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Former Press Secretary for First Lady Jill Biden Michael LaRosa said he has been “shocked” by the amount of Democratic support for Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner and that the Platner campaign reveals a line in the sand within the Democratic Party.
“I am shocked at some of the people, some of the Democrats who I consider friends, being so all-or-nothing about this guy, and I don’t really understand why,” LaRosa told Fox News Digital. “He is not really representative of the values I would expect in a Democratic candidate, even by today’s standards. I’m a little surprised at the number of people who are circling the wagons just to beat Susan Collins.”
Despite criticism across the political spectrum over Platner’s resurfaced sexually explicit and vulgar online posts, including one mocking a Purple Heart veteran shot multiple times by the Taliban, and a tattoo of a Nazi symbol on his chest have drawn criticism across the political spectrum, Platner continues to lead in the polls.
LaRosa accused Democrats of brushing off serious concerns over Platner’s controversial past.
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“Democrats are playing a really dangerous game,” he said. “It’s really funny to me how selective and how short memories are in politics.”
LaRosa added that he personally draws the line at backing “a Democrat who has Nazi tattoos,” adding that Platner was “just not for me.”
“I get it,” he said. “I want the Senate seat, I want Democrats to win, I want Chuck Schumer to be the majority leader, but I’m not willing to take anybody off the street to run just because they arouse some vibes in a few portions of the Democratic Party.”
LaRosa said five-term incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins is “much more my style than somebody who I consider kind of a performative economic populist like Graham Platner,” adding that Platner attended elite private schools that LaRosa’s “family certainly couldn’t afford.”
“It’s kind of odd to hear him talk about the elite when he was educated by the most elite of New England prep schools,” LaRosa said.
LaRosa told Fox News Digital that he believes winning the election is “just not worth it” if it means supporting Platner.
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“It’s his own behavior that disqualifies him. It’s his own history of rhetoric, of advocating for political violence, of mocking wounded U.S. soldiers shot by the Taliban. All of that stuff, it’s just not worth it for me as a Democrat.”
He said just because Platner is a Democrat does not mean he is qualified to serve in the U.S. Senate.
“That does not make him a good candidate,” he said. “It won’t make him a good senator. It just makes him a D. What’s the point in having a party if you don’t have standards anymore?”
Despite Platner’s high polling numbers, LaRosa pointed to his experience campaigning in 2020 with former Maine House Speaker Sara Gideon, who repeatedly surged ahead of Collins in the polls before Collins won re-election in one of the most expensive races in state history, calling it a “cautionary tale.”
“Susan Collins did not trail Sara Gideon in a single poll,” he said. “Six years ago, our Democrat outpolled, outraised and outspent Susan Collins, and the state of Maine on Election Day chose both Joe Biden and Susan Collins by 9 points.”
Platner became the Democrats’ presumptive nominee in the June 9 primary to decide who will face Collins in November after two-term Gov. Janet Mills ended her campaign last month.
More moderate stances that have drawn criticism from some Democrats, including Sen. John Fetterman’s support for Israel after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and criticism of Democrats’ handling of border security, “were extremely normal or mainstream in the Democratic Party” years ago but are now being used to purge strong candidates, LaRosa explained.
“We’re going to do to John Fetterman exactly what Trump is doing to candidates who opposed him or aren’t with him 100% of the time, and I don’t like it,” he said. “I don’t like that my party is going to target John Fetterman for simply having, holding and defending views that were extremely normal or mainstream in the Democratic Party.”
He said Democrats could be in for a “major disappointment” and that he personally would not “publicly support, give money to, contribute to or work for” Platner.
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“My party seems to think that this guy represents what the rest of America wants or what Maine voters want or what people outside of the Beltway actually want,” he said. “Democrats believe that Graham Platner seems to represent what people are yearning for and wanting outside of Manhattan and D.C.”
LaRosa said the decision is now up to the voters and “Maine now has the choice” to decide if Platner will represent “their values and their views and their anger and their frustrations.”
“They now have the opportunity to vote for him or Susan Collins, and we, the Democratic Party, have given and provided Maine that choice for them, and so now they’re going to decide,” he said.
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Fox News Digital reached out to the Platner campaign for comment.
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