HUGH HEWITT: Graham Platner’s past shows why no candidate can outrun the spotlight

Would you like to be a candidate for a position where there will be intense competition in the general elections? Begin to consider your decision with the Bible.

Really. Especially the Gospel of Luke, chapter 8, verse 17: “For nothing is hidden that will not be revealed, nor is anything hidden that will not be known and come to light.” (New King James Version.)

Roman Catholics have long been encouraged to reflect on the “four last things”: death, judgment, heaven, and hell. “Judgment” comes with consideration of the man’s or woman’s entire life. The basic proposition about the nature of God is that God is omniscient; that is, He is omniscient (and also omnipresent and omnipotent).

PLATNER WITHDRAWED FROM CRITICAL SENATE RACE AFTER BOMB RAPE ALLEGED TORPEDO CAMPAIGN

This has not always been the case in political media. Sometimes the national and even local press has been complicit in suppressing facts that some know but are not widely shared. The exploits of President John F. Kennedy were well known in the Beltway’s elite media and perhaps to many in Massachusetts, but those who knew him, loved him, and even loved him would not tell about it. This is perhaps the most famous example of the media’s complicity in covering up scandals, although it is a bipartisan tradition that some dirty clothes are not washed in public.

Now more than ever, every candidate should be warned that Luke 8:17 is extremely true and inescapable for every candidate in any race where any opponent has the means to go deep.

That era is over. President Obama is said to believe in the saying “if you can win, you should win” as an explanation for playing hardball in politics. Many Republicans live by the same rule. Politics is a far cry from real wars or even life-or-death struggles, but as Finley Peter Dunne’s famous work Mr. Dooley puts it, “politics is no puff either.” It’s a tough game, and many lives are disrupted, if not more severely ruined, as national attention turns to the background of each candidate the spotlight turns on.

Now more than ever, every candidate should be warned that Luke 8:17 is extremely true and inescapable for every candidate in any race where any opponent has the means to go deep. As the number of media platforms increases, so does the number of reporters who want a “scoop” or something close to it.

NEW YORK TIMES UNDER EXAMINATION OVER GRAHAM PLATNER NEWS

Airing the dirty laundry of any candidate – “R” or “D” – generates clicks and thus raises the profile of the journalist with the byline. No rumor is too ugly to be checked. And every ex-girlfriend or boyfriend, business rival or co-worker, or even a family member to settle scores sees campaigns as an opportunity not to be missed.

That’s why every aspiring candidate must first scrutinize himself and then subject himself to the harsh test of “friendly” professionals who specialize in “opposition research”.

If there is an unpleasant story, it can and will be found. And it will be on every front page.

PLATNER’S THREE-DAY REVIEW DUTY RETURNS TO DEMS AS RAPE ALLEGATION LOSTS SENATE BID

Which brings us to the people who hired Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner. Platner withdrew from the Senate race in Maine on Wednesday night. Platner has his own life story. Nothing he does or does not do can be undone or compensated. These are the facts of every life, and no life will emerge unscathed from probing and often searing scrutiny.

This is exactly what candidates need to grasp. All will be revealed. Every bit is bad and not very good. Forewarned, forearmed.

HOW GRAHAM PLATNER’S CAMPAIGN DISSOLVED: FROM REDDIT POSTS TO RAPE ALLEGATIONS

Former MSNBC host Chris Matthews introduced this old but true wisdom in his classic book “Hardball”: If you have a political problem, hang a lantern on it.

Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins and Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner. Platner announced his withdrawal from the race on July 8. (Graeme Sloan/Getty Images; Sophie Park/Getty Images)

At the beginning of a campaign, highlight the worst parts of your life and biography. If your candidacy fails to self-disclose and apologize, your candidacy will fail, and failure will be even more painful when it comes.

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But if his onetime supporters hadn’t laid out these harsh truths about the harsh realities of politics in 2026, the former candidate may be angry at them more than himself at this point.

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This would not be an unreasonable reaction if he had been misled about what could be covered up.

But Platner’s saga is already a story worth telling to every candidate in every race in the coming years: “[N]”It is a secret that nothing will be revealed.”

Hugh Hewitt, Fox News contributor and “The Hugh Hewitt Show” weekday afternoons from 3 to 6 p.m. ET on the Salem Radio Network and simulcast on the Salem News Channel. Hugh takes Americans home to the East Coast and to lunch on the West Coast on more than 400 affiliates nationwide and on all streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest of Fox News Channel’s news roundtable hosted by Bret Baier on weekdays at 6 p.m. ET A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996, where he started his eponymous radio show in Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has appeared frequently on all major national news television networks, hosted television programs for PBS and MSNBC, written for all major American newspapers, and authored a dozen books. He has moderated multiple Republican candidate debates, most recently the 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in 2015-16. Hewitt focuses his radio show and column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians Today Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests, from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush.

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