Scott Galloway Rips the Platner Campaign for Attacking the Media, But Urges Dems to Stop the ‘Purity Tests’

Scott Galloway discussed the latest scandals engulfing Graham Platner’s U.S. Senate campaign in Maine this week with his Pivot podcast co-host Kara Swisher. Platner has been plagued by controversy after it was revealed he had a Nazi-linked tattoo on his chest and had posted bigoted messages online following his service in the military.

Platner’s most recent scandal involves a former staffer revealing that his wife had flagged for his campaign several past sexting exchanges Platner had with various women.

Swisher introduced the topic and the latest news surrounding the Maine Democrat, and argued, “I don’t get bothered by it as much, none of it. I think he’s, as Amanda Litman correctly said, he’s someone who had a drinking problem as a Marine, probably got that tattoo, has mental health challenges which he’s trying to overcome, marriage problems which his wife is insisting they’re going to counselors and overcoming. I’m not so sure in the era of Trump this matters at all.”

“So, what do you think?” Swisher then asked Galloway.

“Look, okay. Every election is a choice, not a marriage proposal. We’re not hiring a priest, we’re hiring a senator,” Galloway replied, adding:

Do you think that, do you want to make sure that women’s rights aren’t continue to be rolled back? Do you want a more responsible economic policy? Do you want different approaches to labor that raise the wages of nurses and students?

Do you want something regarding fiscal sanity? Do you want to stop, have a check against the unfettered, unprecedented corruption? But we’re going to talk about f*cking tattoos and sexting.

I mean, the obsession with personal purity has become a luxury belief. And folks, if your house is on fire, you don’t ask whether the firefighter has problematic DMs. Now, having said that, the comms person for the Platner campaign should be fired.

You don’t go after media. You don’t say this is gossip. You don’t say these are texts.

He said it was journalistic malpractice. Guess what? These texts are accurate.

The reporting has been accurate.

“Good for you, Scott,” jumped in Swisher.

“The response should be the following. I am an imperfect man. I have demonstrated terrible judgment on several occasions in my marriage, and I have a great marriage,” Galloway continued, going off on the topic:

What about you? What about you? Are we going to continue to have one strike and you’re out?

I’m a Jew. I don’t love a Totenkopf tattoo.

If he gets drunk one night and gets a stupid f*cking tattoo, the fact that he’s trying to protect our liberties the next day, it might be blown up by an IED. He gets a hall pass. So, okay, folks, if you want to keep applying purity tests, we end up with an incompetent running against a 9/11 denier in Los Angeles.

We’re not going to have any candidates running. So, one, stop the purity tests, and two, the Platner campaign, it’s not the crisis that brings people down, it’s their inability to own it. I f*cked up.

Swisher then pivoted to discuss Platner’s wife’s statement on the scandal and compared it the Clinton sex scandals from the 90’s. She went on to bring up the idea of “imperfect allies” within political movements and the need for people pursuing similar goals to band together despite personal differences.

“So what do you think about that? Can people get to that idea of forgiving people for their imperfections or—” Swisher asked Gallloway.

“One of the reasons we’re seeing a crash in birth rates is a lack of dancing. That is, a dancing is a key component or a key mating ritual. When you dance, typically it helps if you drink a little bit. The anti-alcohol movement is hurting it more than anything. There was a wonderful TikTok on this by some young man. I thought, God, this is so powerful,” Galloway replied, adding:

People have a camera on them all the time. Nineteen-year-old men don’t want to dance because they’re worried about or they don’t want to take risks like dancing, like approaching a potential expressing romantic interest because they’re worried one false move and you’re out. Everything in a digital world.

Galloway concluded by circling back to his argument that Platner’s campaign has botched the response. “But look, I saw this, and I was like, okay, at what point, I’m hoping we’ve passed the purity test on the Democratic side. But more than anything, I want to call the Platner campaign and say, ‘Own it,’” he argued, adding:

Stop attacking.

Don’t say it’s gossip or it’s not accurate reporting. It’s been corroborated.

“Just say, you know what? We get why people might stare at this. It feels like a traffic accident and it kind of is, but let’s focus on the real matters,” Galloway concluded.

Watch the full clip above.

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