While Senators Schumer, Sanders and others shamelessly backed Nazi-tattooed Graham Platner, David French and Doug Friednash told the truth.
David French is not a US Senator. Too bad. He has principles, unlike Senators Charles Schumer and Bernie Sanders, who are both Jewish, and who both rationalized away Graham Platner’s Nazi Totenkopf tattoo — which he kept for 18 years and which, one of his (many) ex-girlfriends told the NYT, he called “my Totenkopf.”
Platner was Maine’s best chance to gain a Democratic seat in the US Senate, thought Schumer, Sanders, nearby Rhode Island’s Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and many other leaders of the Democratic Party.
David French is a columnist for The New York Times. Last May 13 —long before the sexual assault scandals enveloped and sunk Platner’s campaign — David French wrote:
“I don’t want politicians to be ‘authentic.’ I want them to be decent. I want them to be honest. I want them to be competent. And if they fail those tests, they don’t redeem themselves by opposing President Trump.”
David French very much wants the Democrats to take control of the US Senate in the upcoming midterm election. David French thinks that President Trump flirts with fascism. That does not stop David French from seeing mirror images. He wrote:
“You [Democrats supporting Platner] twist yourself into knots finding ways to impose standards on your opponents while defending your allies for the same conduct . . . But there’s something even worse that happens. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. When Trump first won in November 2016, I watched friends and neighbors transform. They weren’t holding their noses any longer. They weren’t embarrassed by their vote. . . . And if Platner beats [current Maine Republican US Senator Susan Collins] . . . then the call will go out, ‘Where can we find more Platners?’”
Among those leading Democrats who had no issue supporting Platner was Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico. He saw Platner as “exactly the person the Democratic Party needs to win back working people.” (This quote from Heinrich, like the following, appeared in the Wall Street Journal).
From Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut: “Sounds like a human being to me.”
From Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island: “Seems like a lot of nothing. The only one who had anything to say that seemed unsettling was a woman who works for right-wing political operations.”
From Rep. Khanna of California: “The people of Maine deserve a senator [i.e., Platner] who is going to stand up to the billionaire class, against genocide, and for the working class. . . . You show up when an ally [Platner] who challenges power is under attack.”
What happened to David French’s requirement that a political ally be decent, honest and competent?
How did Platner himself respond to the revelations of his absence of integrity before they became strong enough to derail his candidacy? “Senator Collins is bought and paid for by Benjamin Netan-yahu,” he wrote. Fits right in with Platner’s Totenkopf: the Jews are despoiling humanity. (Been there, seen that.)
Look beyond Democratic US senators. “Graham Platner isn’t just our best and only chance to beat Susan Collins, he’s a good, decent man who’s struggled and grown.” That, from Jon Favreau, host of “Pod Save America.”
Oh, and this classic rationalization by Sen. Sanders to the NYT: “There are no saints in the United States Senate.”
Perhaps not, but how many US senators post: all cops are bastards, white people are actually racist and stupid, black people don’t tip — Platner’s list goes on. All of which Platner deleted and blamed on a difficult period in his life. If one traumatic experience can bring all this out in Graham Platner, why can’t another?
Right here in Denver, Doug Friednash wrote back in June in the Denver Post of “Democrats’ moral double standards . . . moral outrage was swept under the rug in the name of political power at any cost.”
Then, Friednash wrote, “another bomb dropped” (illuminating Graham’s behavior, this time with women). That was in early June. Since then, many more bombs have dropped about Platner. Vulgarity. Dishonesty. Sexual assault. Denial. “Democrats would be incensed if the shoe were on the other foot and Platner was the Republican candidate,” Friednash wrote.
Scariest of all, however, is not that political leaders overlooked all this in US Senate candidate Graham Platner. Scariest of all is how many voters were willing to overlook all of it.
This piece was updated July 17 to correct the description of Jon Favreau who had been incorrectly described as an actor.
© IJN 2026
