Republicans needle Graham Platner with devastating AI porta potty ad
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Republicans' official Senate campaign arm needled lefty Maine Senate hopeful Graham Platner over recent revelations about his Reddit musings about loving the smell of porta-potties and using them for adult behavior.
Meet the Press Moderator Kristen Welker joins Hallie Jackson on Sunday TODAY to discuss Republicans raising concern over what’s included in President Donald Trump’s potential peace deal with Iran. "Really witnessing an extraordinary week of divisions between the president and his own party, all raising questions for Republicans about his priorities as we get deeper into this midterm election cycle,” Kristen says.
Trump insists US won’t rush talks with Tehran after rebukes from Republicans, including Ted Cruz and Lindsey GrahamRepublican hawks have issued a rare rebuke of Donald Trump over his planned peace deal with Iran, describing it as a “disaster” and questioning why the US president launched the war in the first place.Allies of Trump who strongly backed his controversial decision to order war on Iran alongside Israel urged him to “hold the line” this weekend, despite mounting economic costs and no sign of progress on many of the the initial objectives set out by his administration. Continue reading...
Several top Democratic candidates in the midterms are airing scathing ads linking their Republican foes to the Jeffrey Epstein scandal — betting that the Trump administration's reluctance to release the Epstein files still resonates with voters.Why it matters: Democrats are mostly focusing on high prices, health care and Trump's war against Iran, but some also are trying to tie Republicans to the late sex offender as part of a broader message accusing the GOP of protecting the corrupt elite.Zoom in: In the hotly contested Ohio Senate race, Democrat Sherrod Brown has spent nearly $1.5 million on TV ads slamming his GOP rival, freshman Sen. Jon Husted, for previously taking donations from Epstein financial client Leslie Wexner, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact.In fact, the only two ads Brown has aired this year have attacked Husted over Epstein, per AdImpact.Husted spokesperson Amy Natoce told Axios the campaign has "donated all available funds" from Wexner "to an anti-human trafficking charity."Husted's campaign has also noted that Brown previously accepted donations from Wexner's wife. Wexner, for his part, has said that Epstein conned him.Graham Platner, the presumptive Democratic nominee in the Maine Senate race — a must-win contest for the party's hopes of gaining a majority in the Senate — also is making anti-Epstein messaging part of his strategy to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins.In a six-figure TV ad, Platner accuses Collins of selling out voters to "the president and to the Epstein class," as an old video of Epstein and Donald Trump flashes across the screen.In Georgia's Senate race — one of the GOP's best opportunities to flip a seat this year — Sen. Jon Ossoff (D) likewise has argued in speeches and media interviews that Trump's administration is made up of "the Epstein class."What they're saying: Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat who spearheaded the push to release the Epstein files alongside Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), feels vindicated by the anti-Epstein ads."The establishment class thought I was crazy when I first pushed to release the Epstein files," he told Axios. "They said nobody would care. Nobody would vote based on it.""What they missed is that Epstein goes to the core of what people hate about Washington: a rigged system where the rich and powerful play by different rules."Republican National Committee spokesperson Kiersten Pels responded to a request for comment by accusing Democrats of hypocrisy because of their own ties to Epstein: "The same party now trying to weaponize Epstein to distract from their own failed policies spent years cashing Epstein-linked checks.""Their outrage is nothing more than cynical political theater from a party with no message and no credibility," she added.Zoom out: Democrats and their allies in state and federal races this cycle in Wisconsin, Tennessee and New Mexico also have aired ads tying their rivals to Epstein, or mentioning him while making a larger anti-Washington argument.It's unclear whether such spots will resonate with voters. Despite loud voices on the right bashing Trump over his handling of the Epstein files, Massie was unable to use the issue to rally many Republicans to his side.Massie was targeted by Trump's political machine and lost his bid for reelection in last week's GOP primary.Even so, many Dems believe an anti-Trump, anti-GOP Epstein argument will register with the overall electorate.The other side: Some critics have argued that the phrase "Epstein class" is an antisemitic dog whistle. Others have pushed back on that notion and pointed out that Jewish politicians, such as Ossoff, are among those saying it.The intrigue: Democrats aren't just slamming Republicans over their supposed ties to Epstein — they're bashing fellow Democrats, too.In New Mexico's gubernatorial election, an outside group ran negative advertising linking ex-Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (D) to Epstein. Her Democratic opponent, former Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman, also said in a spot, "Unlike others, I'm not in the Epstein files."Haaland aired a six-figure ad that pushed back, calling her opponents' claims "lies."A local news station reported that the outside group's ad was "false" and "misleading."
This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Democrats and Republicans agree on virtually nothing at this point, except the desperate need to build more housing in the United States. Depending on your viewpoint, the country needs new domiciles because it puts people to work and stimulates local economies, or […]
One of Democrats’ best pick-up opportunities in the Senate this November is an unexpected one. Graham Platner, the presumptive Democratic nominee in the race against Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), has been scandal-prone, complete with a Nazi symbol tattoo, but is polling ahead of the five-term incumbent from Maine. Last week alone Platner, 41, faced a […]
