Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) said “we broke a lot of people” when discussing the saga of scandal-ridden Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner of Maine.
Partial transcript as follows:
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, because there’s this woman, Lyndsey Fifield, who dated him for about two years’ time, and she’s been posting on social media, speaking on the record about their relationship. She said he left an AR 15 lying around his Capitol Hill apartment when he lived here, told her if anyone broke in he’d rape them to show he’s dominant. She did say he never hit her or punched her, but said he could be rough, and she described being grabbed by her shoulder. She described him pulling her arm as she was refusing to get out of a car. Years ago, the mantra was ‘believe all women.’ Do you believe her?
KHANNA: Yes, and I don’t think our side should be attacking her, and I appreciate her courage from coming forward. I know some people are saying, ‘Oh, she’s a Republican.’ I think that is irrelevant. I believe her. I think Graham acted shamefully, and he acted as The New York Times characterized it, as a toxic relationship. It is shameful. It is ugly. It happened in a dark period of his life, and the Maine voters that I met said they don’t like it. They knew that he had these chapters. They are willing to extend him grace and redemption, and they’re focused now on what he’s running for. But I do not think we should be attacking her.
BRENNAN: So it is his campaign, the Platner campaign, that described the accuser as a GOP operative who has dedicated her career to electing Republicans. She is a conservative. Would you advise the campaign to stop attacking her?
REP. KHANNA: Absolutely. They should not attack her. They should not attack the New York Times reporters who wrote the story. I know those reporters, they have written things critical of me. That’s what journalists do. Donald Trump is the one who attacks the press. Our party doesn’t attack the press. Our party believes that you treat women with equality and respect in all aspects of their lives. Graham Platner did not do that in the early 2000s. He should just say what he has said to Maine voters, that was a shameful period in his life. He’s ashamed of that conduct, and that’s what makes him different, is that he’s taken accountability for that period of his life. Others, like Trump, have never taken accountability.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So you mentioned the PTSD, and he has been very open about that. What he went through, coming back from, I believe, three tours in Iraq, and then he worked in a private capacity in Afghanistan. But some veterans groups have said that, you know, he’s basically using it as an excuse for bad behavior.
REP. KHANNA: I don’t think–
MARGARET BRENNAN: –and maligning them in that way,
REP. KHANNA: It’s- it’s not an excuse, it doesn’t justify him being in toxic relationships or saying misogynistic things–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Because it sounds like it’s being used as an excuse.
REP. KHANNA: Well, I don’t view, in fact, in my remarks I said it’s not an excuse, it’s- but it’s the truth, it’s his truth of who he was, but what it should tell us is we broke a lot of people in this country by sending people to Iraq. Susan Collins sent people to Iraq, and now on the 100th day of a war in Iran, we’re breaking more people. Gas is through the roof, food is through the roof, and this Iran war is an illegal war, immoral war, an unstrategic war, and Graham Platner is running to stop it. That is the big issue that Maine voters were talking about, the war that’s increasing gas prices, the lack of healthcare, but I don’t believe PTSD should be an excuse for bad behavior. But we do need to recognize the toll these wars are taking on people.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And Platner did protest against the war, but that was before he enlisted in the Marines. And then subsequently worked in a private capacity in Afghanistan, another war zone.
REP. KHANNA: He was patriotic. Look, I ran against the war in Iraq in 2003. That was how I started. He was opposed to the war. We have made a mistake by getting into the war in Iraq. Now he served the country, but one of the reasons he went into PTSD, if you talk to him, as he said, I realized that my service did not have a purpose for doing good. And now you’ve got Susan Collins, who has been an apologist for the war in Iran on this 108 What have we achieved? You still have an Iranian regime there, they still have the nuclear fuel there, the gas prices are through the roof. And why is Platner in the race? Because he’s saying stop these foreign wars.
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