MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” addressed the controversies surrounding Maine Democratic Senate hopeful Graham Platner, noting that they are indicative of a generational struggle taking place within the Democratic Party.
Platner is a veteran and oyster farmer running for the Democratic Senate nomination in Maine. Until recently, he was seen as a rising face within the party and has received the public support of prominent Democrats like Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
However, Platner has come under heavy fire in recent weeks over resurfaced Reddit posts that have been deemed offensive by many, as well as a chest tattoo that resembles a Nazi skull and crossbones.
Platner has said he was not aware of the tattoo’s Nazi similarities and has already vowed to have it removed. But, as “Morning Joe” co-host Jonathan Lemire noted Wednesday, Platner’s presence in the Maine senatorial race has highlighted a real “generational clash” within the Democratic Party, similar to the New York City mayoral race between up-and-comer Zohran Mamdani and institutional veteran Andrew Cuomo.
“These races do seem representative of this real struggle the party is going through right now, post-2024,” Lemire observed. Semafor reporter David Weigel, who has covered Platner’s recent controversies, concurred. “One thing Democrats deal with in particular that Republicans don’t is that they lost so recently,” Weigel noted. “So if you are part of the Democratic political establishment, you don’t have a win on the board in the last year to say, ‘This is how elections should be. This is what a candidate needs to win.’”
You can watch the full “Morning Joe” segment yourself in the video below.
Weigel said candidates like Platner are pushing Democrats to take another look at the modern image of their party.
“There’s also an intervention here of the idea that Democrats are too censorious,” Weigel reflected. “That Democrats are the party of Cancel Culture, especially when it comes to white men, and that is something that Platner is leaning into.”
“The party has been losing ground with men in particular,” Weigel added. “Do we want a Democratic Party that cancels people and a Republican Party that doesn’t? The idea being that latino men, black men, white men might look and say, ‘I don’t want to be part of the party that cancels you and gets you out of your job and says you can never rise up in your career if you said something stupid.’”
“I think it does tap into something that Democrats are worried about. ‘How come men keep drifting [from] us?’,” Weigel concluded. “It is a mélange of things going on. But that is where Platner and progressives are taking it.”
