Gottheimer Calls on Primary Front-Runner Platner to Withdraw from Maine Senate Race if Victorious
New Jersey congressman says Democratic nominee should step aside for another candidate after Tuesday primary. Maine voters choose nominee to face Sen. Susan Collins in November.
Fox NewsRep. Josh Gottheimer said Graham Platner should leave the Democratic ballot if he wins Tuesday’s Maine Senate primary and allow another Democrat to replace him. Platner leads the primary after Gov. Janet Mills suspended her campaign and Bangor candidate David Costello failed to gain support, Fox News reported.
Gottheimer listed several reasons for his position. “If this were Jersey and you had a candidate who abused women, obviously has a Nazi tattoo that — now it’s clear that he knew was a Nazi tattoo: not to mention many of his other lies and his comments and extremist comments; pro Hamas — a terrorist organization — other things of that nature,” he said.
U.S. Is. He added that he does not believe Platner will be the party’s nominee against Sen. Susan Collins by November. Gottheimer pointed to Mills’ statement that her campaign is only suspended, not over.
“Hopefully today you’ll see Janet Mills, even though she is the governor, left the race, her name is still on the ballot,” he said. He questioned how female voters could support a candidate facing allegations of violence against women. Gottheimer also commented on Monday’s New York Knicks game.
President Donald Trump attended the contest at Madison Square Garden, where the Knicks lost narrowly to the San Antonio Spurs. The president was loudly booed by the largely liberal crowd, though team owner James Dolan welcomed him and faint “U-S-A” chants were audible on the ABC broadcast.
“[Trump] brought in some bad mojo into the Garden last night and p---ed off a lot of people — but don’t worry,” Gottheimer said of the Knicks’ overall playoff prospects.
Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman has also criticized Platner. On his podcast, James Carville said he understands oyster farming is “hard a—work” and that voters should better understand Platner’s apparent PTSD.
“Maybe we need a combat veteran right on that Senate floor who is [expletive] up, who every time these [expletives] go to vote for another war … Maybe they need to look at this guy before they start sending young people off to fight wars and see what the consequence of it is,” Carville said. Fox News Digital reached out to the Platner campaign for comment.
