President Trump unleashed a blistering personal attack Wednesday on Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner, calling him a “low-level thug” and a “cheap, no-good person” with a criminal record unlike anything he claims to have seen in American political history.
Mr. Trump also questioned why Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, and other top Democrats have failed to distance themselves from the candidate.
“Watch that thug that’s up in Maine. He’s a thug. And they’re trying to make excuses for him. I mean, he’s worse than any human being that’s ever run for office,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Platner, who won the state’s primary on Tuesday.
“Nobody’s ever had a record like that. And you’ll have Schumer, he goes crazy over this or that or [Jeffrey] Epstein. This guy. Why aren’t they talking about him?” Mr. Trump asked. “This guy’s got a rap sheet.”
Mr. Trump insisted, “He’s a thug. I know thugs. I had to deal with thugs. I built a lot of buildings. I dealt with the toughest people on Earth. I dealt with worse than thugs. This guy’s a thug.”
Mr. Trump also said Mr. Platner’s parents financially supported him, and characterized him as “not a businessman at all,” calling him “a loser.”
SEE ALSO: Republicans troll Platner with his domain name in opening salvo of Maine Senate race
The Washington Times reached out to the Platner campaign for comment.
Mr. Platner has faced explosive allegations, including sending sexually explicit texts to multiple women while married, having a Nazi tattoo he says he did not understand when he got inked 18 years ago, social media posts insulting rural people and downplaying sexual assault, and a former girlfriend’s account of a toxic relationship involving rough physical behavior.
Republicans have opened the general election fight against Mr. Platner with a dose of trolling, snatching up GrahamPlatner.org and using it to blast the 41-year-old former Marine and oyster farmer as “untrustworthy, unhinged & unfit for Maine.”
Mr. Platner is now on a collision course with five-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins in a race Democrats likely need to win in November to have any chance of flipping the Senate.
Mr. Trump, in his remarks, threw support behind Ms. Collins, calling her “sane.”
In the race to define Mr. Platner, the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with Senate GOP leadership, has turned GrahamPlatner.org into an attack vehicle. The site warns visitors that he’s “lying to Mainers, trying to fool us into believing the fake persona, the working class outsider and oyster farmer fighting the establishment.”
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