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On Monday, the latest scandal had Maine senate candidate Graham Platner losing endorsements.
Not over the Nazi tattoo. Not the slur use. And not his admittedly-to-the-right-of-most-Republicans gun policy.
He has been accused of sexual assault by an ex who initially hesitated to come forward because most of his political aims are positive.
Noted Maine resident Stephen King is speaking up to defend him for some reason.
‘Graham Platner may drop out’
On Monday, July 6, King tweeted to weigh in on the latest ugly development in the high-stakes Senate race in Maine.
“Graham Platner may drop out,” he began by acknowledging.
In an alarming parenthetical, King commented: “(I hope he doesn’t, but).”
King continued: “Meanwhile, the Abuser in Chief just keeps on keepin’ on.”
It appears that King is arguing-by-implication that because Donald Trump is an unrepentant monster, this should impact the standards to which good people hold themselves when choosing politicians.
Obviously, King heard a lot of angry responses. Instead of retracting his tweet, he doubled down.
“Tell you what,” King argued.
“If you knew the whole truth about everyone in the Senate and House of Reps,” he suggested, “those chambers would be dead empty.”
King continued: “Jesus said, ‘Let him without sin cast the first stone.’”
Critics of this perspective and of this particular turn of phrase might make multiple arguments. One of which being that not everyone believes in sin and that billions would feel free to cast stones in this particular scenario.
‘Those chambers would be dead empty’
Notably, King made his nauseating posts on Twitter.
The author maintains an active Bluesky account, but did not share these opinions there.
Bluesky has been a hotbed for Platner skeptics ever since his Totenkopf was revealed, and before he was caught sharing posts from noted antisemites Stew Peters and Nate Cornacchia.
And then, of course, Platner’s reddit history, which included both victim-blaming of rape victims and use of the r-slur, was uncovered. At that point, he should have dropped out.
But he did not. And given the mostly-progressive values that his campaign espouses, some bought into the narrative that he was a changed man and the best bet for Maine.
It is wrong to suggest that everyone who believed that they could explain away Platner’s alarming history as a transparently bad person was themselves a bad person.
Our society constantly drills it into people’s heads that forgiveness is virtuous. Additionally, many are desperate for hope in the economic and cultural bleakness of the Trump regime.
But, in real life, you do not need one “strong man” to combat a strongman. And you certainly do not need one sexual predator, accused or otherwise, to combat a sexual predator.
Also, the remark about how “those chambers would be dead empty” is a great example of how political cynicism is a poison pill. Yes, there are predators in government already. No, not everyone. And no, there should not be more.
King, like many in Maine and throughout the country, likely feels very anxious about the results of the Senate race. He should! Retaking the House and Senate for America could bring a halt to much of the Trump regime’s dismantling of our country, and start investigations and more before 2029.
But, at the end of the day, we — the voters — need to be good enough to elect good people to combat bad people. We cannot be so desperate to combat wrongness that we abandon all belief in right and wrong.
Stephen King Defends Graham Platner After Rape Accusation: ‘I Hope He … was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.