Why weren't previous Graham Platner allegations 'DISQUALIFYING'?: Elise Jordan

[0:00] Welcome back. This morning, we've been covering the growing calls for a main [0:03] Democratic Senate candidate Graham Plattner to drop out of the race after a woman [0:08] accused him of sexually assaulting her. The woman detailed her allegations to Politico [0:13] in a series of three interviews over the past two weeks. [0:17] Now, Graham denies the allegations, calling them, quote, troubling, serious and false. [0:23] Still, top Democrats who backed Plattner through a number of previous controversies during his [0:28] campaign have now begun rescinding their endorsements. Meanwhile, last night, former [0:34] House Speaker Kevin McCarthy suggested Republicans are different and would never cozy up to a [0:40] candidate who faced accusations of sexual abuse. Let's take a look. Look, we're celebrating 250 [0:47] years. The one thing I know about Republicans, when we had a very bad candidate and found out, [0:53] we didn't vote for that person. We walked away. For better or for worse. When Matt Gaetz came [0:58] forward, we got rid of him. Now, he's talking about Gaetz there, I think, [1:02] when Gaetz was attorney general nominee. But remember, Gaetz as a congressman [1:05] wasn't voted out. The Republicans didn't back away from him. And more than anything, [1:10] that's the same Kevin McCarthy, let's remind everyone, who flew to Mar-a-Lago just days after [1:17] the January 6th insurrection for a photo op with President Trump, who was found civilly liable for [1:23] sexually abusing and defaming advice columnist, E. Jean Carroll. Trump also, of course, [1:30] bragged about how he treated women in that Access Hollywood tape back in the 2016 campaign. [1:36] Let's now bring in contributing opinion writer for the New York Times, Molly Jung Fast, [1:40] and also the editor of New Republic, Michael Tomaski, MSNOW contributor, Elise Jordan, back with [1:46] us as well. Thank you all for being here. Molly, let's start with you on the Platinum issue. We can [1:52] set aside McCarthy's absurd hypocrisy. Let's just focus here. You know, this woman, obviously, [1:57] very brave in coming forward and telling her story here. And it's one that seems to be, [2:04] for many Democrats, the breaking point in their support for Plattner. What do you think happens [2:10] next? So, look, this is a Maine election that takes place in Maine that the people of Maine vote in. [2:19] And so, the big question, I think, is we saw already from that Times piece that the people [2:25] of Maine, his numbers were going down, right? We saw the polling that his Maine numbers were down. [2:31] And so, now the question is, and the Times piece didn't have necessarily, it seemed as if it was [2:36] sort of nipping around the edges, but it didn't have an allegation like this, which is this full, [2:43] substantial, you know... Well, it did have him putting her in a room and holding her captive, [2:49] which, I don't know, and grabbing her a lot. Again... Yeah, I know. I mean, it's not... [2:55] It's interesting to me, the media debate over this, over what constitutes enough. I... [3:01] It is not up to me to constitute what is enough. No, no, no. [3:04] I think it's up to the voters of Maine. And we saw these polls after that Times story came out that [3:09] said they were starting to really... This fundraising started to fade, too. [3:13] Right. And so, then, the question is, and again, look, with this story, as someone... I mean, [3:20] what she says in this story is that she is... I mean, the misogyny that I found in the story was this [3:27] poor woman is saying it was non-consensual, when it was obviously rape. And she couldn't say that [3:33] because she was, you know, trying to protect him to some extent. So, in my mind, this is a really [3:40] serious, you know, as a woman and a mother of a daughter, you know, as serious as it gets. And [3:48] you see, you know, the ways in which the culture, you know, this victim is protecting this man. So, [3:54] in my mind, this is, you know, but it's not up to me because I don't even live in Maine. [3:59] It is up to the voters of Maine. So, Michael, let me go to you with... I'm just fascinated with this, [4:07] horrified, really, in terms of just what constitutes a red flag in terms of coverage of a political [4:16] candidate. You have the first-time story being pretty much dismissed in a lot of quarters because [4:23] the accuser, the victim, had a past of working for right-wing causes. And then certainly these [4:31] allegations are more extreme of breaking into her home and raping her. But why were the first round [4:41] of accusations that were pretty egregious and terrible, not seen as enough of a character flaw [4:49] to be disqualifying? That's a really fair question. Those were bad and really, really [4:56] disturbing allegations. But I think people at that time, a lot of people, including me, I admit, [5:02] felt that we needed to weigh those against what appeared to be the will of the Democratic voters [5:08] of Maine who were very solidly behind Graham Plattner and, you know, who nominated him to the Democratic [5:18] nomination by a massive margin. So, you know, there were things like that to weigh. There's not much [5:27] to weigh here. This is a credible allegation of rape, you know, not of physically accosting a woman [5:35] and locking her in a room. A credible allegation of rape. That's different. In a court of law, [5:42] he'd be entitled to the presumption of innocence and we'd have to wait for his day in court. [5:47] A Senate campaign isn't a court of law. It's a political campaign. And we're entitled to make [5:53] judgments based on what's best for the party and what he should do that would be best for the party. [6:00] He should go. And yes, it's worth reiterating that his to this point had been rather resilient. He [6:05] had managed to stay afloat here. This one does feel different. A lot of Democrats calling for drop [6:10] out rumors. He may do just that in the days ahead. We, of course, will be following this story.