{"id":265,"date":"2026-07-09T04:13:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T04:13:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usabusinesschronicle.com\/?p=265"},"modified":"2026-07-09T04:13:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T04:13:23","slug":"platners-conspiracy-laden-bitter-farewell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usabusinesschronicle.com\/?p=265","title":{"rendered":"Platner\u2019s Conspiracy-Laden, Bitter Farewell"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Hey, everyone, Graham Platner here. While I fervently deny the latest allegations against me, it\u2019s time for me to withdraw. We need a progressive Democratic nominee from Maine who can run unimpeded by any baggage or controversy. I\u2019m confident that will happen and we will defeat Susan Collins come November. I want to thank those who supported me not just in Maine but around the country. Don\u2019t give up the fight. I may be stepping away from this race, but the causes we believe in demand that you stay involved and not be discouraged. Change is possible. I do believe the arc of history bends toward justice.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more The UFC Cage Match Theory of Democracy<\/a><\/p>\n

The 41-year-old oyster farmer could have said something like that in his withdrawal statement on Wednesday evening. Instead, Platner went down a dark hole, self-pitying, conspiratorial, solipsistic, blaming the \u201ccorporate media system,\u201d the \u201cpolitical establishment,\u201d\u201cthose in power,\u201d and \u201centrenched forces\u201d for his withdrawal. No specifics were offered. Platner is just a victim, you see. \u201cThe brutal political reality is that they are going to take everything away from us,\u201d he said; the \u201cthey\u201d refers to the end of Democratic support for his race. In what he must have intended to be an uplifting moment in his brooding self-pitying tirade, Platner said. \u201cWe went toe to toe with one of the most entrenched political systems in the world. And we won.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the world?<\/em> Oh, please. This is Maine, not Moscow or Pyongyang. The gruff one didn\u2019t take on the butchers of Tehran, just Janet Mills.<\/p>\n

In his 11-minute self-referential farewell, Platner extolled the people of Maine (because the people are always wise) and laid into a conspiracy so immense\u2014\u201ca system that is built structurally to make sure that movements like ours cannot flourish.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not a professional cartographer, but Vermont is, I think, pretty close to Maine, and it managed to elect the OG Democratic Socialist, Bernie Sanders, just fine, just like the voters in the Bronx and Boulder who fueled socialist victories in June. There\u2019s no sinister conspiracy against Platner; quite the opposite. From the first glowing New Yorker <\/em>profile of Platner to the last Michelle Goldberg column (where she apologized for not scrutinizing him better), he got as good a run from the media as you can get.\u00a0The problems were all of his making.<\/p>\n

Just days ago, the party rallied around Platner despite the allegations of his former girlfriend, Lyndsey Fifield, a Republican, that he had locked her in a room. Everyone whom Platner now decries as \u201cparty apparatchiks\u201d who should have no say in his replacement was, however nervously, ready to help Platner win, including those entrenched tyrants, Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic Leader, and Kirsten Gillibrand, chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. What undid Platner was the latest allegation, this time from Jenny Racicot, a Democrat and a former girlfriend, who said that he had raped her and had offered a paper trail corroborating her panic at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A better man, a better Democrat, would have used this withdrawal speech to promise to throw himself behind the eventual nominee and express confidence in America, in the \u201csystem\u201d that got him this far, not to tell his supporters that stuff\u2019s rigged and \u201csomeday\u201d we\u2019ll win. I\u2019d say this petulance was unbecoming, but we\u2019re way past that.<\/p>\n

Read more Graham Platner and the Working-Class Fetish<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s good that Platner\u2019s getting out, not staying on the ballot, although he seemed to say he hadn\u2019t yet filled out the paperwork. Please, get \u2018er done and release the papers. Worries were swelling that he would take the Democratic Party down the drain with him. Roy Moore never got off the ticket in Alabama in his 2017 U.S. Senate bid, marred by creepy tales of his hitting on teenage girls.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s good that the political novice called for an open and transparent system to replace him on the ticket, unlike the last few days of canceled events, closed doors, and guessing games he\u2019s inflicted on the state.<\/p>\n

No one wants a replay of the summer of 2024 when a wounded president reluctantly withdrew from a race that he couldn\u2019t win and the party eschewed the debate it should have had in 2023 about what should come next. It\u2019s unclear what the process will yield. I assume we\u2019ll have teachers unions and Gaza activists and regular folks weigh in, and the nominee will be liberal but not 200 Platner Proof, without his rhetorical flair or fervor but liberal enough so that they can unite the oysterman\u2019s supporters and put up a fight against the five-term Republican Collins.<\/p>\n

Platner did speak movingly about how he never sought politics and how it was a big decision for him and his wife, Amy, to run last year. That rang true. Given what Platner knew about his extramarital sexting account, PTSD, past drinking, and weird ink, it\u2019s safe to say it was not a wise decision. But it was a human one. Who wouldn\u2019t be flattered enough to accept?<\/p>\n

Platner, a military history buff, presumably knows Charles de Gaulle\u2019s supposed saying, \u201cThe graveyards are full of indispensable men.\u201d He could have expressed the same sang-froid<\/em> in his farewell, noting that the movement isn\u2019t going anywhere, that it\u2019s not about him, etc., etc. Mostly, though, he made it about him and what he endured, including the horror of having to hear Racicot\u2019s rape allegation from the press. (Who else would it come from? She\u2019s not going to, um, call you.) Highlighting his trauma upon hearing the assault charge was particularly ham-handed. Platner had considerable skills, but his tone-deaf farewell proved him to be eminently dispensable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more What Makes Sam Alito So Angry?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Platner Drops Out of U.S. Senate Race, Blames “Entrenched Forces” for Derailing His Senate Nomination<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,16,19,2,76],"tags":[106],"class_list":["post-265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","category-health-care","category-newsletter","category-politics","category-protecting-the-vote","tag-tagged-chuck-schumer-graham-platner-janet-mills-joe-biden-kirsten-gillibrand-susan-collins"],"yoast_head":"\nPlatner\u2019s Conspiracy-Laden, Bitter Farewell - USA Business Chronicle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/usabusinesschronicle.com\/?p=265\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Platner\u2019s Conspiracy-Laden, Bitter Farewell - 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