Fetterman compares Dems' defense of 'tacky and gross' Platner to disgraced ex-lawmaker
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., isn’t going to bat for Graham Platner as his Democratic colleagues tip-toe around the embattled candidate’s growing list of scandals.
The lawmaker compared Democrats’ willingness to support, or at least not disavow, Platner’s actions to the same support for disgraced former Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., who resigned from Congress earlier this year over allegations of rape and sexual assault.
"I'm saying that the last time Democrats leaned in on a guy that was sending, you know, [these] kinds of messages to women, I think that was like Swalwell, you know," Fetterman said. "I don't know, that's not someone I'm never gonna carry water for."
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Platner has been embroiled in controversy since last year when it was revealed that he had a symbol of Nazi iconography tattooed to his chest.
Since then, troves of old Reddit posts under the name "P-Hustle," explicit texts sent to other women while he was married and the revelation that he has an account on the controversial Kik platform have dogged the candidate in recent weeks and days.
But Democrats and his top supporters in the Senate, by and large, aren’t breaking with Platner, given that the party is determined to flip Maine in their quest to retake control of the upper chamber. And he is set to meet with Democratic lawmakers in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.
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Still, Fetterman, who often breaks with Democrats on anything from funding the government to the war in Iran, was highly critical of Platner, whom he referred to by his online handle "P-Hustle."
Fetterman didn’t explicitly say that Platner should drop out of the race, however.
When asked if Maine Gov. Janet Mills, who teased that she was still on the ballot after dropping out of the race over financial woes, should jump back in and Platner step aside, Fetterman said, "I think you shouldn't send, you know, sexually explicit texts or d--- pics or whatever he sends to all these women on Kik."
"I mean, you know, like it's, it's truly bizarre. I mean, what's next? So, I mean, here is a guy that describes an American soldier, a Purple Heart [recipient], a dumb motherf----- that doesn't deserve to live," Fetterman said.
"He smears Chris Kyle, you know, the American Sniper, cheers about the beating [of] IDF soldiers to death," he continued. "I dig it, like the thing he has going for him, he's done so much bizarre and tacky and gross stuff that you lose count, you know, it's like you need to have like a bingo card."