David Brooks of The Atlantic and Jonathan Capehart of MS NOW join Amna Nawaz to discuss the week in politics, including fresh scandals in the Maine Senate race with Democratic candidate Graham Platner. <\/p>\n
AMNA NAWAZ, PBS NEWSHOUR: Well, you set this up perfectly to move to the next topic, when you talk about primaries. We saw several states hold their primaries this week, but I want to talk about Maine, which is gearing up for their primary next week. And there’s new allegations now against the Democratic Senate candidate. That is Graham Platner. We saw a New York Times report that cites several women who dated him saying he was demeaning to women, he drank heavily. In the case of one woman, Lyndsey Fifield — I hope I’m saying her name correctly — she claims that he was violent, says he twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a room, and held the door to confine her. Platner denies any violence. He repeatedly references dark periods that he went through after his military service, and he mentioned that in an interview on MS NOW last night. GRAHAM PLATNER (D-ME): I firmly believe that, if you believe in the transformational politics, you got to believe in the ability for people to transform. And my journey is one of transformation. These are things that I talk about in my past, things that I’m not proud of, but it is a past that I had to go through to get where I am today. And I’m very proud of who I am today, and I’m very proud of the movement that we have built up here in Maine.<\/a><\/i> NAWAZ: Jonathan, this is a candidate who has now had to explain away a Nazi tattoo, sexting other women early in his marriage, and now this. He’s not dropping out of the race, should he? JONATHAN CAPEHART, MS NOW: You know, I think there’s some Democrats in the Senate in particular who would love for him to step aside. There’s a story in The Washington Post today about how he’d been telling folks, Democrats, don’t worry — when the Nazi tattoo thing came out, don’t worry, there are no other skeletons in the closet. And yet this past week, we have seen two big skeletons come out. The fact that Governor Mills only suspended her campaign, did not drop out, and telling people at least twice now, hey, I’m still on the ballot, signaling maybe could more things be coming, and also signaling to Democrats, hey, if something does happen with Platner and he has to get out, I’m still here. But the issue here is, it’s not going to be congressional — it’s not going to be congressional Democrats, national Democrats who are going to tell Platner to get out of the race. Folks in Maine are still behind him. Some of the interviews that we have had on MS NOW, you have had folk — Mainers saying, he’s not perfect, he’s not this, he’s not that, but we need a change. And so that’s the one thing he has going for him. And, again, I look at Platner through the prism of where we are in terms of the Trump administration and the Trump world, given who Trump is, given the allegations against the president, given the way that lots and lots of people in the Republican Party just turned a blind eye and decided, we still want to vote for this guy. And so I think there might be — there are a lot of Mainers who are thinking the same thing, that he is their guy. But the one last thing that everyone in Maine has to worry about is Senator Susan Collins. I mean, Democrats really want that seat, but Senator Collins has shown over multiple campaigns that, one, she runs like she’s losing, and then, on Election Day, she outperforms the polls. NAWAZ: David, I should also note here, because the woman Lyndsey Fifield we mentioned has worked for Republican and conservative campaigns and issues in the past, some people are dismissing this as politically motivated. How are you looking at all this? DAVID BROOKS, THE ATLANTIC: The guy is a moral degenerate. The abuse of women, the sexting, the Nazi tattoo, I don’t even need to say anything beyond his Reddit posts, which are not in the past, by the way. He did that for a long time, abusing rape — people who might have been raped, diminishing rape in the military, insulting fellow military officers, calling himself a communist. It’s just — it’s a pathetic empty guy who postures in a way that’s kind of repulsive. There are 330 million Americans, and there are 100 senators. We can’t have a decent human being in those 100? Like, we have got to settle for this? I just think the people — the Democrats are supporting Platner for the same reason the Trump people are supporting Trump. It’s because 20 or 30 or 40 or 50 years ago, we sort of privatized morality. We told people we’re not going to teach morality in schools. We’re going to — you — it’s up to you to come up with your own values. And the problem when you do that is that unless your name is Aristotle you probably can’t come up with your own moral philosophy. And so what happens, you have a lot of people in this country, Republicans and Democrats, who are good people, but they’re morally inarticulate. They’re morally undeveloped. They haven’t developed the criteria to even think about, what is my role here? What is his role? How — what is excellence to find in this role? What is moral excellence as a journalist, as a teacher, as a senator? And we’re going to make decisions on a two-stage basis? First, is the person we’re electing to a public office a person of basic integrity? And, second, do I agree with them? But if you haven’t — if you have gotten rid of the first criteria, then you have weakened your democracy. And Republicans clearly did that with Trump. And now Democrats really — if they side with Platner, I don’t want to hear too much about Trump in the future and his moral degeneracy. NAWAZ: Jonathan, to that point, I guess, it is absolutely, ultimately up to the people of Maine, right? They will vote and they will decide and have their voice. We’re old enough to remember congressional Democrats pushing Al Franken out of office. CAPEHART: Yes. NAWAZ: Right? So have the standards changed over time, but also based on how close they are to the election process? CAPEHART: Yes, I think standards have changed a little bit. And David’s moral indignation over Platner is something that I share. But I’m also looking at the fact that, well, we do have Donald Trump in the White House and that, yes, moral degeneracy is coming right from the top. And I’m looking at this, again, through the prism of Democrats, pay Mainers. I want to put all Democrats saying that they’re supporting Platner, but the folks in Maine have clearly decided, if you look at the latest polling, that they right now don’t care about his past, they just want to win the seat. And, to David’s point, there is a cost to that if he does win. If he doesn’t win, it’s going to be very painful for Democrats and, in the end, painful for the country, from the Democratic perspective, because they’re hoping that seat puts them — helps to put them in the majority.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n