Congress
Capitol agenda: Platner’s Hill support crumbles
Graham Platner’s congressional fan club is ready to move on.
The Maine oysterman’s already scandal-ridden campaign was hit Monday by new allegations reported by POLITICO that he forced a woman he dated, Jenny Racicot, to have sex with him in 2021 — a claim Platner denies.
Now a wave of Democrats across the ideological spectrum is calling on the progressive to step aside while already circulating names to replace him. Those bailing include his — now former — staunchest defenders on Capitol Hill, along with party leaders who had warily gotten behind him after their preferred candidate, Gov. Janet Mills, suspended her campaign.
The cascade of opposition spotlights a party deeply anxious about their path ahead in Maine, where unseating GOP Sen. Susan Collins is critical to Democrats’ effort to win control of the chamber.
Democrats can still replace Platner on the ballot, but only if he chooses to drop out before the July 13 deadline outlined in Maine law. If he were to exit the race, the state Democratic Party would have to pick his replacement by July 27.
That tight timeline would set up a scramble potentially pitting factions of the party against each other.
Rep. Ro Khanna, who joined Platner on the campaign trail several times, Monday night endorsed a former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Troy Jackson, who had previously won the backing of Sen. Bernie Sanders. Khanna said Jackson was “someone who has spent his life standing up for these progressive values.”
Sanders himself, who had backed Platner, has yet to comment publicly on the allegations.
A progressive-aligned PAC also weighed in, calling for Maine’s Democratic Party to honor primary voters’ wishes and “not allow crusty insiders like Chuck Schumer an establishment do-over.”
“A small caucus of party insiders cannot be trusted to nominate the shake-up-the-system outsider this moment calls for,” Progressive Change Campaign Committee co-founder Adam Green said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Schumer and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Kirsten Gillibrand called for Platner’s immediate withdrawal, saying the DSCC “will not invest in the Maine Senate race” if he remains on the ballot. Schumer had previously backed Mills.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Martin Heinrich, previously two of Platner’s biggest supporters, also joined in calling for him to step down, while Sen. Ruben Gallego, another former Platner fan, rescinded his endorsement.
Apart from Jackson, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and former public health official Nirav Shah are taking calls about replacing Platner, according to three people familiar with those conversations, granted anonymity to discuss sensitive discussions.
A spokesperson for Platner did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the candidate’s loss of lawmakers’ support.
Platner has not said that he would suspend his campaign. In a video statement posted minutes after Blue Light News’s report, Platner said he is “taking the time to reflect on the best path forward” for his candidacy.
What else we’re watching:
— MEET THE NEXT LIKELY CBC CHAIR: Rep. Troy Carter has a front row seat to Republican redistricting in Louisiana, is a self-proclaimed “close ally” of potential speaker Hakeem Jeffries and is currently the Congressional Black Caucus’ vice chair. CBC members say that makes him their ideal next leader. Several members, including Chair Yvette Clarke and No. 3 Lucy McBath, said in interviews they view Carter as a strong — if not singular — contender to chair the caucus next term.
— HILL STAFFER GROUP DEMANDS MISCONDUCT ACCOUNTABILITY: A 1,500-strong group of Capitol Hill staff members is calling on congressional panels to take steps to better hold accountable denizens of the campus accused of misconduct. The Congressional Progressive Staff Association is asking House Administration and Senate Rules and Administration to enact a series of recommendations after two House members — Eric Swalwell and Tony Gonzales — became the latest lawmakers to resign over sexual misconduct accusations against them.
Riley Rogerson and Hailey Fuchs contributed to this report.
Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley rescheduled a planned vote on Todd Blanche’s nomination as attorney general late Friday in a preemptive move as negotiations between the Trump administration and GOP holdouts continue.
The vote, now set for Tuesday after a scheduled Thursday vote was postponed, isn’t an indication that a deal allowing for Blanche’s confirmation is near, so much as it is a nod to Judiciary Committee rules that require three days of notice for a panel meeting.
There is no sign that President Donald Trump is about to acquiesce to the unflinching demands of Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who wants a controversial settlement agreement between Trump and the IRS substantially pared back.
Cornyn, who lost his primary to a Trump-endorsed candidate, wants the Justice Department to nullify a $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” and limit the scope of a tax audit immunity component of the pact.
Trump told reporters earlier Friday the fund is “dead” but added “I wish it weren’t.”
“I’d like to see them compensated,” he added, referring to people he considers victims of government abuse, including participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
To advance Tuesday, Blanche needs to pick up Cornyn and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), another senator on the panel with similar concerns. He can’t lose any GOP votes if he wants to be reported favorably out of the Judiciary Committee.
“Chairman Grassley wants Todd Blanche’s nomination to be successful,” said a Judiciary Committee spokesperson, who declined to be named. “Noticing the markup gives more time for the White House to secure the votes for the President’s nominee. Grassley would like to see Blanche confirmed before the August recess as he has an excellent record restoring law and order and keeping Americans safe.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise is zeroing in on one of House Republicans’ biggest contests — a purple district in Nebraska — when he starts his recess campaign sprint.
Scalise will travel to Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District in the Omaha area for an event with Republican Brinker Harding in the coming days, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter granted anonymity to share plans not yet made public. Republicans are digging in to defend the seat, which Kamala Harris won in the 2024 presidential race and is among Democrats’ best pick up opportunities this fall as they seek to flip the House.
Harding is running against Democratic consultant Denise Powell to replace retiring GOP Rep. Don Bacon. Bacon, a moderate-leaning Republican, flipped the Omaha district red in 2016.
After Nebraska, Scalise is planning to travel across the country throughout August, including to defend GOP incumbents Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ and Zach Nunn’s key battleground seats in Iowa’s 1st and 3rd Congressional Districts and Derrick Van Orden in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District.
He’ll boost candidates working to flip blue districts like Laurie Buckhout in North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, Derek Merrin in Ohio’s 9th Congressional District and Mike LiPetri in New York’s 3rd Congressional District.
Scalise also plans to travel to Michigan, Colorado, South Carolina and Texas for campaign events over the August recess.
President Donald Trump goaded John Cornyn on social media Friday morning, accusing the Texas senator of withholding his vote on Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination in retaliation for Trump’s central role in his political demise.
Cornyn, who lost his May primary to Texas’ scandal-ridden attorney general, the Trump-endorsed Ken Paxton, has threatened to block Blanche’s nomination in the Senate Judiciary Committee until the White House promises to permanently shelve its $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” in writing — something Trump appears unwilling to do.
“John Cornyn never had a problem with the so called “Fund,” which will not benefit me, but rather the great American Patriots who were hunted down like dogs and whose lives were unfairly and illegally destroyed by the Crooked Joe Biden Administration, until after I decided to Endorse and Support his Republican Primary opponent in Texas, who easily won the Nomination for the United States Senate,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Several Republicans bristled at the fund, which could have been deployed to compensate Americans who faced charges after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and which gives the president and his family audit immunity over taxes. At his July confirmation hearing, Blanche said that the fund, part of a settlement the president reached with the IRS, was defunct. But the administration has been “reluctant to change” the text of the settlement, Cornyn told reporters Thursday.
Trump signaled his continued support for the Jan 6 rioters on Friday.
“I will always feel that these victims of government abuse should be paid back for what they were forced to endure, their lives have been ruined!” he wrote. “Millions of people agree with me, as was proven in my landslide Presidential win, where this was a major subject of debate, and so did John Cornyn, until he lost his Election to an opponent that I Endorsed.”
On Thursday, the president suggested that he could punt a Senate vote on Blanche until after Cornyn — and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) — leaves the chamber at the end of the year. Cornyn, however, suggested on social media that there are other Republican senators with concerns about the fund.
“After the midterms, who knows who’s going to be the next United States senator from North Carolina or Texas?” Cornyn told reporters.
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