Van Jones Calls Graham Platner a ‘Moment of Truth’ for Dems: ‘Do You Want to Sign Off on the Donald Trump Standard?’

CNN’s Van Jones argued that Graham Platner’s campaign for the Senate in Maine is a moment of truth for the Democratic Party during a Thursday evening appearance on Anderson Cooper 360°.

Jones’s comments came after eponymous host Anderson Cooper made note of Senator John Fetterman’s (D-PA) declaration that Platner is “behaving in a degenerate way” and urging of Maine Democrats to vote for Maine Governor Janet Mills (D), who suspended her campaign in April, in next Tuesday’s primary contest.

“What do you think, Van?” asked Cooper.

“You know, it’s a moment of truth in this party. This is tough. You know, I think that I hear people in our party and they’re saying, ‘Why are we so tough on our bad guys when the Republicans are so soft on their bad guys?’ And so, you know, that’s the kind of stuff when you’re a parent, you struggle with that because it’s like, ‘Look, we’re running this house. We’re not running the house across the street. We’re not running the neighbor’s house. We’re running this house.’ And so what bothers me about what he’s done is not just the things that are being reported about him, but that his stories just don’t hold up,” replied Jones.

“He said that he got this stuff under control years ago, and some of this stuff is not years ago, and people are concerned that there’s there’s more to come. Look, I don’t sit in judgment of anybody. You know all the work that I’ve done in prisons and you know I’m a second chances, third chances, fourth chances guy when you’re on a redemption arc for real — when you’ve taken real accountability, when you’ve actually owned up and you have a track record. Or at least you’re honest about where you are in your process. My concern is he tried to polish this thing up. ‘I used to be one way, now I’m not.’ Well, you better be telling the truth about that, and it seems like he’s not,” he added.

“And so now this party’s got to look in the mirror,” he concluded. “Do you want to sign off on the Donald Trump standard of behavior? You’ve got some other people who have very bad behavior in the other party, is that now our standard in this party, or is it not? And I think people are going to have a tough choice in Maine.”

Hours earlier, The New York Times dropped a bombshell report about Platner’s treatment of women, which included allegations of abuse from one ex-girlfriend.

Watch above via CNN.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!