A Democratic congressman predicted Tuesday that Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner will not remain on the ballot, even if he wins his primary election later that day.
Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey made the prediction during an appearance on CNN News Central, saying he expected Platner to withdraw and allow the Maine Democratic Party to substitute another candidate. Gottheimer has been one of the few Democrats to publicly criticize Platner, whose campaign has been surrounded by a string of scandals since it began.
"What I would suggest is that Graham Platner get off if he wins today, which I assume he will, because there's no one actively campaigning against him, that he get off the ballot and let another Democrat step in, that the Maine Democratic Party puts somebody else in," Gottheimer said.
The scandals have included a Nazi-linked tattoo, extreme posts on Reddit, and reports of concerning behavior toward ex-girlfriends. An ex-political director also went on record saying Platner was dishonest about the nature of the tattoo and other matters.
Gottheimer did not hold back in describing the situation.
"I mean, if this were in Jersey and you had a candidate who abused women, obviously has a Nazi tattoo...it's clear that he knew [it[ was a Nazi tattoo, not to mention many of his other lies and his comments and extremist comments, pro-Hamas, a terrorist organization, and other things of that nature, he should get off the ballot. New Jersey would throw him off the ballot or bury him under the Meadowlands," he said.
When CNN anchor John Berman pushed Gottheimer to say who he would support in a general election matchup between Platner and incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins, Gottheimer declined to answer the hypothetical directly.
"I don't think that's going to be the choice, so I'm not going to do that hypothetical. I think that he's going to get off the ballot soon. I mean, you saw today reporting from his ex-political director saying that he lied about all this stuff, the concerns that she had. I mean, the issues are just going to keep piling up. And The New York Times piece was just one of the first piece of many issues that I think will continue to come out about him," Gottheimer said.
Despite the criticism from Gottheimer and others, several prominent progressives have stood behind Platner. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Ro Khanna both appeared at campaign events with him ahead of the primary.
Gottheimer has not been alone among Democrats in pushing back. Massachusetts Rep. Jake Auchincloss, Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, and Pennsylvania Rep. Madeleine Dean have also publicly distanced themselves from Platner. Auchincloss described the tattoo alone as personally disqualifying last month.
Fox News Digital reached out to Platner's campaign for comment.
