January 1, Democrat Double Standard EXPOSED: Why One Scandal Ends Careers While Another Gets a Pass

Wyatt’s Take

• California Democrats dumped Katie Porter faster than last week’s leftovers when temperament issues surfaced, but Maine Dems are clinging desperately to scandal-plagued Graham Platner despite mounting controversies including Nazi tattoo allegations and questionable conduct toward women.
• Senate Democrats led by Chuck Schumer are trapped in a political nightmare of their own making — they cleared the field for Platner, pushed out Gov. Janet Mills, and now have no backup plan as new scandals drop weekly.
• The difference isn’t principles, it’s politics: California had replacement candidates waiting in the wings, but Maine Democrats bet everything on Platner and now can’t walk away without surrendering their shot at flipping the Senate.

Former Democratic Congresswoman Katie Porter got absolutely crushed in Tuesday’s jungle primary for California’s governor’s race. The runoff in November looks like it’ll be Steve Hilton versus Xavier Becerra, though final numbers won’t be certain for days. What we do know for certain: Porter won’t be anywhere near the final two.

She went from progressive darling and early front-runner to political pariah after questions about her temperament surfaced and never went away. When ABC News ran headlines like this last month, anyone paying attention knew her campaign was finished: “Katie Porter fights questions on temperament as the only woman in crowded California gubernatorial race.”

Porter wasn’t the only former member of Congress who crashed and burned after measuring drapes for Sacramento offices. PBS congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins reported on former Congressman Eric Swalwell after his implosion and exit from not just the race, but public life entirely.

“Rumors first rose over social media for the past few days, but starting on Friday and over the weekend, we saw reporting first from The San Francisco Chronicle and then CNN, bombshell, specific accusations against Congressman Swalwell. CNN said that four women accused Swalwell of misconduct. Most were anonymous. One was named. Now, those charges range from unsolicited explicit messages or nude photos, to unwanted touching, to one accusation of rape.”

So Porter and Swalwell both fell from favor among Democrats when issues of their personal conduct overwhelmed progressives’ approval of their far-left policy positions. Both got shown the door.

But that hasn’t happened to the presumptive Democratic Senate nominee in Maine, Graham Platner. Not yet, anyway.

With Maine’s primary set for Tuesday, June 9, it’s way too late for Democrats to swap out Platner for someone more palatable. Gov. Janet Mills suspended her campaign, but her name is still on the ballot, as is David Costello’s. Despite this, Democrats are standing proudly behind their troubled candidate with the Nazi tattoo and a list of scandals that continues to grow by the week.

This drama must make at least Porter marvel at the scale of the left’s double standard. She lost her temper with staffers and got the cold shoulder from hard-left California Democrats, who quickly turned to Xavier Becerra or Tom Steyer.

On the day of the vote in California, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer held a short press conference where reporters pressed him about his backing of Platner after the latest batch of awful headlines about Platner’s increasingly chaotic campaign.

“I met with Graham Platner today. We will beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate.”

That was Schumer’s response to the first Platner question. More questions about Platner followed. Schumer repeated the refrain of beating Collins and taking back the Senate four more times and then, frustrated by reporters following up about Platner after each deflection, Schumer ended the news conference.

But he couldn’t end the questions. Why are Democrats standing behind Platner when they abandoned Porter and Swalwell?

We can’t really compare apples to apples yet, as details about Platner’s many questionable decisions are dripping out in torturous fashion. There’s surely more to come. But any fair observer has to conclude that Porter’s problems pale next to Platner’s.

While Platner fell for the SS symbol and much else, Swalwell is believed to have fallen for “Fang Fang” — Christine Fang, an alleged Chinese spy. But remember that failure of judgment didn’t torpedo the congressman’s ambitions initially.

Swalwell had seemingly survived that tawdry episode and was even sending cease-and-desist letters to the FBI when its director, Kash Patel, was reported to have been working to release the “Fang Fang” files related to their relationship. Swalwell was playing offense and leading in the polls — until he wasn’t.

Whatever drove Swalwell out of Congress, there’s a standard in there somewhere against which to measure Platner’s many bad choices: Too much bad conduct in too little a span of time, and over the side of your political ship you go. Democrats know this, of course.

Their shaky support for Platner reflects the fact that their candidate is badly damaged. That’s why most Democrats won’t comment on Platner now and why Schumer went into his endless-loop response.

The explanation of the Democrats’ 2026 double standard is simple: They don’t have a fallback plan in Maine. They are overcommitted. Gov. Mills announced the suspension of her campaign at the end of April.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren had thrown in with Platner in March, joining Sens. Martin Heinrich, Ruben Gallego and Bernie Sanders in Platner’s parade. Mills must have concluded that there was no fighting the far left of her party.

Some of Platner’s outrageous Reddit posts had come to light when Warren joined up, but his attacks on fellow soldiers, both living and dead, had not. Neither had his troubling texts to women other than his wife.

The drive to force Mills out succeeded, but when Platner’s scandals mounted in May, there was no one to turn to. California Democrats had a long list of replacements for Porter and Swalwell. That wasn’t the case in Maine.

If Democrats give up on Platner, they are giving up on their chance of gaining a net four Senate seats and getting Schumer’s title changed from minority leader back to majority leader next year. They’re trapped by sunk costs.

Sunk costs have crippled many a business and life decision, and they plague politics too. Sunk costs are expenses or investments that have already been incurred and cannot be recovered. Rational decisions focus on future costs and benefits, not past expenditures.

Continued support for Platner will lead to more embarrassments such as Schumer’s on Tuesday. Every new story about Platner will see reporters hustling after high-profile Democrats asking for answers. Republicans have lived this political nightmare before and learned that there is no upside to sticking with a candidate whose campaign can’t possibly succeed, and about whom more awful stories are likely to appear.

We have to wait to see what Katie Porter has to say about this double standard, if she says anything at all.

Wyatt Matters

This isn’t complicated — Democrats will protect whoever they need to win, and throw overboard whoever they don’t. Porter and Swalwell had replacements ready, so out they went. Platner’s all they’ve got in Maine, so they’ll hold their noses and pretend the stench isn’t there. It’s not about character or conduct or doing what’s right. It’s about power, plain and simple. Working Americans deserve leaders who stand on principle, not politicians who shift standards based on electoral math. This is exactly why regular folks have lost faith in the whole Washington game.