The Daily Show host Jon Stewart has lashed out at Democratic leadership and called them “lost” during a new interview with Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner.
Platner, an oyster farmer and Democrat running to unseat Republican Senator Susan Collins, joined The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart to discuss his Senate race Wednesday. He told Stewart he hadn’t heard from the Democratic National Committee or the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee since launching his campaign.
“There has been more reach out from I would say more kind of like establishment folks. However, and this is the important part, not from like the DSCC, not from the DNC, nobody in the places of power remains interested,” he said.
“They’re lost, dude,” Stewart chimed in.
Platner made the remarks before his primary opponent, Maine Governor Janet Mills, suspended her campaign Thursday. The DNC, which typically does not get involved in primary races, contacted Platner’s campaign after Mills dropped out, according to Semafor reporter David Weigel.
A source familiar with the matter told The Independent the reporting is accurate.
The Democrats’ X account also shared a post promoting Platner’s campaign Thursday.
The Independent has contacted Platner’s campaign for comment.
Stewart later argued that Democrats only know “two stories.”
“The two stories are this: you’re either a moderate Democrat or you're a left-wing firebrand,” he told Platner. “And so what they're saying is, ‘Oh, sure, the left-wing firebrand, that does well in the primary, but that'll never travel.’”
He also claimed that Platner has been viewed as the “Democratic equivalent of a MAGA loyalist.”
“You know, there is that idea that well, electability, and there's something crazy about this, as though you are ... the Democratic equivalent of a MAGA loyalist who has come out with wildly controversial positions,” Stewart said.
“And then you talk to you for five minutes, you go, oh no, this is based in historical precedent. It has a very literate and literary foundation to it. It has a foundation of lived experience — like they should be, again, viewing this as a Rosetta stone that can help them translate,” he continued.
Now that Mills has suspended her campaign, Platner is expected to secure his party’s nomination and face off against Collins in November. Collins was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1996, and in 2020, she became the first Republican woman to secure a fifth term in office.
The Independent has contacted the DNC and DSCC for comment.
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