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Gilded Reframe – THE ATLANTIC
Sympathy for those POOR souls…who did this to themselves.
We at RFTH have enjoyed the lengthy and amusing flameout of Graham Platner. But his departure does not have us nonplussed; we are enjoying the media flailing and floundering over their past support for the obvious disaster of a human.
At The Atlantic, the gang is looking over the wreckage of his campaign and arriving at the conclusion that he has left things in a deeply precarious position for the Democrat Party.
That would be the party that fabricated Platner’s resume, steered party money into his coffers to smother Janet Mills, and took no action to replace the fiasco he had become until after he won the primary as the lone viable candidate.
Yes…poor, poor Democrat leadership…
Graham Platner is ending his bid for Senate in Maine, leaving behind a powerful grassroots coalition that may or may not be transferable, @elainejgodfrey and @russellberman report: https://t.co/HGt6HSY7yq pic.twitter.com/dgkRmae7UA
— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) July 9, 2026
(Not) Reporting On The Mirror – WALL STREET JOURNAL
More of the omniscient media claiming they had no way of gleaning these details on Platner.
Yesterday we covered how Alex Thompson, at Axios, came out with a Biden-esque report on all of the problems with Platner, which the press had long known about but looked askance at because of Trump. Now we have the next outlet taking a reflective look at what they refused to look at: the Wall Street Journal.
The outlet states that there had been warnings and red flags about Platner, but — much like Thompson had done — they try to say it was the Democrats who failed to vet all of the troubling details with their candidate.
The placid and passive press had no responsibility in this disaster making it onto the ballot, apparently.
The WSJ doesn't bother to mention the Frankensteining performed by Moraff and Katz, and it's half an article before the WSJ admits the entire narrative was bovine fecal sludge.
— Ed Morrissey (@EdMorrissey) July 9, 2026
WSJ: Guess Who Was a Red-Flag Parade For Months (That We Never Spotted)? https://t.co/yYlKxHB1ZX
Prose & Contradiction – FOX NEWS
Qualified support for a rapist Nazi is still support for a rapist Nazi, Jessica.
On Fox News, resident Democrat Jessica Tarlov was on to discuss the news of Graham Platner backing out of the race, and she had two daft positions: 1) Removing him from the ticket should have been done long ago. 2) Republicans need to shut up about his ouster.
Platner is out—good. It should’ve happened sooner.
— Jessica Tarlov (@JessicaTarlov) July 9, 2026
I want to underscore that Republicans don’t get to take a moral victory lap here. They’re still the party of Trump. pic.twitter.com/TyHkdGEesj
But while she wants to come off as the wise and reasoned voice on the matter of this disaster of a candidate, Ms. Tarlov, like SO MANY in the press, has to deal with her past comments of support for the guy.
You were shown for months what a social monster Platner had been. Your responses?
— Brad Slager: CNN+ Lifetime Subscriber (@MartiniShark) July 9, 2026
- Don't lecture us on the man
- His ex-girlfriend cannot be trusted because she's a conservative
- The race is about change, because Trump
- NY & DC need to let Maine for the guy https://t.co/Qj7KsyhMxR pic.twitter.com/uNGeqlZY2D
Artisanally-Crafted Narratives – THE BULWARK
Tim, you make it sound like there is a threshold to reach, allowing for criminality.
There was an ICE shooting in Houston this week, where a man who was pulled over was killed after he rammed their vehicle with his car as well as struck an agent, leading to the shooting.
Upon the news coming out, Tim Miller, probably eager to discuss ANYTHING besides his past support for Platner, took exception with the news of the shooting.
He offers up a piece on his site that steers well wide of the justification of the shooting, and highlights the man’s resume as a means to demonize the agency.
He Lived Here for 35 Years. Put Three Kids in College. ICE Killed Him.@Carrasquillo on Lorenzo Araujohttps://t.co/72dz5Z6vVs
— Tim Miller (@Timodc) July 8, 2026
News Avoidance Syndrome – THE BULWARK
Say, Bill? About those facts you are demanding…
Oh yeah, the crew on the Bad Ship Bulwark is desperate to move away from Platner. Bill Kristol also weighs in on the ICE shooting, and he does so in a most inept way. Somehow he claims that not only has DHS not commented on the event, but they are actively stonewalling the facts from coming out.
Seems telling:
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) July 8, 2026
The family of the unarmed family man driving to work and fatally shot by an ICE agent calls for an independent inquiry.
And ICE and DHS seem to be in full stonewall and coverup mode, with no interest in the facts coming to light.
https://t.co/rYOH0oRgXP
Sounds like a serious accusation. But then this is Bill Kristol we are dealing with; seriousness does not come into play when it involves Billy.
See, the day BEFORE Kristol claimed ICE and DHS were hiding the details, the agency posted a full rendition of what took place, and they also spoke to ABC News and gave that outlet all of the easily-researchable information to satisfy Bill’s demands.
On July 7, 2026, at approximately 6:50 AM CT, ICE law enforcement attempted to conduct a vehicle stop as part of a targeted enforcement operation to arrest an illegal alien. The driver of the vehicle, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo—an illegal alien from Mexico—attempted to evade arrest.… https://t.co/2TWG3GuOr9
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) July 7, 2026
The Chyron Game – CNN
Would this be a good time to remind Brian Stelter of the “layers of editing” at his network?
It is the latest parlor game in D.C. and the press, the “Where Is Mitch McConnell?!” mystery. A growing number of pundits have questioned if he is even alive, and it has led to several connected individuals coming forward to say they have in fact spoken directly to him.
One of those is Scott Jennings, which makes this segment on the Audie Cornish show confounding. Making it more confounding — and damned amusing — is that among the posted quotes from noted GOP figures, they included one from “Rep. Jack Kimble”, the noted parody humor account.
Maybe Audie’s show coming on at such an early hour means the famed CNN Triad of editing was not yet in the office.
How dare they doubt me credibility pic.twitter.com/gQwoUrtlEw
— Rep. Jack Kimble (@RepJackKimble) July 8, 2026
