impeach and remove trump, then we will talk.

    • Reply by Too Shy.

      On highly visible billboards all over the country.

  11. Comment by Penciltucky.

    If we reached down the memory hole, we could dredge up Newt "Contract on America" Gingrich.

    • Reply by Judge Moonbox.

      Gingrich is a real case. When he was trying to impeach Bill Clinton for having an affair that didn't wreck his marriage, he himself was having an affair with aide Callista Bisek, then got divorced and married Callista.

    • Reply by Penciltucky.

      As I recall he divorced her when his wife was being treated for cancer.

    • Reply by RamblinDave.

      That was his first wife. The one he dumped for Calista was his second.

    • Reply by girlgoalie.

      All of his wives must have had no self respect. The thought of being with a lying grifter like that POS.....

  12. Comment by MDGluon16.

    Was there not some guy, Santos.....seems he was very gritty

    And some other GrOPer who was accused of sexual harassment from, what was it Texas, and they said he was innocent until proven guilty....GrOPers thy name is Hypocrite.

    • Reply by zcollins.

      "Gritty?" Do you mean "grifty?"

    • Reply by Pittwoman.

      Both could be applicable in this case.

  13. Comment by suzeli.

    Ah, but you see, all trump's accusers have been proven to be liars, because trump himself told us so, and we know trump never lies about ANYTHING.

  14. Comment by Recluse.

    IOKIYAR

    Not changing anytime soon...

    • Reply by MikefromOrland.

      As Republicans go, they don't want gropers touching their daughters, but if the gropers touch your daughter, well, that's completely different.

    • Reply by Pittwoman.

      They want to touch their daughters themselves?

    • Reply by MikefromOrland.

      Trump said he would like to "date" Ivanka. So yes.

    • Reply by Inkdreamer.

      Pretty much.

  15. Comment by MessagingMatters.

    I think the Republican attacks on Platner and his former supporters are going to fall quite flat now that Platner is out of the race. Democrats *generally* clean their own house, in sharp contrast to Republicans who go out of their way to support and reward candidates who behave that way. This is another reason (besides being the right thing to do) why it was necessary for Platner to exit the race. Democrats have preserved this issue against the Republicans.

    • Reply by RosaRules.

      My big frustration with this is. Platner had a lot of red flags. Why did it take our party so long to be rid of him. A lot of us could see he was rotten.

    • Reply by zcollins.

      And a lot of people really liked his political positions and how he expressed them. That's why.

      Sincerely,

      A former supporter of John Edwards

    • Reply by Dfh1.

      John Edwards didn't have the red flags dropping from the sky as heavily as there were with Platner. The red flags started dropping virtually from the moment Platner announced, and continued right through to his withdrawal. People swatted them away like racism and sexism didn't matter.

      Maybe I'm misremembering, but I don't remember much coming out about Edwards prior to the affair being confirmed.

    • Reply by girlgoalie.

      I'm in the same boat. Why the hell didn't our team decide not to run with someone who had so much baggage. He can still run for office on the Republican side and he'll be liked even more for being one of the boys.

  16. Comment by Kravortek.

    They’re also ignoring Ken Paxton!

  17. Comment by TimG831.

    Someone needs to remind these idiot hypocrites that their dear leader was convicted of 34 felonies and they don't seem to care. The hypocrisy is simply incomprehensible.

    • Reply by wizbing.

      Their hypocrisy is very comprehensible. It is gaslighting.

  18. Comment by TimG831.

    They can't possibly be serious, can they?

    Maybe they are trolling us.

  19. Comment by MikefromOrland.

    Let's welcome talk about Platner and not run from it. Republicans are so tainted by blind loyalty and fealty to Trump they forgot:

    -Trump is mentioned over 38,000 times in the Epstein files. Ghislaine Maxwell has thousands of mentions and she's in jail. Enough said.

    -Trump was found liable for rape and that conviction has been upheld, AFAIK.

    -The Access Hollywood video speaks with Trump’s own voice about his behavior with women.

    -Stormy Daniels received threats against herself and her child should she publicly spill details of her encounter with Trump.

    -Trump's affair with Stormy was at a time when Trump was already having an ongoing extramarital affair with Playboy model Karen McDougal. So, Trump was already cheating on Melania with Karen McDougal when he cheated with Stormy.

    -Trump's demeaning comments about Megyn Kelly simply boggles the mind. Not that I respect Megyn Kelly's commentary but I don't believe any woman deserves to hear a presidential candidate say that about them.

    -To this day, Trump continues to demean and objectify female world leaders publicly in press conferences. What's said away from the press can only be worse.

    On and on Trump’s record of misogyny and rape continues, yet Republican voters support him and ignore the facts about him.

    Sure, let's talk about Platner and Trump, because Republicans are a bunch of hypocrites, liars and misogynists. Let's also talk about Ken Paxton, if you want. Those are conversations worth having.

    • Reply by Philip S Wenz.

      And remember, "Quiet, piggy."

    • Reply by wizbing.

      In their talking points, hypocrisy and projection have been their main weapons for decades. They don't speak to reveal any truth, insight or honest opinion. They don't listen or try to understand our views or policies. They speak to gaslight, to attack, to mock, to humiliate, to bully and to defeat. To gain power over us. That is all.

    • Reply by MikefromOrland.

      "...when the president does it, that means it's not illegal."

      Richard Nixon interview with David Frost, 1977.

      You're right, hypocrisy, gaslighting and projection has been a Republican policy for decades. Half a century, in fact.

  20. Comment by Harvey Manfrenjensenden.

    Republicans will continue to employ hypocrisy as long as it continues to work.

    • Reply by girlgoalie.

      Apparently the laws of physics are different on the right. I guess I'm just not a very good mental gymnast.

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