Carville blasts Democrats for failing to vet Maine Senate hopeful Platner
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Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville criticized Democrats for not properly vetting Graham Platner during a podcast on Wednesday.
Democratic Party leaders and liberal commentators who once defended Platner in previous scandals ranging from controversial rhetoric to Nazi-linked tattoos have since condemned him for new sexual assault allegations.
Maine resident Jenny Racicot accused Platner of rape in an interview with Politico and CNN on Monday, alleging that Senate broke into her home uninvited while she was drunk and forced himself on her about five years ago. Platner denied the claim.
Carville cited the election on Wednesday’s episode of “Politics War Room” as a clear example of young Democrats’ failure to observe the tried-and-true political wisdom of the past.
EXPLOSIVE SEXUAL ATTACK ALLEGATION LOSTS PLATNER CAMPAIGN AHEAD OF IMPORTANT DEADLINE IN CRITICAL SENATE RACE
Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville, previously a staunch defender of Maine Democratic nominee Graham Platner, has since called out the local party for not sufficiently vetting him as politicians have done in years past. (Carville photo via Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for SCAD; Platner photo via Graeme Sloan/Getty Images)
“Platner’s rise was also the rise of a different set of attitudes,” Carville said. “These were consultants who were 27, 28 years old, and they weren’t in some kind of straitjacket by the old rules of politics, and they seemed to have real success. So they won. They unseated the incumbent governor – they didn’t even get to run – and they were kind of ahead in the polls.”
“Looking back… you didn’t vet your own candidate? So you’re saying you didn’t know?” Carville asked Maine Democrats rhetorically. “Okay, we would have our own dissident researchers prepare a dissident research book about us. This is the most important research you have ever done.
“And so they started this campaign, and this was all new. It wasn’t in some other godforsaken time. I don’t think they knew. I don’t think they wanted to know,” Carville said. “That’s what it was like in the ’80s to brief your own candidate, to find out what his problem is. But, you know, there are certain rules in politics.”
The claim was in stark contrast to Carville’s previous rhetoric defending Platner amid scandals about a month ago.
PLATNER’S THREE-DAY REVIEW DUTY RETURNS TO DEMS AS RAPE ALLEGATION LOSTS SENATE BID
Many top Democrats and liberal commentators abandoned Maine Democratic candidate Graham Platner in the wake of the latest allegations. (Matthew Symons for Fox News Digital)
“He just let it go. He got shot at. He’s a veteran. He’s a little weird. He’s an oysterman,” said Carville, who like Platner served in the United States Marine Corps. “Maybe we need a fed-up war veteran on the Senate floor.”
One notable part of the previous defense was the World War II comparison: “And if Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill could work with Joseph Stalin — who, by the way, let me tell you, he was a bad guy, a really bad guy — then I can overlook a tattoo.”
But one of Carville’s defenses of Platner, who has been accused by several of his girlfriends in the past, has been particularly weakened.
“I don’t know how to tell this to the New York Times, but the boy puts his hand on the girl’s hand, the girl moves her hand, the boy walks away, rejected and despondent. This happens,” Carville said.
Fox News Digital reached out to Platner’s campaign and did not immediately receive a response.
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Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville had previously defended politician Graham Platner amid other controversies but has since changed his mind. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images for the New York Times)
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Fox News’ Adam Pack and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
