Some people just like classic Coke. Others insisted on the original Reese’s recipe. New York Times writer Jodi Kantor went on CNN to explain why Democrats can vote for Maine senatorial candidate Graham Platner despite multiple women coming forward to denounce him: this is really not the classic Me Too allegations that Kantor and others seem to prefer for outrage.
Kantor won a Pulitzer Prize for her reporting on Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein’s sexual abuse and was called forth by CNN to explain why it is ok for liberals to support an alleged abuser of women. A prior girlfriend has accused Platner of physically abusing her and even locking her into a room overnight. He is also accused of sexting women and dismissing rape victims.
None of that, however, necessarily presents a barrier for those who want to retake power by any means necessary.
Kantor clinically explained that these “are not classic MeToo accusations.” Specifically, “they’re not about a boss and a young female employee being subjected to sexual advances. They were mostly made in the context of consensual relationships. There are these, like, very sensational texts about sex. There are allegations from former girlfriends that are not — the way my colleagues reported them were not like classic abuse allegations,” she stressed.
In a statement that would have produced a torrent of condemnations if used during the Kavanaugh controversy, Kantor insisted that “they were mostly like being his boyfriend gave me a view into him and I did not like what I saw. His character was scary. He had this Nazi tattoo. Et cetera.”
In fairness to Kantor, she was attempting no small feat: to allow liberals to continue to claim Me Too outrage while grabbing Maine.
Of course, Kantor quickly brushes over the other controversies beyond the abuse allegations as simply a Nazi tattoo. She omits his mocking of a wounded veteran, rural people, and rape victims while praising Hamas and embracing communism.
However, her diminishing of the account of women like Lyndsay Fifield as “they were mostly like being his boyfriend gave me a view into him and I did not like what I saw.”
What Fifield alleges that she “saw” were marks left on their body after being yanked and grabbed by Platner. In one case, she claimed “he twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a bedroom and held the door closed from the other side so she couldn’t get out, telling her to remain there until she was ‘calm.’”
Kantor seems to begrudgingly acknowledge that “there was one allegation of crossing a line physically, but I think that means that these are pretty different accusations than, say, the one that — the ones that President Trump faced.”
Previously, Kantor did not draw this distinction between classic Me Too and new knockoffs involving non-employment situations. She once grouped a wide variety of controversies from Al Franken to Brett Kavanaugh to Jeffrey Epstein under the banner:
“it felt like there was this period where discussion of #MeToo was actually pretty bipartisan. Democrats like [Sen.] Al Franken were accused, but so were Republicans, like [Alabama Judge] Roy Moore. And also, a lot of these stories played out in the corporate arena, which is not particularly political. But the Kavanaugh hearings almost felt in a way like a return to an older pattern, like a return to a pattern that we saw with the allegations against Bill Clinton, Clarence Thomas, and Donald Trump. Those are scenarios in which the allegations take on all of the heat and the poison of American political life. And in those stories, it turns into a holy war very, very quickly and can almost feel like it’s not even about the women anymore.
…The #MeToo movement has proven so durable and so self-correcting. I think there was a moment after the Kavanaugh hearings where it all just felt like it had become impossibly politicized, to the point where it was almost preventing constructive conversation.
Ironically, Kantor’s rationalization returns to the very partisan “older pattern” that she once denounced in how allegations from women are treated in the media.
In rationalizing the Platner support, Kantor was obviously singing to the choir on CNN. Democratic figures like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Elizabeth Warren celebrated his securing the nomination.
Yes, he may be a rape-mocking, sex-texting, Hamas-praising, Nazi-tattooed, veteran-abusing, self-proclaimed communist. However, he will return them to power.
Other media figures, like The View co-host Sunny Hostin, have added their own rationalization for choosing power over principle. She has declared that he is “a liar, a racist, an antisemite, and a homophobe.” However, he is still better than voting for a moderate Republican woman. This week, Hostin explained:
“let’s be strategic, let’s get some power, let’s take over the Senate, let’s take over the House and let’s right the ship. Let’s get our country back…I am sorry, I am someone that believes in character, I am someone that believes that morals matter,” she concluded. “But because of the state of this country, I would — if I lived in Maine I would hold my nose and I would vote for Platner. I would.”
And so, Me Too becomes Meh when Maine is at stake.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the New York Times best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.“
Come On Man! Don’t you know a GOOD Democrat has to be fully checked out from facts and reality that do not conform to the Party Illuminati narrative? Platner had no idea what a swastika was until somebody with an IQ above 1 told him what it meant, right? Further, those Scarlett Letter women were corrupting Saint Platner and he had to reprimand them on their evil ways and in so doing they have become scorned and MAGA types! This Troglodyte Senate Candidate is perfect to represent the Dumbocrat Party and Maine Voter because he lacks any basic intelligence and will be a loyal lemming! Bah haha – what a bunch rubes they are in Maine!!!
The Missouri Compromise notwithstanding, Maine is basically a suburb of Boston.
reminder Democrats believe you can change from a man to a woman.
You aren’t dealing with rational people
I can TEST your gender…it is in the DNA! So STOP pretending you aren’t BRAINWASHED!
there is NOT one Democrats
against Fraud
against Illegals
against chopping kids sex parts off
If you vote Democrat you are a bad person. PERIOD!
democrats KNOW their party are fascists!
German’s knew Hitler and the National Socialists were Fascists!
A combination of brainwashing(propaganda), brownshirts and outright fraud…works for Democrats JUST like 1930’s Germany!
If you love illegals more than Americans….YOU ARE THE PROBLEM
The Democrats fought a first Civil War…they are fighting their 2nd…for the complete destruction of western society!
Thanks God that Platner didn’t say anything about grabbing celebrity female genitalia because that is just totally over the line for Dems.
It is not what Platner SAID in a locker room. It is what he DID that is relevant.
Platner was a marine for 8 years – do you honestly think that his locker room talk was tamer than Trump’s ?
All that argument does is point out that it is NOT what people SAY in private that matters. It is what they DO.
Ms. Jodi Kantor – ‘That’s my story and I’m sticking to it’
Voters care most about policies that are going to affect their lives. Platner is (nose-holding) acceptable to Dems the same way Trump was/is acceptable to virtue-valuing Republicans. Now, here comes a CA Gov. candidate — Steve Hilton — who is polite!…who speaks in well formed, complete sentences steeped in facts, doesn’t call his opponents insulting names, and is bringing back meritocratic argument as a norm we must recover to govern ourselves effectively.
Hilton will have to place some distance between himself and Trump to win over CA moderate pragmatists. Something as simple as:
“The job I’m asking for runs 2 years beyond Pres. Trump’s graceful retirement from politics”.
That’s completely factual, but telegraphs what so many look for in terms of outliving Trump’s obnoxious, intemperate, chaotic style. If Trump pushes backs at such a statement, that gives Hilton the separation distance he needs to win in Nov., and the chance to lead CA in a different direction.
Hilton will win.
That would be nice – but I doubt it. CA is a 64:40 state. Beccara is not Newsom or Bass – he does not have the boat anchor baggage of those two.
Absent a scandal worse than Platner’s – the Democrat candidate will win in CA.
Pbinca – you note that Hilton’s style is different from Trump’s – that is all that is relevant in your argument.
As YOU say – voters overlooked Trump’s style – because they supported his policies. While I doubt Hilton’s policies are the same as Trump’s – it is highly likely they are similar.
Though even that does not matter – Trump was elected nationally – because his platfom appealed to the majority of voters – that is YOUR argument.
Hilton has distanced himself from Trump’s style – by not having the same style. That is all the distance he needs.
We do not presume that because Platner appears to be a “sexually Violent predator” that all democrats are.
Democrats are obligated to explain their actual suppoort for Platner. Just as republicans are obligated to explain their support of Trump – presuming the support Trump.
Hilton is not obligated to defend or attack Trump. He is obligated to expolain his OWN platform – not Trump’s.
Trump’s characterisation of Platner is the best I have seen: a phone thug.
Sorry, that should be phony thug.
Her head is not buried in the sand. It is entombed in concrete.
I’m gonna steal that line…
Why should this be a surprise or shocking? Trump, and the Republican Party has made this Kind of double standard the… standard.
If Trump voters still choose to support Trump despite the crimes, sexual abuse rulings, and 34 felonies why would Platner’s issues matter if voters still chose him? Either Turley holds republicans to much lower standard and expects democrats to have a higher one why would it be an issue if democrats just follow the republican standard.
Because Democrats are self-righteous hypocrites.
Still repeating the same nonsense.
Clinton., Weiner, Franken, Swallwell, Porter, the Bidens – just a FEW of the crooks and Perves in the Democrat party that ACTUALLY set the standard.
Trump is not near as bad as these scum.
Democrats have no standards – except double standards.
“If Trump voters still choose to support Trump despite the crimes, sexual abuse rulings, and 34 felonies”
You mean left wing nut lawfare that almost no one buys ?
You created a bunch of star chamber kangaroo courts where the rule of law did not apply – and all you did was make people distrust democrats.
Trump wears the nonsense in NYC as a badge of Honor – you lied, perjured yourselves, bent the law into a pretzel and in the end – the only one you really convicted was YOURSELF.
Platner isn’t running for national office. Only Democrats in Maine might vote for him. And Maine is one of our smallest states in terms of population. Democrats outside of Maine don’t need to have ANY opinion of Platner.
The Wall Street Journal ran a article the other day about how DNC strategists paid a company to vett this guy. All three of them admitted they missed “red flags” as the company they paid either missed those “red flags” or omitted them.
The Sunny Hostin quote is sadly disappointing as to where the Democrats thought process on this is.
It is like crying,
“But he is OUR Nazi!”
In all of Maine and this was the best they could come up with?
Hopefully the rest of Maine will not hold their nose and vote for this guy but for Collins.
Agreed. RINO Collins is surely a better choice than a proud Nazi. (One doesn’t mistakenly get tattoos they’re not proud to wear.)
Literal meaning is not how the Left gauges words. If the effects of the words are true to the intent of the speaker then the words are “true,” without hipocrisy or lie, meaning be damned. We may share a geographical location with these psychopaths but we truly live in two different worlds.
Power and power alone is what they seek. I have not even seen a real Democratic platform on the policies that they desire to enact except “Pack the Court”, “Open Borders”, “No Voter ID”, “We Hate all things Trump”.
Does it really matter any more. When the new Governor of Virginia preached her moderate stance and then trashed them immediately after being sworn in, it sort of casts doubt on anything else the party may say. Platner and his apologists seem to be following this same plan. Except they have front loaded his objectionable part and asked you now to believe that past was all a mistake and he is ok now (and it was not all that bad in the first place since he is a Democrat and gets a free pass).
GEB,
Well said.
They are not even trying to hide it. It is all about power.
“ None of that, however, necessarily presents a barrier for those who want to retake power by any means necessary.”
Just like Trump. How ironic.
Seriously? After several years serving on the Defense Task Force on Sexual Assault in the Military Services, I am here to tell you there is no such thing as a “classic” #MeToo accusation.” There are only men AND women who exploit other men and women sexually without their consent, no matter the circumstances or the relationship. The Democrat Party has a long term lease on the Eighth Circle of Hell. God help them.
Maybe this is just a brillant psych out by turly. watch all the magats try to rip platner while praising an actual rapist and racist like the orange taco. get the popcorn ready
and pedo sorry forgot the pedo trump stuff, epstein who
So you’re voting Platner because of Trump? Interesting logic
not from maine but no id vote for him becasue of his policies. unlike the trumpers who voted for the racism
We need people like you so that people don’t forget how idiotic Democrats really are.
where the epstein files at?
In your panties.
The difference is these Platner charges are real and not made up out of whole cloth. But go ahead and vote for your Nazi SS fan boy.
Hypocrisy, thy name is Democrat.
oh what charges does platner have, just curious? and then we can way the evidence and make a decision like a trial or something and then award damages based on likelihood of assualt. oh wait that happend and TACO trump lost and has to pay
No one has to rip Platner.
He did it to himself.
Women, some of whom went on record, have come forward and said he did these things. Had a Nazi tattoo he claimed he did not know what it meant for 17 years. One of the women said he not only knew what it meant but bragged about it.
IIRC, he admitted to some/most of his comments to include one about pleasing himself in a port-o-potty.
Again, no one has to rip Platner.
He did it to himself.
Platner is a crazy lightweight. This is not a serious person, let alone a convincing Senator. If he gets to the Senate, he’ll be a field day for GOP fundraisers.
Trolls, sometimes it’s better to have half a Democrat (Collins) than whole lunatic. Just sayin’.
And haven’t you got enough of those already? Oh, I forgot. You are those. Never mind.
I’m not a fan of RINO Collins but if I lived in Maine, I’d have to shower five times a day to wash away the shame if I ever voted for anti-Semite, commie/nazi Platner.
And kudos to Fetterman for telling the truth. If Stalin or Himmler came back to life and declared themselves Democrat s, they’d be swept into office.
Fetterman is doing heroic work trying to rescue his party from MSNOW.
He’s running to be Vermont’s third Senator (i.e., Bernie’s butt-boy).
But not in a gay way.
I’ll give Jodi Kantor an “A” in creative writing, but and “F” in objective journalism. If she were a science writer, she’d be counting the number of angels on the head of a pin.
“They were driven beyond all bounds of moderation by the apprehension of the return of power …” Edmund Burke