Then, Schumer recruited 77-year-old Maine governor Janet Mills to join the Democratic primary field, and an avalanche of opposition research began dropping on Platner’s head. Political director Genevieve McDonald quit after they became public, telling Politico that Platner’s explanations—that the posts were a product of a dark time in his life, when he was grappling with PTSD from his military service—weren’t good enough. A week later, her replacement quit, saying his wife was newly pregnant.
Katz, who had seen Platner with his shirt off while shooting the campaign launch ad, says he thought the tattoo was military-related, but that he was unaware the image could have Nazi connotations. “That’s not who he is. And he regrets saying those things, and he wanted to apologize for those things,” Katz says. Should Katz and other advisers have weighed Platner’s online history differently before launching the candidacy? He dodges, vehemently. “I think these decisions should be made by voters and not what do five assholes in DC think is disqualifying and not,” Katz says. “Because I think if we’ve learned anything from having lost the White House, lost the Senate, and lost the House, it’s that maybe the people who’ve been in these positions of power don’t have the greatest read in the world on what voters care about.”
Gaspard, the former Obama insider, says that Katz is deeply invested in Platner’s role in the bigger project. “Morris believes very, very strongly that there’s a common tongue of economic inclusion, economic populism, that we’ve got to tie ourselves to in the way that we used to as Democrats,” Gaspard says. “He sees Graham as someone who is the ideal standard-bearer for those values, for that story.”
Maybe Trump has lowered the bar for personal behavior so far that Platner’s shitposting won’t matter. Maybe the attention economy rewards Platner’s increased visibility regardless of the content of his old rantings. “I don’t know if anyone is spinning you that it’s a positive. It’s clearly not,” one Katz ally says. “They took a calculated risk on a uniquely talented person. It was like a bubble that popped.”