In today’s edition … What is the state of Mitch McConnell’s health? … You give us your thoughts on Graham Platner … but first …
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The United States and Iran traded military strikes overnight, our colleagues Dan Lamothe and Victoria Craw reported. Iran said it had targeted more than 80 U.S. military facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait, after the U.S. launched strikes in response to attacks on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
At a meeting of NATO leaders, President Donald Trump declared that the ceasefire between the two nations was over, and called the country’s leaders “scum.”
Graham Platner didn’t come out of nowhere. Yes, he is a political newcomer. But his rise from anonymous oysterman to Senate nominee has been backed and powered by a series of liberal organizations, operatives and leaders.
Now that Platner’s campaign is barely hanging on following an allegation of sexual assault by someone he once dated, those same liberals — and Platner’s campaign itself — believe they are entitled to a say in how he is replaced.
That is the basis of a story I wrote yesterday evening with my colleagues Alexei Koseff and Joanna Slater.
“The best way to expedite a smooth transition and ensure a win in November is for the Maine Democratic Party to promise Democratic voters who voted for bold change that their mandate will be honored. Not allow crusty insiders like Chuck Schumer an establishment do-over,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.
“To the Democratic establishment: this is not your opening,” Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Our Revolution, the political group born out of Sen. Bernie Sanders’s 2016 presidential campaign, said in a statement.
Progressive maneuvering to line up a replacement for Platner has been roundly mocked by state and national Democrats, who were gobsmacked that the same progressives who had overlooked some of Platner’s earlier controversies were now demanding influence in the wake of the latest allegation.
In addition to the latest allegation against him, Platner has faced scrutiny for old social media posts dismissive of sexual assault, a tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol that he has since covered up, sexually explicit text messages he sent to other women after he married in 2023 and allegations of physical violence by ex-girlfriends.
“Unfortunately, Graham Platner’s team has repeatedly reached out to us in an attempt to put their thumb on the scale of what this process looks like,” Maine Democratic Party Executive Director Devon Murphy-Anderson said in a social media video Tuesday night. “We have repeatedly reiterated to Graham Platner’s team that they have no role in determining our next Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate nor in determining what this process looks like.”
A spokesperson for the Platner campaign said Tuesday night they reached out to the party “to try and understand what this process would look like” but “at no point has the campaign tried to ‘put its finger on the scale.’”
“While Graham wouldn’t want to be a part of the process, he would want to make sure the voters and volunteers make this decision — not the political establishment,” the spokesperson added, noting that Platner received more than 150,000 votes in the primary.
That is not how many have seen it, however.
“People who got us into this mess — who vouched for this candidate after 3 different scandals and kept telling us there were going to be no more — may want to take a break from Maine strategizing,” Neera Tanden, the head of the Center for American Progress, a more establishment liberal think tank, said in a social media post.
Some liberals in Maine seem particularly interested in elevating former state Sen. Troy Jackson, who filed an exploratory committee with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday. Jackson was a vocal supporter of Platner’s run and is seen as being ideologically similar to the Senate candidate. (You can read about Jackson and other possible replacements in my piece with Alexei and Joanna.)
But the idea that Platner, or people close to him, would have a say in who replaces him shocked some in Maine.
One operative who works in Maine noted “the irony of people who have made their political careers decrying a rigged political system now trying to rig the political system for Troy Jackson.” The operative said it wasn’t doing Jackson any favors, either, calling it “horrible optics” to have a candidate tied to someone who had to step aside.
So what is next in the Platner story? First is the likelihood that Platner will end his campaign soon.
“There is a widespread recognition within the campaign that this is likely to end in the near future,” a person close to Platner, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal conversations, told me.
And there is really no tenable way for him to stay in. Perhaps the most consequential nudge to leave the race came Tuesday from Sanders, one of Platner’s most vocal, loyal and influential supporters. The Vermont senator released a statement saying that he urged Platner to step aside “in light of these very serious allegations.”
But that, said the person close to Platner, does not end the campaign’s desire to be influential in what comes next.
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“There is a desire to ensure the organization built around this campaign does not dissolve,” the person said.
The person said campaign leadership hoped to “have input on the decision” about how a replacement would be selected.
If all of this feels like chaos, you are not wrong. But as we note every time we write about the Maine Senate race, it matters — primarily because Democrats’ path to taking back the Senate almost certainly goes through the state.
Republicans are well aware of this drama and are watching closely. “The Democrat candidate in Maine will either be an alleged rapist with a Nazi tattoo, or someone he selects with the same ‘values and vision’,” said Sen. Tim Scott (R-South Carolina), the chair of Senate Republicans campaign arm.
In his statement, Scott included a link to an anonymous comment a Platner ally gave the New York Times: “If he was to step down it would only be with a guarantee of being replaced by a candidate who he believes is true to the values and vision and policy agenda of the campaign that Maine voted for.”
As one top Maine Democrat told us when presented with all the drama playing out in the state: “This is a s—show.”
What is the state of Sen. Mitch McConnell’s health?
It has been an open question for weeks.
But last night, our colleagues Ben Binday, Matthew Choi and Anna Liss-Roy reported that multiple McConnell colleagues and allies said that they have “spoken with him by phone, offering the fullest picture yet of the hospitalized Kentucky Republican’s condition after more than three weeks in which he has not been seen publicly and his office has said little.” McConnell is retiring at the end of this term.
The seemingly concerted pushback comes as right-wing influencers aligned with President Donald Trump “have spread unverified claims that the senator is gravely incapacitated and have accused GOP leaders of a cover-up,” the trio wrote.
“They had a lengthy and substantive conversation that covered a variety of topics, including national security,” said a spokesperson for Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota). And Scott Jennings, a longtime McConnell adviser, posted on X that he had talked with his former boss on Tuesday.
“We talked for just shy of 20 minutes … about IRAN, UKRAINE, the unfolding situation in MAINE, my visit to the TR Presidential Library, and even a little bit of Senate history. I told him we want to see him back at work as soon as possible,” Jennings wrote.
McConnell’s absence could have real implications for the Senate, where Republicans already have a narrow margin. It has also stalled spending bills moving through the Senate Appropriations Committee. But it also raises questions about lawmakers’ responsibility when they take extended absences, a question sparked by the recent absence of Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-New Jersey).
The Bay Net (Maryland): The Potomac River, amid high heat in the Mid-Atlantic, reached 94 degrees in recent days, leading to a fish kill in the river that runs alongside Washington, D.C.
The Jerusalem Post: An explosion near French President Emmanuel Macron’s hotel in Syria on Tuesday injured at least 18 people, casting a pall over Macron’s visit with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
We received a range of responses from our readers on Platner.
Some were angry that we did not ask about Trump and allegations against him. Others raised questions about the accuser.
But many bluntly said it was time for Platner to go.
“He should bow out. I’m a woman and a Democrat and he doesn’t represent what I stand for,” wrote Margaret Munson.
“Of course, Platner should end his campaign immediately in the face of repeated accusations of sexual abuse,” added Linday Johnson.
“Character matters. It’s not okay for our leaders to be sexual predators. Look what happens to the country when a leader believes it’s okay to abuse women or shoot someone in the middle of the street and not be held accountable.”
Others blamed the Democratic Party for allowing it to get to this point.
“His rise and predictable flaw is emblematic of the ineptitude of the Dem party, not only in Maine, but throughout the US,” wrote Tom Murphy. “This guy was never properly vetted even when the lights were flashing red at the start. Now it does not matter who replaces him.”
Our colleagues Anna Liss-Roy and Alexei Koseff wrote a fascinating story this week about how a group that says it represents more than 1,500 congressional staffers is pressing House and Senate leaders to overhaul how Capitol Hill handles sexual misconduct complaints. We wanted to ask you: How should Capitol Hill handle the issue of sexual misconduct complaints? How should the recent instances of Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-California) and Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) been handled differently? Let us and your fellow Early Brief readers know at [email protected].
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Thanks for reading. You can follow Dan on X: @merica.
