TV News LIES

Democrats this weekend offered mixed responses to recent allegations against Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, with some standing by his campaign while a handful voiced deeper concerns.

Their statements follow a New York Times story published last week that detailed accounts of “unsettling” behavior by Platner toward past romantic partners. In one instance, a former partner alleged that he had twisted her arm behind her back and shoved her into a room during an argument – an allegation he denied.

“There are some allegations in this piece that, I just want to be kind of unequivocal about, are simply not true. Anything alleging physicality, anything alleging that I knew what my tattoo was,” Platner said in an MS NOW interview last week.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a staunch supporter of Platner’s, said in a CBS interview on Sunday he believed the allegations that had been brought against Platner, calling the oyster farmer’s alleged conduct “shameful” and “ugly.” However, Khanna added that Platner had taken accountability and had “redemption,” and noted that he wouldn’t support the Marine Corps veteran if there was evidence of violence or sexual assault.

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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) said Saturday that Democrats have lost sight of the important economic issues facing working-class Americans as the party works to rebuild itself after a devastating loss in the 2024 presidential election.

“The party, as a whole, has lost its focus on working people,” Mamdani said in an interview with MS Now.

“People want to know: What are you going to do for rent? What are you going to do for housing? What are you going to do for gas? What are you going to do for groceries? We have to have answers to that.”

Issues like housing affordability, the cost of healthcare and rising gas prices should be at the forefront of the party’s focus, according to Mamdani, rather than ideological battles that distract from what matters to most Americans.

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Democrat Xavier Becerra will advance to the November election for California governor, according to a race call by The Associated Press. After days of counting ballots, it remains unclear who will claim the second spot in the fall.

In California's unusual primary system, all candidates, regardless of party, appear on a single ballot open to any registered voter. The top two candidates then move on to the general election. An estimated 3.5 million uncounted ballots remain. The state also counts mail-in ballots that arrive up to seven days after Election Day, as long as they are postmarked by Election Day.

The state hasn't had a wide-open primary like this one since the late 1990s. The winner in November will lead the country's most populous state, facing a large deficit and other obstacles, including the state's high cost of living, homelessness and wildfire risk. Incumbent Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, is term limited and is widely thought to be running for president in 2028.

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Donald Trump has urged a controversial loyalist he installed as the country’s top intelligence official to fire “a lot of people” overseeing intelligence for the US federal government.

The US president said Bill Pulte, who has no previous experience in the intelligence sphere, is “less shackled” because he has only been appointed director of national intelligence temporarily.

Amid bipartisan concern over his appointment, Trump has told Pulte that he believes the office of the director of national intelligence – which oversees more than a dozen intelligence agencies and departments – is “unnecessary and/or too big”, the president told the Wall Street Journal.

“I’d like to see it smaller,” Trump told the Journal. “I think there are a lot of people in there that shouldn’t be there.”

Asked whether he was calling on Pulte to fire people, Trump replied that he wants his ally to “start the process”, adding that whoever he nominates to take the job permanently can continue it.

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Graham Platner, a Democratic candidate for the US Senate, has rejected an explosive new report about his treatment of women, insisting that allegations of abusive behavior are “politically motivated”.

Platner, a progressive running for election in Maine, was responding to a New York Times article published on Thursday that included an interview with a Republican operative who accused him of womanizing, physical misconduct and making troubling comments about rape.

The claims prompted fresh calls for Platner, 41, who has faced scrutiny over past social media posts and a tattoo recognized as a Nazi symbol, to withdraw from next week’s Democratic primary in Maine, though he gave no hint of doing so.

Platner also addressed the story in an interview on Thursday with MS Now’s Chris Hayes.

“There are some allegations in this piece that are simply not true. Anything alleging physicality, anything alleging I knew what my tattoo was, these are the statements of somebody politically motivated,” Platner said. “That is not true.”

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A major gun control group is suing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Justice Department over the federal agencies' refusals to release documents and other information about who the largest sellers of crime guns in the U.S. are.

Brady is demanding in its lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia this morning that the court compel the ATF to release information related to what the agency calls Demand Letter 2s. These are letters ATF sends to gun dealers and other sellers that have been identified as selling at least 25 or more guns recovered at crime scenes in a calendar year.

"This is information that will save lives. It is information that helps us be able to analyze how our government is regulating the gun industry, particularly the largest sellers of crime guns, and it's information that we need to improve public safety in this country," said Josh Scharff, Brady's general counsel and senior director of programs.

Democracy Forward, a legal group that has sued the Trump administration over several policies and actions, is representing Brady in this case.

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