AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.The ConversationIs There Nothing Voters Won’t Forgive?June 11, 2026Credit...Mark Peterson for The New York TimesListen · 10:35 min Bret Stephens: Hi, Frank.

So, Graham Platner — described by an ex-girlfriend as “the most toxic literally abusive man on earth” — handily won his primary in Maine and will now be the Democratic candidate running against the incumbent Republican senator, Susan Collins. As I see it, this is pretty much the death knell of the #MeToo movement.

Am I wrong?Frank Bruni: What’s shy of a death knell? A coma knell?Bret: A doom chime?Frank: I want to hedge here, because I refuse to believe we’ve abandoned all censure of men who mistreat women. But Platner’s official coronation as the Democratic nominee is certainly no cause for rejoicing.

Unless you’re Senator Collins, who, I presume, is doing cartwheels.Bret: I don’t know Maine politics well enough to say whether the fact that Platner’s two primary opponents — including Janet Mills, the incumbent governor who stopped campaigning over a month ago — collectively got a little more than a quarter of the vote means that Collins will benefit from a small but significant bloc of voters who might sit out the general election or even vote for her.

But my gut tells me that a few more Platner revelations will emerge between now and November. To which I say: great. Maine Democrats (I’m looking at you, Stephen King), you may now lie in the bed you’ve made.Frank: That’s not “great,” Bret. Your point about Democratic hypocrisy in promoting and celebrating Platner is well taken.

But if control of the Senate winds up hinging on this one race and the Republicans who have bowed to President Trump retain their majority by winning it, that isn’t great. Any lesson learned about ignoring a candidate’s unfitness for office pales next to the danger our democracy will be in if Trump has a subservient Congress for his final (we hope!) two years in the presidency.

And that peril has been made especially clear in his recent ranting about the primaries in California being rigged.Bret: Trump is a danger to everyone whether he controls Congress or not. Democrats are a danger to themselves if they follow Republicans into the moral gutter, which is what the Platner candidacy represents to me.

Or is it now the position of most Democrats that a man who shoves and keeps a woman in a room until she’s “calm,” as Platner allegedly did, can be forgiven so long as they agree with the candidate’s positions and the woman making the allegation belongs to the opposing political party?

In that case, Elizabeth Warren and all the other progressives who opposed Brett Kavanaugh on far more tenuous allegations owe the justice a big fat apology.Frank: First off, Trump is a bigger danger if he controls Congress.Bret: Not at all sure about that, but go on.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

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