Think back to this exact time two years ago. It was the summer of 2024, and the presidential race was in full swing.
Joe Biden was the sitting president and the Democrat Party's nominee, facing off against a determined Donald Trump looking to make a return to the White House. Biden was fresh off a disastrous debate performance against Trump on June 27; his obvious cognitive decline was on full display for all the world to see, although some Democrats would tell you not to believe your lying eyes. He's as a vigorous as a man twenty years younger and sharp as a tack, they said.
Media types like Joe Scarborough and that wife of his tripped over themselves to come to Biden's defense. A few months earlier, Scarborough had beclowned himself with this vacuous hot take on Joe Biden circa 2024:
"I've said it for years now, he's cogent. But I undersold it when I said he was cogent, he's far beyond cogent. In fact, I think he's better than he's ever been, intellectually, analytically, because he's been around for 50 years."
"Start your tape right now because I’m about to tell you the truth. And f-you if you can’t handle the truth. This version of Biden, intellectually, analytically, is the best Biden ever," the host added.
By July of 2024, however, even the shameless Joe Scarborough-types who had defended Biden's obvious slide into senility were publicly questioning whether he should be their party's nominee. Biden, of course, was eventually forced out in favor of Kamala Harris, who, in turn, drank her way through her election night thrashing and is apparently now considering doing it all over again in 2028.
The whole thing left the entire country with a nasty aftertaste, and we all wanted to know: when did they know about Biden's decline and why didn't they say anything? "They" being every prominent Democrat who defended him every time he couldn't navigate his way off a stage or made excuses for him when his White House would call a media lid at 9 a.m. Certainly every serious 2028 presidential candidate needed – and still needs – to answer those questions.
They need to account for their deception. Every single one of them. We knew. They knew. Make 'em explain, then ask them to explain again.
Fast forward two years, and we arrived at a similar point with the Democrat Party. Let's just call it their "Platner Problem."
Where even to start with this one? On his best day, Graham Platner is not so much a blue collar "man's man" as he is a progressive "schmuck's schmuck." He's apparently the Democrat ideal of what a real man is because – despite a history of abuse against women, mockery of veterans, and that Totenkopf tattoo – he hates Donald Trump to the degree that his past misdeeds make him an acceptable candidate.
A candidate, apparently, worth having every progressive Democrat happily putting themselves in the position of defending, among other things, sexual assault, Nazi flirtation, adultery, and anti-police rhetoric. Looking at you, Ro Khanna.
Elizabeth Warren said Graham Platner was her "kind of man." Oof.
The rush to cleanse Platner of his diseased past makes Joe Scarborough look like a slavering amateur. It is the party of Ted Kennedy, after all, so maybe we shouldn't be surprised by any of this.
In their bizarro quest to find The Perfect Male Candidate, a guy's guy who would stop the party from hemorrhaging white male voters, they ended up with a perverted, chaotic, alcoholic momma's boy who only crossed the line when he assaulted a Democrat woman. It was perfectly fine for him to abuse a Republican girlfriend; she, of course, deserved it for not being one of them. But, assault a progressive woman and it's begrudgingly time to trot out the Harshly-Worded Tweets and calls for him to drop out.
And, now, Democrats must answer what they knew about Graham Platner, when they knew it, and why they defended it. They'll, of course, want this all to disappear before the November elections, but they don't deserve any grace on this matter.
Strangely enough, Democrats might have thought about consulting Joe Biden on their Platner Problem – the person who raised Hunter Biden should know a thing or two about dealing with degenerates.
The bottom line is that Democrats don't get to memory hole Joe Biden and they don't get to memory-hole Graham Platner (if he ever leaves). They don’t get to pretend they were shocked (!) to find out the truth about these men. They knew. They defended. And now every Democrat needs to be asked the same question: when did you know and why did you lie?
