The Ladies of The View Turn on Graham Platner — And Don’t Hold Back

The Ladies of The View Turn on Graham Platner — And Don’t Hold Back

Democrats can usually count on friendly treatment from the ladies of The View, a daytime talk show that rarely misses an opportunity to criticize Republicans while giving members of its own party the benefit of the doubt. Maine’s embattled Senate candidate Graham Platner did not receive that courtesy. On Monday, the hosts unloaded on him in brutal fashion during a segment that left little doubt about where they stand. Yet, one cohost explained why Democrats must support him anyway.

As we’ve seen, Platner’s candidacy has been rocked by a steady stream of damaging revelations, including the Nazi tattoo on his chest and a trove of deleted social media posts containing crude, offensive, and inflammatory remarks. Each new disclosure has fueled questions about his judgment and political viability, turning what should have been a campaign focused on issues into a referendum on his past behavior.

Remarkably, despite the bombshell headlines, Platner continues to lead his Republican opponent, incumbent Sen. Susan Collins, in the polls. But reports that he exchanged sexually explicit messages with other women during his marriage may be a bridge too far, even for Democrats who have defended him until now.

Fox News reported:

The campaign confirmed the explicit text exchanges to Politico following a report from The Wall Street Journal that Platner’s wife, Amy Gertner, told a campaign aide about the texts after he launched his Senate bid as they began looking into potential political liabilities.

Gertner discovered the messages months after the couple married in 2024, the Journal reported.

At any rate, the ladies lined up to take shots at Platner during a segment on Monday’s show. Co-host Ana Navarro said,
“There is no doubt that this guy Platner is flawed, flawed, flawed in many ways.” She noted that his situation differs from former Rep. Eric Swalwell’s “because no women have come forward. … We haven’t seen the sex like we did with Swalwell. But it is disturbing and it is horrible. Why can’t we do better? Why can’t we have better candidates?”

Navarro was interrupted by her colleague Alyssa Farah Griffin, who said:

To be honest, his sexting is the least of my concerns with this guy.

Graham Platner trashed a Purple Heart recipient, said he didn’t deserve to live, defamed fallen Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, downplayed how hard it is to report sexual assault in the military, repeatedly used anti-gay slurs and homophobic posts as recently as 2021, called himself an avowed communist, and has a Nazi tattoo for 20 years that he’s since covered up.

This guy just seems like a guy of not very good character, and there are a lot of options in this country. And by the way, there are other paths for Democrats to win [the Senate].

Fellow co-host Sara Haines chimed in to say Platner “should be nowhere near Congress.”

This is a problem. The Purple Heart recipient, by the way, the video he insulted, was a man who took fire to save his team. And he said, this stupid guy should have died. It’s only because they didn’t have good aim that he’s here. If you were capable of saying that at any time in your life, you’ve shown me who you are, and I heard you.

This man should be nowhere near Congress. We’ve already got a wealth of people we need out. We’re not sending one like this in.

Haines was interrupted by the outspoken Sunny Hostin. The ladies are never shy about cutting one another off mid-sentence.

Hostin agreed that Platner is “a liar, a racist, [and] an anti-Semite. He’s a homophobe. So he has all the things and character does matter.”

Then came the backpedaling, the reason why Democratic voters should still support him: President Donald Trump.

Hostin argued that Democrats need Maine’s Senate seat if they hope to have any realistic chance of wresting control of the upper chamber from Republicans in November.

But we have someone that has almost unbridled power in the White House at this point. There are no checks and balances and the only way that we can maybe bring a bit of our democracy back is by having a Congress that functions and that has these checks and balances. And I do think one of the only ways is to win that seat in Maine.

The segment exposed a dilemma Democrats would rather avoid. The hosts spent several minutes cataloging what they viewed as Platner’s glaring character flaws, only for Hostin to arrive at the conclusion that defeating Republicans may matter more than any of them.

Still, if even the ladies of The View can’t bring themselves to defend Platner, Democrats may have a bigger problem on their hands than they realize.

Graham Platner got his five minutes of fame on The View today….safe to say the ladies were not impressed.

"This man should be nowhere near Congress."

"he's a cheater, he's an anti-semite…he's a liar, a racist….a homophobe….character does matter."

"There is no doubt… pic.twitter.com/isVrBQqaXy

— Maine GOP (@mainegop) June 1, 2026

Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on LinkedIn.

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