Bernie Sanders is refusing to apologize for backing Graham Platner after the left-wing Senate hopeful’s Maine campaign collapsed under scandal and forced Democrats to scramble for a replacement.
On CBS, Margaret Brennan asked Sanders if regretted backing the controversial progressive.
“You were an early supporter in Maine of Graham Platner. You helped him rise. Do you regret not acting earlier to call for him to drop out, given the warning signs?” she questioned.
“No, I don’t think so. When we heard the serious allegations made against him, I wanted to get on the phone,” Sanders responded.
“I wanted to talk to him. I did. I asked, along with virtually all his supporters, that he should get out of the race, and he did.”
Platner’s campaign finally ended earlier this month after Politico reported that his former girlfriend, Jenny Racicot, accused him of sexually assaulting her in 2021.
Platner strongly denied the accusation and initially said his campaign would take “the time to reflect on the best path forward” before he formally withdrew.
The sexual assault allegation was the most serious blow, but not the first.
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Before leaving the race, Platner had already been trying to explain years-old Reddit comments, which he blamed on unresolved trauma from his overseas deployment.
He also covered a chest tattoo after acknowledging he disliked its resemblance to a Nazi symbol.
His marriage became another campaign issue after reports emerged about sexually explicit messages he sent to other women while married.
Platner told MS NOW that he and his wife dealt with those messages early in their marriage and that they ended soon after.
Brennan used Platner’s collapse to press Sanders on whether the candidates he backs in the midterms are being properly background checked.
Sanders first pushed back by saying he did not know “who has to be ‘fully vetted.’”
“Well, all I know is, Margaret, the candidates that we are supporting are standing up for the working class of this country,” Sanders said.
“I think the candidates that I and other progressives are supporting are generating enormous grassroots excitement and enthusiasm.”
Maine Democrats have since installed Troy Jackson as Platner’s replacement, but Democratic voters did not pick him.
The Maine Democratic State Committee chose Jackson Saturday, with the party announcing he had been “formally” selected over the weekend.
Devon Murphy-Anderson, Maine Democrats’ executive director, defended the move as part of a messy but worthy process.
“Democracy, while sometimes really messy, is always, always worth fighting for … doing what is right is what us Maine Democrats will choose every damn time,” she commented.
Maine Democrats’ Executive Director Devon Murphy-Anderson: “Democracy, while sometimes really messy, is always, always worth fighting for…doing what is right is what us Maine Democrats will choose every damn time.”
Not a single Mainer voted for Graham Platner’s replacement. pic.twitter.com/jgAoNJQcGG
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 25, 2026
Republicans saw something very different in the Jackson selection. Kristen Cianci, the Republican Party’s New England communications director, made the Harris comparison explicit on X.
“History is repeating itself in Maine. Troy Jackson will be crowned by @MaineDems this weekend without a single vote being cast,” she tweeted.
“Just like Kamala, voters will reject him when they finally get their say in November.”
The Platner mess fed into a larger fight over Sanders’ role in reshaping Democratic politics.
Brennan also asked whether his support for Jackson, Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and Minnesota Senate candidate Peggy Flanagan could drive a deeper wedge between progressives and establishment Democrats.
“People are sick and tired of the … Democratic establishment and the Republican establishment,” he shot back.
That divide has already drawn a warning from Rahm Emanuel, the former U.S. ambassador to Japan, whose Wall Street Journal op-ed carried the headline “The ‘Bernie Bros’ Could Spoil Democrats’ Midterms.”
On “Face the Nation,” Sanders made Emanuel the face of the old party structure he wants defeated.
“There is a strong division within the Democratic Party,” Sanders said.
“You have an establishment like Rahm Emanuel, who are dependent on billionaire campaign contributions to want to maintain the status quo. Then you have a progressive movement which, by the way, what is getting these guys nervous is we are winning all over this country,” he added.
He framed the fight as a choice between donor politics and the kind of change he says voters want.
“The American people are tired of a rigged economy, a corrupt campaign finance system, they want real change,” Sanders continued. “They don’t want a Rahm Emanuel and the establishment maintaining the status quo.”
Emanuel’s warning was aimed at the Democratic Socialists of America, whose candidates have been beating incumbent Democrats in primaries.
Emanuel pressed the policy case in the Journal piece. “If the Bernie bros were serious about growing jobs and wages, they would support candidates touting substantive ways to help families cover the mortgage or the rent, secure their retirement, and ensure no one is a single medical emergency away from bankruptcy,” he wrote.
In the op-ed, Emanuel argued that socialist-backed races were dragging attention away from a corruption message that had been helping Democrats.
“Our lead has narrowed amid recent attention to DSA-led primaries,” Emanuel continued.
“In November, a continued focus on defunding, decriminalizing and decolonizing will highlight cultural issues that alienate many Democrats, not to mention a huge swath of independents (who make up a record-high 45 percent of the electorate) and disenchanted Republicans.”
The DSA answer came Sunday from Megan Romer, a national co-chair of the group, during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday.”
Host Shannon Bream asked whether Democrats should be worried about the organization’s “plans” for the party.
Romer’s answer pointed establishment Democrats back to voters.
“The establishment Democrats should be worried about the voters and about what the voters think and about what the constituency thinks, and … right now they have not been delivering, and our candidates are and have been, and it’s resonating with voters,” she commented.
Bream also brought up former Democratic National Committee chair Jaime Harrison’s complaint that candidates who hate the Democratic Party should not use its nomination, volunteers, resources or infrastructure.
Romer argued that the two major parties made third-party ballot access too difficult, then defended using the Democratic line when useful.
“I also have been told a lot of times by Democrats, don’t vote third party. It’s wasting your vote,” Romer said.
“So, we run on the Democratic ballot line where it makes sense. We run independents sometimes where that is a viable possibility, but it’s a ballot line. And what matters is what the voters think. And the voters are overwhelmingly choosing our candidates.”
The left’s victories are no longer theoretical in the 2026 primary cycle, with progressive and democratic socialist candidates winning across the country, including several races in New York.
After New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani won last year, democratic socialist candidates are now eyeing mayoral races in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles.
