Appearing on 'The Ezra Klein Show,’ Morris Katz admitted he had erred in continuing to champion the failed Senate candidate as he was repeatedly dogged by scandals
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Morris Katz appears on "The Ezra Klein Show" on July 24, 2026.
Add JewishInsider on GoogleMorris Katz, a close advisor to Graham Platner who stood by the embattled Maine Democrat until the final days of his Senate race, is now adopting a more contrite tone as he looks back on what went wrong in the campaign, one of the most closely watched in the country this year.
“The tattoo should have been enough,” Katz said in an interview on “The Ezra Klein Show” from The New York Times. He was referring to Platner’s tattoo of a Totenkopf, a symbol associated with the Nazi regime’s elite — and brutal — SS unit. Platner denied knowing what the tattoo, a version of a skull and crossbones, represented, though an ex-girlfriend has maintained that he told her and others that he knew what it was. Katz said her account should’ve been taken more seriously when she shared it.
Katz also referenced scores of old social media posts from Platner, a veteran and oyster farmer who was dogged from the start of the Democratic primary by a series of past posts and remarks invoking slurs, promoting violence and making light of sexual assault. “In hindsight, knowing what we know now, the Reddit posts alone probably should have been enough,” he added.
Throughout a steady drip-drip-drip of new revelations, which grew to include allegations that he was sending sexually explicit messages to women other than his wife and that he had a history of being manipulative and intimidating toward ex-girlfriends, Platner emerged with a similar message to voters: that he had changed, and was a better person now. A rape allegation ultimately ended his campaign.
“I think both things can be true: that we need different kinds of candidates running outside of the political arena,” Katz told Klein, “and that it’s the United States Senate, and candidacies should be held to an incredibly high standard.”
The 27-year-old Katz, who played a pivotal role in the election of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, was part of Platner’s campaign even before it began. He helped to recruit the candidate and had reportedly told people he wanted to see Platner run for president in 2028. Platner regularly drew large crowds, even as more reports about his background emerged, and won the Democratic nomination after his top competitor, Maine Gov. Janet Mills, dropped out.
Katz has emerged relatively unscathed from the chaos in Maine. Mamdani and Micah Lasher, the Democratic nominee for an Upper West Side-area congressional district, have both said recently they would continue to work with Katz.
In the interview with Klein, the consultant said he would continue to fight establishment politics in the Democratic Party but that he had erred in his continued support of Platner.
“I think that there are a lot of people who have made mistakes or said controversial things who we want to win the support of, who we need to earn the trust of. But I also think I was wrong,” Katz said in the interview. “There are a lot of incredible people who are not part of the political arena, a lot of incredible working-class Americans across the country, who don’t have those problematic Reddit posts or who don’t have a problematic tattoo or don’t have quite the level of controversy in their past.”
Katz acknowledged that a more thorough vetting process may have found further evidence of Platner’s past social media posts, but insisted that any campaign vetting would not have found evidence of the rape allegation.
“Essentially, there was the inclination that there were problematic posts on Reddit, not the full degree of what later came out,” Katz said. “An even more robust process would have found more of the specific Reddit comments and, potentially, the tattoo. But again, a standard vetting process probably doesn’t uncover most of the things that came after.”
Klein read to Katz one of Platner’s 2013 Reddit posts, which placed blame for sexual assault on women who drink too much.
“I think it should have been a red line,” Katz said. He argued that people should “not be exiled from society and day-to-day life if they’ve changed or are putting in the work to change.” But, Katz added, “that doesn’t mean that they’re entitled to a role in elected office.”
Joel Rubin: Sanders has endorsed ‘the most categorically anti-Israel, antisemitic candidates that we've seen in a generation, if ever’
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks to guests during the first stop on his "Fighting Oligarchy" tour, Midwest swing, at the RiverCenter on August 22, 2025 in Davenport, Iowa.
ASPEN, Colo. — Joel Rubin, a former State Department official who led Jewish outreach for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) 2020 presidential campaign, is now excoriating his former boss and the movement he has built for elevating stridently anti-Israel candidates — most notably former Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner.
The anti-Israel and antisemitic wave that’s taken hold on the left as a result of the efforts of Sanders and his allies, Rubin said, is bad for the Jewish community and politically unwise for the Democratic Party and for the U.S.’ own strategic interests.
“I think what Sanders and the Sanders operation have done is shove into our system the most categorically anti-Israel, antisemitic candidates that we’ve seen in a generation — if ever, certainly within the Democratic Party — and it’s by design,” Rubin said in an interview with Jewish Insider last week on the sidelines of the Aspen Security Forum. “It’s not by accident, and it’s very disruptive intentionally. The goal is to undermine Democratic unity and even rationality on Israel at this stage.”
He said that Sanders and his allies have directed anger and frustration toward Israel into a “highly unproductive debate about whether or not Israel should exist and whether or not we should support it or have any relationship” — rather than a “constructive” discussion of how the U.S. can work to resolve issues with a longtime ally and partner that plays an important role in American national security.
Sanders, Rubin said, has become an “outright hostile actor.”
Sanders did not respond to a request for comment.
Rubin has been particularly critical of Sanders and progressive strategists for the “creation” and promotion of Platner, whom Rubin called a manufactured “fake test tube [candidate]” out of “central casting for the left.”
He said that he’s angry with Sanders, as well as other Platner backers including Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), for continuing to promote Platner even through a litany of controversies, starting with his Nazi tattoo.
Khanna declined to comment.
Rubin said Sanders and his allies, and the candidates they have promoted, have taken a similar approach in campaigns around the country, counting on a backlash toward Israel and the pro-Israel Jewish community to launch them into office.
“I’m extremely disappointed. I feel like it violates the goals of promoting peace in the Middle East and the two-state solution, and I believe that it exacerbates the pain and distress that the American Jewish community is experiencing right now in Israel policy,” Rubin said. “I had higher hopes for a senator who is Jewish, and his team who knows very well what’s out there.”
He said that the American left is now following the model of former Labour party leader in Britain, Jeremy Corbyn — who faced a damning Equality and Human Rights Commission finding of antisemitism within the party under his leadership — and the movement is “no longer progressive — it’s something much darker.”
“It’s a hate-based narrative they’re promoting,” Rubin said. He said that Sanders and others on the left are on a mission to break the Democratic Party’s ties to the Jewish state and the U.S.-Israel relationship, with no argument for how that would produce a positive outcome.
When he worked for Sanders’ 2020 campaign, Rubin said that he was “given latitude to communicate messages about him and his views on Israel and peace and antisemitism that were positive,” with a focus on solving issues and creating solutions, while disassociating from “the most hateful voices.”
“That’s no longer the case. I don’t know what’s going on inside that operation. There is no line. There is no bottom. There is no low,” Rubin said. “And what it’s doing now is gutting American Jewish confidence in the Democratic Party, which is not a way to win elections, and it’s unethical as well, considering American Jews have been a bedrock community supporting the Democratic Party.”
He said the party should be pushing for policies that move toward peace, which is “not what these people are advocating for.” He said that the effort is also playing into the hands of conservatives, allowing them to frame themselves as the only ones taking action against antisemitism.
“We need leadership, and the progressive community needs to stop scapegoating Jews for all problems in the world,” Rubin said.
Progressives like congressional candidates Scott Wiener in California and Brad Lander in New York as well as Khanna are “desperately afraid of saying anything somewhat rational about Jews and Israel for fear of being attacked” — but are facing attacks anyway, discovering that it’s impossible to satisfy far-left voices while they are pushed to take ever more extreme positions.
Rubin argued that policymakers and advocacy groups like J Street, for which he was the founding political director, have a responsibility to lead and to set boundaries of what is and is not acceptable discourse on Israel, to stand up to the extremes and to strongly reject antisemitism. “Right now, nobody’s stepping up,” Rubin said.
J Street did not respond to a request for comment.
Rubin said that President Barack Obama, under whom he served, understood the importance of continuing the U.S.-Israel relationship and of treating pro-Israel American Jews as patriotic and leaders within the Democratic Party, even as he supported policies like diplomacy with Iran. He said that level of nuance and respect has vanished.
Rubin has never been aligned with AIPAC, and was critical of its strategies in this year’s primaries, but said that the left is targeting American Jews and supporters of Israel writ large through attacks on AIPAC — a phenomenon he has personally experienced. He compared it to the targeting and marginalization of Jews in a variety of professional sectors over the past three years.
“Any person who’s Jewish who expresses any level of support [for Israel], no matter where on the spectrum, is now a Jewish person who needs to be targeted for harassment, and is described as an AIPAC [supporter] trying to insidiously control the American political system for a foreign power,” Rubin said.
“The American Jewish community doesn’t deserve this,” Rubin continued. “The Jewish American community on the Democratic side has been a foundational funder, organizer, elected leader, organizational leader, powerful leading voice of infrastructure in the liberal openness of American life in the last 50, 60 years, and now we’re getting beaten up as if we were the opponent. It’s totally offensive and it’s politically dangerous for the Democratic Party to do that as well.”
Speaking to JI as the House was voting on an amendment to cut $3.3 billion in U.S. aid to Israel, Rubin warned of the “moral hazard” of the vote, arguing that many Democrats in safe blue seats would vote in favor of the amendment for political signaling purposes — “pandering to the base” that is “very much moving into a hostile position” — knowing that the amendment was going to fail.
Rubin predicted, correctly, that moderate Democrats in purple districts, “the majority-makers,” would take a more nuanced view focused on the impacts of the policy and oppose the amendment.
He praised House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) for opposing the amendment, but said that the Democratic Party is now in the midst of an “existential fight” over Israel as a result of Sanders and progressive activists making the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a “top-level issue” for the party and the left.
Rubin — who lives in Maryland — was also strongly critical of Van Hollen, saying the senator had “turned his back on the Maryland Jewish community,” despite its strong support for him in the past, particularly in his 2016 Senate race.
“The Jews of Montgomery County — our lane, our world, East Kensington — were his foundation of political and financial support,” Rubin said. “I can’t find a person who isn’t upset about what he’s done to turn his back on us.”
A Van Hollen spokesperson said in a statement, “Our office has heard from constituents from the Jewish community of Maryland who hold a wide array of views – including many that share the Senator’s concerns about the actions of the Netanyahu government. The Senator appreciates the diversity of opinions his constituents hold on these and other issues and will always respect and support their right to express their views and have a dialogue.”
Looking ahead to the 2028 election, Rubin said he’s seeing a shift in the Democratic Party. While candidates used to travel to Israel to show their support for Israel and the Jewish community, he said that candidates are going to Israel for “stunts” and for the purpose of “castigating the Israelis to curry favor with the base,” referring to recent visits by Khanna and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and predicted that other candidates would take a similar approach.
But he warned that this pandering to the Democratic base won’t win Democrats the presidency.
“If we have a candidate that only talks to the base of the party, we are not going to win the middle ground states in the upper Midwest,” Rubin said, arguing that a candidate like Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who has been criticized by the left for his support for Israel and Jewish identity, is far better positioned to win the White House.
Rubin also said that the U.S. should and must maintain its relationship with Israel going forward, calling it “our best ally in the Middle East” on a range of issues including fighting shared enemies, intelligence sharing and joint development of weapons systems — in addition to a range of economic and non-military benefits that are often overlooked.
He said that Democrats can be leaders in highlighting the non-military benefits of the relationship, from climate technology to a potential trade corridor through the Middle East and broader regional normalization and integration efforts.
He said that a Democratic president should harness those opportunities and move toward a similar relationship that the U.S. has with other allies like France or Japan, “a rich, diverse, legislatively supported, strong relationship that does include military-to-military cooperation, coordination and sales, but that is not the the whole relationship.”
But Rubin said that the left and the Democratic base don’t seem to have the appetite for any of that, and “that’s bad for the United States.”
These two unexpected nomination fights are serving as a microcosm of both parties’ ideological directions
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner and Troy Jackson stand together during a “Fighting Oligarchy” tour stop at the Collins Center for the Arts on the University of Maine campus on May 24, 2026 in Orono, Maine.
July was scheduled to offer a break from primary politics, but two seismic developments this month — the collapse of scandal-plagued Graham Platner’s campaign in Maine and the sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) — are forcing both parties to deal with messy internal conflicts as they choose replacements in these key races.
The outcome of the July 25 Maine Democratic convention choosing an alternative candidate to run against Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and the Aug. 11 special election primary to choose a GOP nominee for Graham’s seat are offering clarity on the ideological directions of the two parties as the November midterm elections approach.
Already, we’re seeing that Democrats want to nominate a candidate as ideologically similar to Platner as possible, with most of the convention delegates chosen this weekend gravitating towards former state Senate President Troy Jackson, an anti-Israel progressive who unsuccessfully ran for governor this year as a champion of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
As Maine counties completed the process of choosing delegates for the nominating convention, Jackson’s campaign expressed confidence that he rallied enough backers to secure a victory. Most of his leading rivals dropped out of the race on Sunday, indicating that the state party is clearly intent on pushing forward a candidate that shares Platner’s anti-establishment, left-wing worldview but without the personal baggage he brought to the table.
Jackson was the candidate whom Platner preferred to replace him on the general election ballot. Indeed, the Platner camp’s reported demands that the party choose someone who shares his values — even as his own campaign was sinking — caused such a backlash that the Maine Democratic Party’s executive director put out a video rebuking Platner for trying to influence the selection of his own successor.
If Jackson is the nominee, he’ll have to answer why he continued to support Platner even as the candidate’s other scandals piled up around him. Jackson finished in third place in June’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, only winning 21% of the vote in the five-candidate field.
In a sign of where the Democratic Party is headed, most of the leading candidates to challenge Collins sought to underscore their anti-Israel bona fides in the race, even the more-moderate Democrat Nirav Shah, who called Israel’s war against Hamas a “genocide” in a candidate questionnaire.
Meanwhile in South Carolina, there are growing indications that appointed Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC), who was tapped to fill the remainder of her late brother’s term, is seriously considering running for the seat herself, and has the president’s endorsement to do so.
That would greatly scramble the internal politics for next month’s primary, which was seen as a wide-open contest between several politically established South Carolina lawmakers. An endorsement of Graham from President Donald Trump would immediately make her the front-runner — given his near-perfect track record in congressional primary endorsements — even as she’d still likely face credible primary opposition.
It’s impossible to guarantee how Graham will end up voting in the Senate, but it’s safe to assume she’ll continue her brother’s hawkish record, maintaining strong support for Israel and Ukraine. Some of the other candidates for the seat — namely Reps. Nancy Mace (R-SC) and Ralph Norman (R-SC) — have been less enthusiastic supporters of military spending, and more reticent in aiding Ukraine in its war against Russian aggression.
These two unexpected nomination fights are serving as a microcosm of both parties’ ideological directions. Democrats are accommodating their populist left flank, even at the risk of damaging the party’s midterm prospects. Republicans, meanwhile, continue to march to the beat of Trump’s drum, and are fine maintaining the party’s conservative status quo even with rumblings from the isolationist right.
Plus, Vance alleges Israeli influence campaign to extend Iran war
Photo by Kevin Carter/Getty Images
The sun sets behind the U.S. Capitol Building on July 8, 2026 in Washington, D.C.
Good Wednesday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
More than 100 House Democrats, about half of the caucus, voted in favorof Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-KY) amendment to strip all U.S. aid to Israel out of the State Department appropriations bill this afternoon, including several leaders of the caucus such as Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA), the No. 2 House Democrat, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
While the amendment was overwhelmingly defeated, 314-104, the large segment of Democrats supporting the measure indicates a growing shift away from the party’s historic support for Israel…
Vice President JD Vance, in an episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” released today, stated repeatedly that Israeli actors are engaged in a “very discreet, very well-funded” influence campaign to extend the war in Iran: “There are some people within their system we know beyond a shadow of a doubt who are manipulating and trying to change American public opinion to keep the war going on indefinitely. Again, not towards any objective, but just indefinitely,” he alleged.
Vance also said that the late disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein “clearly had connections to the highest levels of Israeli intelligence” and to “elements of the Israeli deep state that were left of center”…
The U.S., Israel and Lebanon, wrapping up talks in Rome this week, agreed on the structure and guidelines for implementing the two pilot zones the parties agreed to create in southern Lebanon, a State Department official said today, without specifying a timeline for the IDF’s withdrawal. The parties will now engage in expanded technical talks to implement the trilateral agreement reached in the last round of negotiations…
CENTCOM began another round of strikes against Iran this afternoon; coming after strikes earlier in the day, the pace of the operations appears to be gaining momentum. President Donald Trump is reportedly considering expanding U.S. military efforts to include more airstrikes, utilizing ground forces and targeting nuclear sites again, according to The Wall Street Journal…
Three senior U.S. officials connected to the Board of Peace, the Trump-led body created to resolve the conflict in Gaza, have been meeting with congressional offices this week to request $200 million for the International Stabilization Force, two people with knowledge of the meetings told Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch. The meetings mark the first time that Board of Peace representatives have approached Congress with a funding request…
Ahead of today’s deadline, candidates have begun releasing their fundraising reports for the second quarter. In Georgia, where some in the Jewish community have felt torn between two less-than-ideal options in Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and his opponent, Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), Ossoff holds a commanding fundraising advantage: The senator reported raising$20 million this quarter with $42 million in the bank, while Collins raised $2.1 million, leaving him with $2.2 million in cash on hand…
Meanwhile, Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed released his 2025 tax returns, which he is not legally obligated to do but was pressured to do by his opponent in the Democratic primary, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI). El-Sayed’s reported total income was over $680,000, nearly $300,000 of which was unspecified as to its source…
The anti-Israel American Priorities super PAC made an initial investment of $375,000 to boost El-Sayed in the race; El-Sayed has repeatedly railed against super PAC involvement in politics — particularly that of AIPAC’s United Democracy Project, which is spending heavily in favor of Stevens…
Rep. Hilary Scholten (D-MI), speaking to Semafor about electability concerns in the Democratic Party, criticized progressives who “prop up other candidates who have said really problematic things.” The moderate congresswoman added that El-Sayed, who has been criticized for comments about Stevens seen as misogynistic, “has a problematic record with women”…
A new Quinnipiac poll of Pennsylvania voters found Gov. Josh Shapiro leading his Republican opponent in his reelection race by 13 points, 53-40%, with a 56% overall approval rating. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) had a 77% approval rating among Republicans, but only 19% among voters in his own party. Nearly half (49%) of voters said the Democratic Party has moved too far to the left, while 42% said the Republican Party has moved too far to the right…
Former White House senior official Brett McGurk is releasing a book, Brink: Inside the Race to Free the October 7 Hostages, on his role leading U.S. efforts under former President Joe Biden to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, due out on Oct. 6 to coincide with the third anniversary of the attacks…
The New York Times examines the role that Hollywood superagent Ari Emanuel could play in the potential presidential run of his brother, former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, as politicians increasingly seek access to media as part of their campaigns; among those close to Ari Emanuel are the UFC’s Dana White, commentator Joe Rogan, pundit Stephen A. Smith as well as Elon Musk…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for a look at what this afternoon’s vote on Massie‘s amendment to cut all U.S. aid to Israel means for the future of Israel policy in the Democratic Party.
At least eight Democratic candidates vying to replace former nominee Graham Platner on the ballotfor U.S. Senate in Maine will take the debate stage tomorrow evening in their first chance to pitch themselves to voters, ahead of the state Democratic Party’s nominating convention later this month.
President Donald Trump will give an address to the nation in the evening, which he has said will largely focus on American election security.
The American Federation of Teachers’ annual convention will kick off in Washington. The second largest teachers’ union in the U.S., the AFT has previously featured anti-Israel resolutions at its gatherings.
The Aspen Security Forum continues with several panels on the Middle East, including speakers such as Akif Çağatay Kılıç, top advisor to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan; Ayman Safadi, Jordan’s foreign minister; Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT); Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee; Dan Shapiro, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel; Rahm Emanuel; Anne Neuberger, former deputy national security advisor; and Salam Fayyad, former prime minister of the Palestinian Authority.
SPACE MAN
Harvard professor Avi Loeb believes his research, which propelled him to the White House, could usher in a ‘new messianic era’
LITMUS TEST
The congressman angered Drop Site co-founder Jeremy Scahill by refusing to condone the attacks; Scahill accused Khanna of promoting a ‘double standard’
After socialist candidates scored several surprise victories, party leaders are fighting with renewed vigor to rally behind Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) in the primary against her left-wing challenger, Abdul El-Sayed
Kristen Norman/AP
Michigan U.S. Senate candidates, Abdul El-Sayed, left, and Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., are displayed on a television during a debate inside the spin room at WoodTV studios on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, in Grand Rapids, Mich.
As Maine Democrats pick up the pieces of Graham Platner’s failed Senate campaign and quickly try to find a replacement for the scandal-tarred candidate on the ballot, moderate Democrats in Michigan, where a primary is fast approaching, are in a race against time to prevent another far-left Senate candidate from capturing a valuable nomination.
The final three weeks of the Michigan primary will be 2026’s most consequential test yet for the power the party establishment still holds, particularly in a pivotal swing state. After socialist candidates scored a number of surprise victories in heavily blue districts in New York City, Philadelphia and Denver, party leaders are fighting with renewed vigor to rally behind Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) in the primary against her left-wing challenger, Abdul El-Sayed.
Retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) endorsed Stevens on Monday, a pivot from his announcement in May that he planned to stay out of the race, joining Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who had already backed the congresswoman. The party’s left flank — including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) — is backing El-Sayed.
“The change of heart is we just know that we have to hold Michigan,” Peters said on “Morning Joe” on Tuesday of his decision to endorse, with Stevens sitting beside him. “She’s an outstanding candidate and I certainly hope that folks get behind her around the country and understand that she’s the right person to be the next senator from the state of Michigan.”
There are fresh signs that the late push for Stevens from Democratic leaders — along with millions in ad spending from pro-Stevens outside groups — has given the congresswoman momentum in the closing stretch of the race. A new poll commissioned by the Detroit News found Stevens pulling ahead of El-Sayed by seven points, 48-41%, after she trailed in most public polls this year.
The United Democracy Project, AIPAC’s affiliated super PAC, is spending big to attack him, dropping nearly $15 million in the race so far. A new 30-second ad attacks El-Sayed as sexist, referencing criticisms he’s made against former First Lady Michelle Obama and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. A mailer sent to Michigan voters criticized El-Sayed’s response to the attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield in March. El-Sayed condemned the attack but said that “hurt people hurt people,” referring to the assailant having lost his brother — a Hezbollah commander — in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon.
“We are going to continue educating Michigan voters on El-Sayed’s track record of making disparaging and sexist comments about women,” Patrick Dorton, a UDP spokesperson, told JI on Tuesday.
Platner’s collapse in Maine has, for some Democrats, raised questions about the electability of far-left candidates in must-win Senate battlegrounds for the Democratic Party.
The centrist Democratic think tank Third Way published a memo on Tuesday underscoring that Democrats could lose other winnable races if they continue taking the advice of ideologically driven left-wing consultants who advised Platner. (Fight Agency, the political ad firm that was used by Platner and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, is also consulting for El-Sayed’s campaign.)
El-Sayed has continued to play to his base, doubling down on radical rhetoric in interviews at a time when Democrats are concerned about holding onto the swing seat in November. He called Israel a “rogue state” in a recent CNN interview and said that Democrats who support Israel only do so because of money. As his rhetoric has become more extreme, and the race tightens between the two candidates, Jewish Democratic groups are planning to amp up their campaigning for Stevens ahead of the Aug. 4 primary.
“It is now a direct, high-stakes two-way race between Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed,” the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus wrote in a recent email to members. The Jewish Caucus is hosting a canvassing event on behalf of Stevens in Farmington, a heavily Jewish suburb of Detroit, this weekend.
“With early and absentee voting already underway, to ensure Haley wins on Aug. 4, we need to leverage our deep community roots, personal relationships, and trusted voices,” Jewish Caucus Chair Decky Alexander told Jewish Insider on Tuesday.
The Jewish Democratic Council of America, a national organization, is hosting a virtual phone bank for Stevens this week. The group had previously issued a joint endorsement of Stevens and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who withdrew from the race earlier this month, but is now planning a five-figure digital ad buy in support of Stevens’ campaign.
“JDCA is focused on mobilizing Jewish voters across Michigan in support of Haley Stevens,” JDCA CEO Halie Soifer told JI on Tuesday. “Haley has always stood with the Jewish community, and we’re proud to support her in this critically important election. We also believe she has the best chance of beating Mike Rogers in November, and we’re committed to keeping Michigan blue.”
The Stevens campaign expects a close race but views McMorrow’s decision to drop out as a boon for Stevens. McMorrow did not endorse either candidate. A source working with the Stevens campaign, who was not authorized to speak on behalf of the congresswoman, said the campaign is particularly focused on winning over Black voters, as well as older and non-college-educated voters, many of whom remain undecided. (The Detroit News poll showed Stevens with a substantial advantage with Black voters, leading El-Sayed 67-21%.)
The Michigan Jewish community, which is centered in Stevens’ congressional district, is also a part of the campaign’s get out the vote plan.
“I think that Haley wants all Michiganders to vote, but obviously has a very special connection with the Jewish community, especially in her district in Oakland County,” said the campaign source.
El-Sayed routinely tars Stevens for receiving the backing of AIPAC. She has not said much during the primary about her ties to the group, instead highlighting her support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which she described as “the difference between my opponent and myself on this issue” in a debate last week. El-Sayed has said he struggles with the question of whether Israel should exist as a Jewish state.
This week, El-Sayed announced a major fundraising haul from the second quarter of the year: $4.5 million, up from $2.3 million he raised in the first quarter. A spokesperson for Stevens declined to share her latest fundraising totals, which legally must be reported by Wednesday. She took in $1.9 million in the first three months of the year.
Plus, Dem leaders split on Israel aid
Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) questions U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth as he testifies before the House Armed Services Committee April 29, 2026.
Good Tuesday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a warning to Iranian leaders, as military hostilities escalate between Iran and the U.S.: “Do not count on there being calm if you attack us,” Netanyahu addressed Tehran, while speaking today at a conference in southern Israel. “Do not expect a repeat of what happened before, because there will be no repeat. … Any further attempt to harm us will be met with a different response — far more powerful”…
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump walked back his announcement that the U.S. would institute a 20% toll on all cargo passing through the Strait of Hormuz, saying in a post on Truth Social that Middle East leaders had agreed to additional trade and investment deals with the U.S. to replace the fee…
CENTCOM announced it began launching an additional round of strikes against Iran this afternoon “to continue degrading Iranian capabilities used to attack commercial shipping” in the strait, and officially reinstated a blockade on Iranian ports. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it launched missile and drone attacks in retaliation against bases in Kuwait and Bahrain…
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said he would oppose an amendment led by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) to strip all aid to Israel out of the 2027 State Department appropriations bill, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. But Jeffries also argued for “urgent change” to the U.S.-Israel relationship, including suggesting that direct U.S. military aid to Israel should end when the current memorandum of understanding expires.
Progressive Caucus Chair Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX), on the other hand, said he plans to vote yes on Massie’s amendment, writing in a “Dear Colleague” letter that the “American people are crying out for an end to US tax dollars subsidizing Israel’s military”…
Israeli Transportation Minister Miri Regev announced today that the U.S. will only be permitted to station 20 military refueling aircraft at Ben Gurion Airport, while the rest must be parked at Israeli Air Force bases, in order to facilitate commercial travel for Israelis over the summer…
U.N. official Ramiz Alakbarov accused Hamas forces of interfering at a humanitarian aid distribution site in Gaza, saying armed men had entered a warehouse and “endangered humanitarian personnel,” leading the organization to suspend its operations at the site. “These incidents are not isolated. They are completely unacceptable and reflect an increasingly dangerous pattern of intimidation, violence and obstruction,” Alakbarov said…
Trump asked Netanyahu in a phone call last week to pull IDF forces back from Syria and Lebanon, Axios reports; the Prime Minister’s Office said Netanyahu in turn emphasized Israel’s need for security zones along its borders…
The Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area issued a statement today on Rep. Ro Khanna’s (D-CA) recent encounter in the West Bank, where he claims he was detained by violent settlers as well as the IDF. The group said it has “conveyed our concerns to the Congressman in how he is representing the district and our community on foreign policy issues” and called on Khanna “to exercise the same urgency he has brought to criticizing Israel to address the hostile climate many Jewish Americans face every day”…
Pressed repeatedly by writers with the Hamas-sympathetic outlet Drop Site News to offer support for the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks and Palestinians’ “right to kill Israeli soldiers,” Khanna said he is “not for violence in any way”…
Asked about legislation imposing sanctions on Russia that was championed by the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Trump said in the Oval Office today that lawmakers “may be adding Iran to it … They may add Hezbollah, too.” He said there’s a “good chance” it will pass “in honor of Lindsey”…
White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were spotted in the Senate chamber during the swearing-in this afternoon of Darline Graham Nordone to fill Graham’s seat…
The AIPAC-linked United Democracy Project super PAC sent direct mail to voters in Michigan highlighting far-left Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s refusal to condemn extreme rhetoric from antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker and El-Sayed’s efforts to “rationalize” the attack on Michigan’s Temple Israel earlier this year…
Columbia University anti-Israel protest leader Mahmoud Khalil filed a civil rights lawsuit against Trump administration officials, the Heritage Foundation and pro-Israel groups Canary Mission and Betar, alleging they “sought to terrorize” him to “intimidate and silence the growing movement for Palestinian rights”…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for an interview with Avi Loeb, the Israeli Harvard scientist leading Trump’s search for answers that may be out of this world.
Trump will headline the last day of Sen. Dave McCormick’s (R-PA) Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit at the U.S. Army War College, with additional remarks from Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.
The Aspen Security Forum in Colorado will feature fireside chats with former Navy Secretary John Phelan and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. Also on tomorrow’s agenda: a live taping of the “What the Hell is Going On?” podcast hosted by the American Enterprise Institute’s Danielle Pletka and Marc Thiessen, in conversation with former National Security Advisors Stephen Hadley and Robert O’Brien as well as Michèle Flournoy, former under secretary of defense for policy.
Jay Clayton will appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee for his confirmation hearing to be director of national intelligence, after Trump abruptly canceled his hearing originally scheduled for last month.
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) will speak at the Hudson Institute on the future of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East..
MICHIGAN MATTERS
William Lawrence, who has won support from progressive lawmakers and groups, has been under fire for his comments attacking Kamala Harris and denigrating Black political leadership
PEACH STATE PROBLEMS
Top contributors to Florida gubernatorial candidate James Fishback are also bankrolling Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Abdul El-Sayed and Andre Carson
Plus, Graham's Senate seat kept in the family
Shady Alassar/Anadolu via Getty Images
Commercial vessels and oil tankers preparing to transit through the Strait of Hormuz maintain their wait in the Gulf of Oman, on June 17, 2026.
Good Monday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump declared today that the U.S. will take control of the Strait of Hormuz and will institute a 20% fee on all cargo passing through the waterway “for any and all costs necessary to do the job of providing safety and security to this very volatile section of the World,” Jewish Insider’s Christina Sher reports. The move comes after Trump and his administration insisted for months that no country is permitted to charge fees to transiting ships…
Trump also announced he is reinstating a blockade of Iranian ports, which was lifted when the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding last month. CENTCOM said the blockade will resume tomorrow at 4 p.m. ET and will be enforced “against vessels transiting to or from Iranian ports and coastal areas.”
CENTCOM also revealed that it successfully deployed sea drones in combat operations for the first time yesterday, using the unmanned vessels to strike an Iranian submarine at the Bandar Abbas Naval Base…
Trump notified Congress on Friday that fighting with Iran officially resumed last week, further stoking tensions between the executive and legislative branches as lawmakers already approved a war powers resolution calling for an end to American operations in Iran.
Trump’s letter to congressional leadership said U.S. “ground forces are not involved in these strikes” — which he described as “limited, measured, planned, and executed in a manner designed to minimize civilian casualties” — and said he is acting “pursuant to [his] constitutional authority as Commander in Chief”…
The Mossad spent years grooming former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as an intelligence asset to be installed as Iran’s leader after a post-Khamenei regime change, including paying for his housing and travel and arranging a meeting with then-Mossad chief David Barnea under cover of a climate conference in Budapest in 2024, American and Iranian officials told The New York Times.
As the Iran war broke out on Feb. 28, Mossad operatives rescued Ahmadinejad from an Israeli airstrike on his Tehran compound and took him to a safe house, but he balked and left — Ahmadinejad is now reportedly under house arrest by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps…
The Houthis accused Saudi Arabia of bombing Yemen’s international airport today, with a spokesperson saying the action “will not go unanswered,” threatening a tenuous truce enacted several years ago between the terror group and the Saudis. A spokesperson for the internationally recognized Yemeni government, which is backed by Riyadh, said the Houthis subsequently fired ballistic missiles into Saudi Arabia…
U.K. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced on Monday that the country designated the IRGC as a terror organization, with those found guilty of supporting the group facing up to 14 years in prison. The government also banned the Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right, which No. 10 Downing St. said was behind a number of attacks on British Jewish sites…
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster announced at a press conference this afternoon that he is appointing Darline Graham Nordone, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) sister, to serve out the rest of Graham’s term. Trump had voiced his support for Nordone, who shared an exceptionally close bond with her brother, as “a fabulous tribute to Lindsey.” Fox Newsreported that Nordone could be sworn in as soon as Wednesday…
The Trump administration plans to launch a major diplomatic offensive against the International Criminal Court, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced today, the latest move in the White House’s longtime battle against the international organization.
The push appears to be rooted in concerns that the ICC will seek to prosecute American servicemembers, JI’s Gabby Deutch reports. Such actions would not only be “a grave overreach of its purported authorities,” Rubio wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, “it would mean the death of the U.S. as a sovereign and independent nation”…
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani vowed that he would maintain ties with Morris Katz, the controversial political operative behind Mamdani’s own victory as well as the imploded campaign of former Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, JI’s Will Bredderman reports, despite calls from members of the Democratic Socialists of America to boycott the consultant’s services…
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), a member of the Squad and a vocal detractor of Israel, endorsed far-left Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed today, joining fellow Squad members Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Summer Lee (D-PA) and Delia Ramirez (D-IL) in backing him less than a month before the primary…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for a look at the surging anti-Israel candidate in the Democratic primary for Michigan‘s swing 7th Congressional District.
The sixth round of talks between Israel and Lebanon are slated to begin tomorrow in Rome, despite Beirut’s reported threat not to attend if the IDF did not vacate two pilot zones in southern Lebanon before the discussions. Israeli media reported that this week’s talks will focus on the timeline for the withdrawal.
The Aspen Security Forum, the high-profile annual gathering of national security leaders, policymakers and foreign policy experts, begins tomorrow afternoon in Colorado. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former Defense Secretary Mark Esper and former Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker will speak on a panel on the “state of the world.”
The two-day Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit, hosted by Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA), will kick off at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., with a keynote address from Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine.
Some House Republicans were invited to a dinner tomorrow night with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to Punchbowl News, as the Trump administration is seeking more than $67 billion for the Pentagon in its supplemental funding request.
REMEMBERING
Trump, Cruz, Fetterman, Coons and Jewish organizations remembered the South Carolina Republican, who died suddenly at 71
FOLLOW THE MONEY
Top contributors to Florida gubernatorial candidate James Fishback are also bankrolling Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Abdul El-Sayed and Andre Carson
The mayor said he’ll keep working with Morris Katz despite calls from DSA members to boycott the consultant
ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani answers questions on October 17, 2025 in New York City.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani vowed on Monday to maintain ties with a controversial political operative behind the imploded campaign of Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, whom a former romantic partner accused of rape, leading him to drop out of the race.
Morris Katz and his consulting firm Fight Agency gained a reputation as political wonder-workers after assisting in Mamdani’s 2025 campaign and then in the socialist sweep of New York’s congressional primaries last month. But following the high-profile collapse of Platner’s candidacy, members of the Democratic Socialists of America began circulating a petition calling for a boycott of Katz’s services.
But Mamdani, one of DSA’s most prominent national figures, declared he would not participate in the proposed blacklist.
“I will continue to work with Morris Katz,” Mamdani told reporters at an unrelated event. “He remains a top advisor of mine.”
Mamdani’s remarks come in spite of reports that Katz had sought to intimidate a former Platner staffer who had revealed that the Democratic contender had sent sexually explicit messages to several women. Katz also stood by the candidate through revelations that he had a tattoo of a Nazi symbol and that former romantic partners had accused him of abusive behavior. Democrats and independent observers consider unseating Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) crucial to the party’s hopes of capturing control of the Senate this fall.
Katz, born to a prominent Manhattan Jewish family, has said that AIPAC “radicalized” him and has advised candidates to take a hostile stance toward Israel.
Jordan Wood, a former Katie Porter staffer, says he supports the U.S.-Israel relationship but opposes 'a blank check' for the Israeli government
Campaign website
Jordan Wood
As Maine Democrats jump at the chance to replace Graham Platner on the ballot against Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), one of the issues where candidates are staking their claim early is U.S. foreign policy — and Israel and Gaza in particular.
Jordan Wood, a former chief of staff to Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA), shared his views on the U.S.-Israel relationship with Jewish Insider on Thursday. He entered the race after placing third in last month’s congressional primary to replace retiring Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME).
He told JI that he considers Israel “our strongest ally in the Middle East” but that its government must be reined in.
“The United States should absolutely have a cooperative relationship with Israel, and I want that relationship to work. But a real partnership is not a blank check,” said Wood. “It comes with honesty and accountability. The United States has enormous leverage with the Israeli government, and we’ve been refusing to use it.” He pledged to “push America to actually use that leverage to stop the genocide in Gaza.”
Wood spent a decade in Washington as a political staffer, with stints as a vice president at End Citizens United and executive director at a pro-democracy nonprofit.
Shortly after announcing his campaign, he said in his first official statement that he would not accept support from AIPAC. In a post on X hours later, he said that the U.S. “can’t continue to fund Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” and that he would support the Block the Bombs Act.
Still, he told JI, he believes that “Israel is our strongest ally in the Middle East.”
“But there’s a difference between the Israeli people and the Netanyahu government, and nothing about self-defense justifies waging a war without limits,” said Wood. “Starving children and flattened hospitals don’t make Israel safer, and they don’t make America safer.” He referred to the family members of the Israelis taken hostage after Oct. 7, many of whom protested in Tel Aviv for two years, and said “they deserve leaders, in Israel and in America, with the courage to deliver the peace they’ve been asking for.”
Wood said Hamas should have no role in governing Gaza and called for the group to disarm. “The Oct. 7 terrorist attack was a horrific crime that shocked the world’s conscience,” said Wood.
Despite his pledge to eschew any support from AIPAC, he said that AIPAC supporters are still welcome in the party, even as he said AIPAC’s “agenda is not aligned with our values.”
“Jewish Democrats, and Democrats who care deeply about Israel’s security, are part of this party and always will be,” said Wood. “What’s not welcome is AIPAC’s agenda, which demands unconditional support for the Netanyahu government’s genocide in Gaza no matter the cost in innocent lives.”
Candidates vying for the Democratic nomination in Maine are largely pledging to oppose arms sales to Israel and reject AIPAC — but several have yet to say where they stand
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner and Troy Jackson stand together during a “Fighting Oligarchy” tour stop at the Collins Center for the Arts on the University of Maine campus on May 24, 2026 in Orono, Maine.
The mad dash to replace Graham Platner as the Democratic Senate nominee in Maine is coming together so quickly and haphazardly that one potential replacement, Nirav Shah, is taking stickers from his failed gubernatorial campaign and cutting off the “for governor” line below his name before handing them to supporters.
Much is still in flux about the process to replace Platner, who dropped out of the race on Wednesday two days after being accused of rape by a former romantic partner. His potential successors aren’t jockeying for the public’s approval — they’re angling for the support of the Maine Democratic Party, which voted on Wednesday, before Platner even announced his resignation, to hold a statewide nominating convention to tap his replacement. The MDP said it would share more in the days to come about the process, which according to state law would have to be completed by July 27.
Many of the candidates now seeking to succeed Platner on the general election ballot are commending the populist movement he built and looking to capitalize on it. Less than 24 hours into the contest, some had already made clear they will adopt a platform much like Platner’s when it comes to Israel — seeking to end U.S. weapons sales to the country and shunning donations from AIPAC — while others are remaining mum on that topic.
Shah, who served as the director of the Maine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the COVID-19 pandemic, said this week that he would support a full arms embargo against Israel, that he believes Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to genocide and that he would refuse AIPAC support. He finished second in the gubernatorial primary last month.
One contender who seems poised to rack up support from the party’s left flank is Troy Jackson, the former president of the Maine Senate. He placed third in last month’s gubernatorial primary, and earned the endorsement of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and the Maine chapter of Democratic Socialists of America in that race. Jackson was one of Platner’s biggest boosters and appeared with him at several campaign rallies.
Our Revolution, the Sanders-aligned advocacy organization, has already endorsed Jackson’s Senate campaign, along with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and far-left, antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker.
In a post on X on Thursday, Jackson accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, saying that “anybody with eyes” would agree, and pledged to “never vote in favor of U.S. taxpayer-funded military aid to Israel.” His team did not respond to a request for comment.
Jordan Wood, a former chief of staff to Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) who placed third in last month’s congressional primary to replace retiring Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME), said in a Thursday statement announcing his Senate run that he would not accept money from “corporate PACs and AIPAC.” He said in a post on X that the U.S. “can’t continue to fund Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” and that he would support the Block the Bombs Act.
In a statement to Jewish Insider on Thursday, Wood added some nuance to his views: “Israel is our strongest ally in the Middle East,” Wood said via a spokesperson. “But there’s a difference between the Israeli people and the Netanyahu government, and nothing about self-defense justifies waging a war without limits. Starving children and flattened hospitals don’t make Israel safer, and they don’t make America safer.” He also stated that “Hamas must disarm, and it can never be allowed to govern Gaza again.”
Wood reiterated that he will not accept support from AIPAC but said AIPAC supporters are still welcome in the Democratic Party.
“Jewish Democrats, and Democrats who care deeply about Israel’s security, are part of this party and always will be,” he said. “What’s not welcome is AIPAC’s agenda, which demands unconditional support for the Netanyahu government’s genocide in Gaza no matter the cost in innocent lives.”
Paige Loud, a 29-year-old social worker who placed fourth in the same congressional primary as Wood, ran an anti-Israel campaign and claimed that Democrats lost the presidency in 2024 “because of our lackluster stance on the genocide that’s happening in Gaza right now.” Her campaign website says she is committed “to human rights, sovereignty, and self-determination everywhere — from Palestine to Iran, Ukraine, Venezuela, and Greenland.”
Shenna Bellows, Maine’s secretary of state and a former state senator, entered the race on Thursday afternoon. She espoused a similarly populist message to Platner, pledging to take on billionaires and corporations, but stayed away from mentioning the Middle East or AIPAC in her opening salvo. A spokesperson for Bellows, who also ran for governor in last month’s primary and placed fourth, did not respond to a request for comment.
Bellows served as executive director of the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine from 2018 to 2020, an experience that she still refers to regularly. In a campaign video from International Holocaust Remembrance Day, she said one way to remember the Holocaust is as a story of “resistance, of communities coming together to say no to antisemitism, xenophobia, racism, homophobia,” and said that Americans must speak out “against any othering and dehumanization of our friends and neighbors.”
One unorthodox candidate is Dan Kleban, the founder of Maine Beer Company, a brewery in Freeport. He was briefly a candidate in the Senate primary last year, but dropped out early and endorsed Maine Gov. Janet Mills, the establishment favorite who dropped out of the race in April. He reentered the race on Wednesday and said in a Substack post that he’s “had enough meddling from Washington establishment insiders and New York City consultants trying to dictate who represents us,” ostensibly a dig at Platner’s own political consultants.
Asked on CNN this week if he considered Israel guilty of genocide, Kleban called the situation in Gaza an “absolute tragedy” and said he would support placing conditions on U.S. arms sales to Israel, but did not use the term genocide. Kleban told Politico in October that he would not have supported Sanders’ resolution to block arms sales to Israel.
“I believe Israel has a right to defend itself. I don’t think that we solve the horrific humanitarian crisis in Gaza by disarming Israel and exposing them to harm,” Kleban said at the time.
While Platner and Mills were the main candidates running for Senate, a third, David Costello — a former senior official in Maryland’sMaine’s Department of the Environment who got 8% of the vote in last month’s primary — is now running again. He said during the campaign that Israel, after the Oct. 7 attacks, “not only had a right but an obligation to attempt to crush Hamas.” But, he argued, they did not do so surgically, and said Israel’s conduct has been “indefensible.” He said he would oppose offensive weapons sales to Israel.
One possible wild card is state Rep. Valli Geiger, who has said she is considering entering the race. Geiger, who in the past defended Platner’s treatment of women, stuck by him until the end. “I will not throw Graham under the bus, but neither will I slander or accuse Ms. [Jenny] Racicot [Platner’s accuser] of anything more than telling the truth as she experienced it. I acknowledge the pain on all sides and offer compassion on all sides,” Geiger wrote on Facebook.
She has said little publicly about Gaza, but shared Facebook posts criticizing Israel, including one in April that listed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as someone who, like President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, harbors “delusions of grandeur.”
Plus, Labour's leftward turn on Israel
Israeli Ministry of Defense/Anadolu via Getty Images
Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz holds a security situation assessment meeting with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir and other senior commanders in Tel Aviv, Israel, on March 07, 2026.
Good Thursday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Appearing on CNN this morning, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said Jerusalem is “supportive of the position of the United States” regarding renewed strikes on Iran, and said Israel would “fly alongside U.S. aircraft” if called on to do so.
He added that Iran had violated its “only obligation” under the memorandum of understanding — to keep the Strait of Hormuz open — and that if the Iranians “persist in their malign intentions,” the war could resume “in full swing”…
Israeli military leaders are also hinting at potential Israeli involvement: At an Israeli Air Force graduation ceremony, Defense Minister Israel Katz said the IDF is prepared to carry out independent strikes “to remove threats” in Iran. Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the IDF’s chief of staff, told the graduates that “new plans” are “on the drawing board” and that “major operations are still expected to lie ahead of us. Be prepared”…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he spoke with President Donald Trump today and was updated by the president “on American moves in the Gulf.” According to a statement from the PMO, Netanyahu again raised the issue of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan‘s hostile rhetoric toward Israel…
The Wall Street Journal examines the “root of the dispute” over the Strait of Hormuz — the “poorly worded” fifth article in the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding that says Tehran will “make arrangements” to restore shipping in the waterway and then work with Oman on a plan to administer it going forward.
“Notably, the paragraph says nothing about the U.S. making arrangements for the safe passage of vessels, which Iran has seized on to attack ships that use a U.S.-coordinated route,” a U.S. official told the outlet…
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) is in Israel and the West Bank this week while Congress is in recess, according to two individuals with knowledge of the trip. Khanna has not posted publicly about his visit, which is scheduled to conclude tonight, JI’s Melissa Weiss reports…
While wrapping up his trip, Khanna, who was one of Senate candidate Graham Platner’s most vociferous defenders until a rape allegation was made against the Maine Democrat earlier this week, told MS NOW that he’s endorsing former state Sen. Troy Jackson to take Platner’s place on the ballot. Jackson, who previously ran for governor, is a progressive seen as aligned with Platner…
But Platner’s potential replacements will have to wait a few more days: The candidate told campaign staff he intends to wait until the very last day — Monday — to officially file his paperwork to drop out of the race, Axios reports…
The Journal profiles Cheyenne Hunt, the progressive influencer and activist who played a key role in bringing to light the sexual assault and misconduct allegations that ultimately saw the ouster of Platner and the resignation of former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA)…
Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) withdrew as co-chair of the Congressional Friends of Spain Caucus due to what he called Madrid’s “escalating, hostile crusade” against Israel…
Andy Burnham, widely expected to become Britain’s next prime minister, told The Guardian that the response of his Labour party to Israel’s military actions in Gaza “has too often not been good enough” and that the U.K. has “got to do more to put pressure on the Israeli government,” including sanctions and potentially banning trade in goods from Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Burnham also said there is “increasing evidence” that Israel committed war crimes, though he did not use the word genocide, and said the determination should be left to international courts. His comments mark a shift to the left of Labour’s outgoing leader, Keir Starmer, who was slower than other European leaders to back a ceasefire and recognize Palestinian statehood…
Among those speaking at the closed-door Allen & Company retreat in Sun Valley, Idaho, today were Jared Kushner, UAE Ambassador to the U.S. Yousef Al Otaiba, former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Sens. John Fetterman (D-PA) and Dave McCormick (R-PA) as well as Ken Griffin, the hedge fund manager and GOP megadonor.
Asked whether he would support Vice President JD Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the 2028 presidential election, Griffin said he’d be inclined to back Rubio…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for a look at Platner’s potential replacements, as a handful of Maine Democrats are already jockeying for the position less than 24 hours after Platner announced he intends to drop out of the race for U.S. Senate.
We’ll be watching to see if U.S. and Iranian strikes continue into the weekend, or if the current flare-up has run its course. Prior to the outbreak in hostilities, Saudi media had reported that talks between Washington and Iran would restart on July 11, after the dayslong funeral of late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wraps up today. Trump said this morning that the Iranians had called and “want to make a deal so badly,” but it’s unclear whether the two sides intend to meet.
We’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday. Shabbat shalom!
SCOOP
Allies of the Texas senator are launching The Front Line, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit aimed at making antisemitism ‘disqualifying’ for GOP candidates
BELL BOUY
As of this week, UDP has reserved $865,000 in ad time for the race and New Democrat Majority has reserved $500,000, ahead of the Aug. 4 primary
The Maine Democrat, who won his primary in June, had been dogged by controversy for months before a rape allegation finally cost him his political allies
Photo by Laura Brett/Getty Images
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner speaks to voters at a town hall on June 7, 2026 in Portland, Maine.
Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, the scandal-plagued progressive insurgent, announced on Wednesday evening that he plans to drop out of the race amid intense pressure, two days after a former romantic partner accused him of rape.
Even as he announced his withdrawal, Platner remained defiant, claiming that the allegations against him were a conspiracy aimed at forcing him out of the race.
The sexual assault allegation by Jenny Racicot, who shared the details of the incident with Politico, followed months of controversies — including allegations of domestic abuse — that Platner withstood with the backing of top Democrats, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and, after the primary, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). He lost the support of his political allies after the report was published on Monday.
Even before that, Platner had been dogged by controversy for months. Last October, Platner acknowledged that he had a tattoo of a Nazi symbol known as a Totenkopf for nearly two decades.
He denied knowing what the symbol meant, but a past acquaintance told Jewish Insider that Platner was aware of its Nazi association. Another former romantic partner, Lyndsey Fifield, who accused Platner of domestic violence, shared text messages with the New York Times showing she had informed friends of the Nazi symbol months before it became public knowledge and said he and his Marine colleagues had chosen the symbol deliberately.
In Reddit posts, Platner regularly used slurs, criticized sexual assault victims and praised Hamas’ tactics during the terror group’s 2014 war against Israel.
In his announcement, Platner continued to deny the sexual assault allegation, claiming that “large forces,” the “corporate media” and the “political establishment” are conspiring against him — specifically timed in order to force him off the ballot before the drop-out deadline next week.
“We live in a political system that is not built for normal people,” Platner asserted. “It is a system that is built structurally to make sure that movements like ours cannot flourish, that if they begin to succeed, they can be crushed. … We did it the way that we were told we are supposed to make change, and we won, and now they are not going to let us have it, not if it’s me.”
He said he’s leaving the race because “those in power … are using these allegations as an excuse” to block his ability to fundraise, access voter data and otherwise campaign.
Platner insisted he was not attempting to influence the process to replace him on the ballot — a claim disputed by the Maine Democratic Party and numerous news reports. He said that the process “needs to be open, transparent and democratic” and not shaped by “party apparatchiks” or party leadership in Washington.
He also said he “intend[s] to file my paperwork to withdraw,” indicating he had not yet actually done so.
In his statement, Platner also referenced his repeated claim that Israel committed genocide in Gaza, a charge that had become central to his campaign.
“All we were asking for was healthcare, was to end the genocide, to use our taxpayer dollars at home to uplift our communities, instead of waging war overseas,” Platner said.
Shortly before Platner’s announcement, the Maine Democratic Party’s state committee members met and voted to hold a nominating convention to choose a new nominee should Platner withdraw from the ballot. Party leaders said they’d disclose further details about the process “soon.”
Media reports indicate that county committees would be charged with selecting 500 to 600 total delegates for the convention.
In a text message to supporters on Wednesday, Platner’s campaign manager claimed that the Maine Democratic Party has been coordinating behind closed doors with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to cut Platner’s camp and supporters out of the nominating process.
Platner entered the Senate race to challenge Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), a five-term incumbent, last August. From the beginning of the race, he touted his bona fides as a veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and positioned himself as an anti-war candidate. He has blamed his past conduct on PTSD and his resulting alcohol dependence.
From the beginning, Platner positioned himself as a working-class outsider taking on the establishment — including both Collins and the Democratic establishment, which was backing Janet Mills, Maine’s governor, in the Democratic primary. His viral first campaign video was produced by Morris Katz, a political consultant who had also made political ads for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Criticism of Israel was central to Platner’s campaign. He regularly attacked AIPAC and described Collins as “bought and paid for by [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu.” Liberal Jewish groups, including the Jewish Democratic Council of America and J Street, had opted not to endorse Platner, even after Mills dropped out of the race in April. Platner handily won the Democratic primary in June. Mills did not endorse him.
Democrats saw the race as a possible pickup opportunity in a midterm election year when many voters in the purple state are disillusioned by President Donald Trump.
Numerous Maine Democrats have already announced plans or filed paperwork to take Platner’s place on the ballot, including former Maine Centers for Disease Control Director Nirav Shah, former state Senate President Troy Jackson, former House candidate Jordan Wood, former Senate candidate David Costello, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, former House candidate Paige Loud, state Rep. Valli Geiger and brewery owner Dan Kleban.
Geiger claimed on Wednesday that she was Platner’s preferred replacement, but a campaign spokesperson denied that, though the spokesperson said he had encouraged her to run if he dropped out.
Plus, Rahm Emanuel on the ‘moral bankruptcy’ of far-left Dems
Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images
President Donald Trump during the press conference at the NATO Summit in Ankara, Turkiye on July 8, 2026.
Good Wednesday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
CENTCOM began conducting additional strikes against Iran this afternoon, after President Donald Trump continued to escalate his rhetoric against the regime in his remarks today at the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey.
Trump said he wasn’t sure he wanted to make a deal with the Iranians any longer and reiterated his threat to “finish the job,” but still denied the strikes mark a return to full-scale war: “I think anything that happens is going to be over very quickly,” he said…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had scrapped a planned trip to Israel, saying in an interview that the defense chief had been “called back home” from the summit in Ankara. Meanwhile, Israeli media reports that American military refueling planes have begun to return to the region…
Trump is likely to face pushback from lawmakers over the renewed strikes: Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he’s already “in conversations with the Senate to explore any and all legal pathways to hold Trump accountable,” given that both chambers of Congress already passed a war powers resolution seeking an end to U.S. military action in Iran…
Trump also informed Congress today that he intends to rescind Syria’s designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism following a 45-day pre-notification period, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced, shortly after Trump held a friendly meeting with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa on the sidelines of the NATO summit…
Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, speaking to Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss prior to his speech at Tel Aviv University today, criticized the “moral bankruptcy” of “those that paraded, celebrated and cheered” in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.
Responding to a question about Democrats who did so — including New York City congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier, who attended an anti-Israel rally in Times Square on Oct. 8, 2023 — Emanuel said, “I have no place for the moral bankruptcy of those that found Oct. 8 as the day to cheer 1,200 people not only killed but sexually abused, and for taking hostage 250 people”…
In an interview on Israel’s Channel 12, Emanuel confirmed he’s “thinking about” running for president in 2028 and said he believes Americans could elect a Jewish president. “I believe people will evaluate me based on my character and my background,” he said…
Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner still remains in the race two days after Politico published an account from a former romantic partner accusing him of rape, though the candidate’s feud with the Maine Democratic Party continues. Platner’s campaign manager, Ben Chin, sent a message to supporters today accusing the MDP of allowing the national Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to orchestrate Platner’s replacement “behind closed doors.”
In response, the MDP, which was reportedly set to hold a meeting on the issue this afternoon, said Platner’s campaign is “distracting from the job of defeating [Sen.] Susan Collins (R-ME) in November with false accusations” and pledged to develop “a representative, transparent and inclusive process to select a new nominee when he chooses to withdraw from the race”…
A new Politico survey of Democratic primary voters in Michigan, conducted in the two days after state Sen. Mallory McMorrow dropped out of the race for U.S. Senate, found the two remaining candidates — Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) and Abdul El-Sayed — in a statistical tie at 42-41%, with nearly 20% of voters undecided…
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear sent a letter to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) requesting that he “fully update Kentuckians regarding the current status of your health,” as McConnell has been hospitalized for nearly a month…
A new poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 44% of American Jews hold a favorable view of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani — a higher percentage than Netanyahu, who received a 32% favorability rating…
Jewish groups — including the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Committee, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Hadassah and StandWithUs — celebrated several steps taken at the National Education Association’s Representative Assembly, which wrapped up yesterday in Denver, including the Jewish Affairs Caucus’ work in advancing three amendments to the NEA Constitution and a resolution on Jewish education…
Bertrand Benoit, The Wall Street Journal’s bureau chief in Germany, explores what it means for Germany’s identity as its citizens begin to lose their living connection to the Holocaust, including how the fading of survivor testimony, rising antisemitism and challenges from both the political right and left are reshaping the country’s culture of remembrance…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for a look at the choice ahead for Georgia’s Jewish community in the race between Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and his opponent, Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA).
The Contemporary Antisemitism conference at the University of Haifa will wrap up with a keynote speech by philosopher and author Bernard-Henri Lévy.
SANCTIONS STANDOFF
Members from both parties warned lifting penalties would reward Erdoğan’s destabilizing actions, while senators at NATO summit said Turkey could rejoin F-35 program if concerns over Russian S-400 system are resolved
CHATBOT FAIL
The antisemitism watchdog tested ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Grok and found Persian responses hedged or missed antisemitic framing that English responses rejected outright
Potential replacements for Platner are lining up to be considered as his successor
Laura Brett/Getty Images
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner speaks to voters at a town hall at the Elks Lodge 188 on June 7, 2026 in Portland, Maine.
The Maine Democratic Party accused Senate candidate Graham Platner on Tuesday of attempting to “put his thumb on the scale” to influence whom the party chooses to replace him on the ticket, as a growing wave of Democrats in the state position themselves to run for the seat.
The charge by party officials comes a day after a former romantic partner accused Platner of sexual assault and as many of his key supporters urge him to suspend his campaign.
Additional allegations of nonconsensual sexual conduct emerged on Tuesday, in a new Washington Post interview with another former romantic partner of Platner who had previously accused him of domestic abuse. Platner’s campaign has denied all of the allegations.
In a striking video statement released on Tuesday evening, the Maine Democratic Party’s executive director, Devon Murphy-Anderson, said that Platner’s team had “repeatedly reached out to us in an attempt to put their thumb on the scale of what this process looks like.”
“We have repeatedly reiterated to Graham Platner’s team that they have no role in determining our next Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, nor in determining what this process looks like,” Murphy-Anderson continued. “We have also reiterated that Graham Platner must drop out of this race, so that Democrats in Maine can focus on defeating Susan Collins this November.”
Murphy-Anderson said the party is developing a new nomination process “that is open, inclusive, transparent and fair,” and that it will lay out that process once Platner drops out.
Multiple outlets have reported that Platner and his advisors are slow-walking an exit from the race, either attempting to ride out the latest scandal or force the party to nominate an approved ally in his place.
The New York Post reported that Morris Katz, a top advisor to Platner, urged him to remain in the race, but Katz said that the Post was not in a position to know about his or the campaign’s deliberations, without directly denying the report.
A Platner campaign spokesperson denied any efforts to influence the replacement process and said Platner wouldn’t want to be part of it but also said “he would want to make sure the voters and volunteers make this decision — not the political establishment.”
Several Democrats who previously ran in the U.S. Senate or gubernatorial primaries have publicly positioned themselves to run for the seat upon Platner’s withdrawal, including former Maine Centers for Disease Control director Nirav Shah, former state Senate President Troy Jackson, former House candidate Jordan Wood, former Senate candidate David Costello, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and former House candidate Paige Loud.
State Rep. Valli Geiger, a close Platner ally, has also expressed interest and said she would bring on Platner’s staff to her campaign. She said that Planter was “trying to leverage things” to make sure “there is an economic populist who takes his place.”
Retiring Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) is reportedly fielding calls about the race, but his spokesperson again ruled out a run.
Gov. Janet Mills, who finished in a distant second to Platner in the Senate primary after suspending her campaign, hasn’t addressed the latest allegations or publicly expressed any interest in rejoining the race.
Some erstwhile Platner allies argue that the nomination should pass to an ideologically aligned candidate, with many pointing to Jackson, who was endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America in his gubernatorial bid, as their preferred successor.
Others, such as Shah, argue that the party should undergo a new nominating process. Shah called for at least one televised debate and multiple town halls across the state for the new candidate.
On Monday, amid speculation that he could be a potential replacement for Platner, Shah said on X that he would not support U.S. aid to Israel and that he believes the country is committing genocide.
Bellows ran against Collins in 2014 and lost by more than 35 percentage points.
The New York Times reported that the Maine Democratic Party plans to hold a “pop-up convention” or statewide caucus on July 25 to select the new nominee, rather than leaving the choice to party leadership alone.
Also on Tuesday, Platner’s campaign lost the remaining major supporters he had maintained.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), perhaps Platner’s most crucial Senate endorser, was the last of his prominent supporters to call on him to withdraw from the race, a day after the Maine Democratic Party and Senate Democratic leadership pulled their support, alongside many other Platner supporters.
“I have spoken with Graham Platner about the best path forward for Maine,” Sanders said in a statement. “In light of these very serious allegations, I have recommended that he step aside.”
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), another holdout, also called for Platner to exit the race. “These allegations are serious and cannot be ignored. Graham Platner should step aside,” Van Hollen said.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whose political rise was shaped by many of the same consultants as Platner’s campaign, likewise urged Platner to leave the race.
Despite not having made any public announcement, Platner’s campaign reportedly canceled all of its upcoming fundraisers and pulled its ads on Facebook and Instagram, signs that the campaign is preparing to wind down.
Plus, progressives pull the plug on Platner
Photo by Elke Scholiers/Getty Images
Crude oil tankers, bulk carriers and vessels sit anchored around Qaboos Port on June 22, 2026 in Muscat, Oman.
Good Tuesday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
The fallout from a rape allegation made against Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner intensified today as Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) — some of the Democrat’s most prominent progressive backers — rescinded their support of Platner and called on him to drop out. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who shares a top consultant with Platner, also advised the candidate to drop his bid.
Platner’s campaign has canceled all in-person fundraising events scheduled for the coming days and put holds on its social media ads, according to Politico. The candidate reportedly told his campaign staff in a call last night that a decision on the future of his race is forthcoming…
Several prominent Maine Democrats have begun to signal interest in replacing Platner on the general election ballot, should he withdraw by the deadline of July 13. Among those hinting at a run are Troy Jackson, a former state Senate president who has already filed with the Federal Election Commission to explore a bid; former U.S. House candidate Jordan Wood; former gubernatorial candidate Nirav Shah; and Platner’s former primary opponent David Costello.
Maine Democratic Party officials are considering holding a pop-up convention around July 25 or holding a statewide caucus to choose Platner’s replacement, sources told The New York Times…
As the heated Democratic Senate primary in Michigan enters its final stretch, far-left candidate Abdul El-Sayed told CNN this week that he does not believe that a politician’s support for Israel could be about anything other than money, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. “Not if you’re a Democrat and you believe in human rights,” El-Sayed told CNN when asked about such a distinction…
The Treasury Department revoked the waiver it issued last month lifting sanctions on Iranian oil, after Iran reportedly struck another vessel in the Strait of Hormuz today, marking the third such attack in the last 24 hours.
“As President [Donald] Trump and the administration have repeatedly affirmed, the [memorandum of understanding] in effect with Iran is entirely performance-based. Iran will only reap benefits if they exhibit good behavior,” a U.S. official told JI’s Matthew Shea. “Iran’s actions in the Strait were wholly unacceptable to the United States and will be met with consequences. Our negotiators continue to work in good faith towards a final deal”…
Qatar’s Foreign Ministry summoned Iran’s deputy ambassador in the Gulf stateto express its “strong condemnation and denunciation” of Tehran’s strike yesterday on a Qatari tanker, after Doha sent a delegation of officials to the funeral of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in an apparent diplomatic olive branch…
Saudi Arabia is considering increasing the capacity of its East-West oil pipeline in order to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and facilitate oil exports out of the Red Sea, Reuters reports…
Trump announced today that his administration is preparing to lift congressionally mandated sanctions on Turkey as he weighs moving forward with the sale of F-35 fighter jets to Ankara, JI’s Matthew Shea reports.
“It’s time to do that. We don’t want to sanction friends,” the president said. Defense experts and lawmakers previously told JI that Turkey still maintains the Russian air-defense system that prompted the sanctions in 2020, which makes lifting the sanctions legally complicated…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again voiced his opposition to Trump’s overtures to Ankara, telling CNN that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is “not exactly a model ally of the United States” as he “threatens to destroy my country, the one and only Jewish state.”
Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli went further in his rhetoric, calling Erdoğan a “grotesque hybrid of Hitler and [late Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar” and a “pathetic blood-soaked zero” in a post on X yesterday…
The Israeli Consulate in New York was evacuated from its Midtown Manhattan building after a nearby high-rise building under construction showed signs of collapsing, prompting evacuations across the area…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for coverage of tonight’s debate between Michigan Senate Democratic primary candidates Abdul El-Sayed and Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), with less than a month to go until the election.
The NATO summit in Ankara will conclude with the main working session of all 32 member states as well as a press conference from NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. A bipartisan delegation of U.S. lawmakers is set to attend a dinner tonight on the sidelines of the summit with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel will deliver a speech at Tel Aviv University, where he is set to lay out his vision for the future of the U.S.-Israel relationship as he prepares for a potential 2028 presidential run. Emanuel met today with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum.
The Contemporary Antisemitism conference will continue at the University of Haifa.
SORE SPOT
Black leaders in the district have failed to unite behind a single challenger, leaving the Jewish congresswoman favored in a plurality race but potentially vulnerable down the road
DEAL DISPUTE
The ambassador announced that the next round of Israel-Lebanon negotiations will take place next week in Rome
The New York City mayor, whose advisor Morris Katz also worked for Graham Platner, called on the Maine Senate contender to forfeit
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks at a press conference during moving day at Gracie Mansion on January 12, 2026 in New York City.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday joined the swelling chorus of Democratic voices demanding the party’s nominee for Senate in Maine, Graham Platner, abandon his campaign in the aftermath of a rape allegation revealed in a Politico report on Monday — a campaign the mayor’s own top political advisor helped start and steer.
Mamdani’s remarks came shortly after an unrelated event at City Hall, a day after a former romantic partner of Platner’s accused him of drunkenly entering her home and sexually assaulting her in 2021. The mayor’s nearest political aide, Morris Katz, was one of the architects of Platner’s Senate run and one of his fiercest public defenders amid prior allegations of personal misconduct and the discovery that the candidate had a tattoo of a Nazi symbol.
But Mamdani made no remarks on Katz’s role in Platner’s rise, and declined to comment on the long-term consequences for the insurgent left-wing movement the two have championed.
“I believe that it’s time for him to drop out of the race,” the mayor said of Platner. “I think the focus of today should be on the campaign coming to a close. And I think there will be many more days to have conversations for what it means beyond that.”
The 27-year-old Katz reportedly talked up congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier to Mamdani, leading the mayor to endorse her in the final days of her ultimately successful challenge to Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY).
It soon emerged that Avila Chevalier had bragged online about wiping her hands on the American flag, praised Soviet despots, pushed Russian government talking points and spread a conspiracy theory about COVID-19 — creating uncomfortable questions for Democratic leaders after she won the primary in the deep-blue district.
Katz also advised Democratic candidates Clare Valdez, Micah Lasher and Brad Lander in their successful primary bids elsewhere in New York City.
Plus, U.S., Israeli officials skeptical over Hamas' pledged dissolution
(CJ Gunther/Getty Images)
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner and his wife Amy Gertner wave to supporters as they arrive to Platner's Primary Election event on June 9, 2026 in Blue Hill, Maine.
Good Tuesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at the fallout from a new report that Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner sexually assaulted a former partner, and spotlight the South Florida congressional race in which Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is mounting a bid in a district historically represented by Black legislators. We report on an Israeli Democracy Institute survey that found confidence in President Donald Trump’s prioritization of Israel’s security needs at an all-time low, and look at a new psychology training program backed by the Academic Engagement Network that aims to combat antisemitism in mental health care. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Ambassador Yechiel Leiter, Alejandro Mayorkas and President Emmanuel Macron.
We have also launched a new on-demand Live Briefing that you can access throughout the day via our new app (on Apple and Android) and on our website.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with an assist from Danielle Cohen-Kanik and Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- President Donald Trump is slated to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan this afternoon, shortly after he lands in Turkey for the two-day NATO Ankara summit. The summit kicks off later today with representatives from all 32 NATO countries expected to attend.
- In addition to heads of state, a bipartisan congressional delegation comprised of Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Chris Coons (D-DE) and Mike Rounds (R-SD) and Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) will also be attending the summit after stopping in Budapest, Hungary, where the lawmakers met on Monday with newly elected Prime Minister Péter Magyar.
- Iran is expected to be a primary topic of conversations on the sidelines of the convening. Before leaving for Ankara, Trump said that the U.S. would either reach an agreement with Tehran, or would “finish the job.” His comments came hours before Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps struck two ships — believed to be a Qatari tanker and a Saudi vessel carrying crude oil — transiting through the Strait of Hormuz near the coast of Oman.
- In Iran, officials from dozens of countries — including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, India, China and Turkey — are taking part in the ongoing ceremonies around the funeral of former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Absent from the funeral events are representatives from the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, both of which were heavily targeted by Iran during the recent war.
- Stateside, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) and Abdul El-Sayed will face off this evening in a head-to-head debate as the two vie for the Democratic nomination in the state’s open Senate race. The debate will be the first matchup between the two since state Sen. Mallory McMorrow dropped her bid over the weekend.
- Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel is in Israel this week ahead of a planned speech tomorrow at Tel Aviv University. Emanuel met on Monday with human rights lawyer Cochav Elkayam-Levy, who spearheaded the effort to document Hamas’ sexual violence during the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.
- Elsewhere in Israel, the three-day Contemporary Antisemitism conference kicks off today at the University of Haifa. Deborah Lipstadt, who served as the Biden administration’s antisemitism envoy, is slated to deliver the keynote address today.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS
When an ex-girlfriend of Graham Platner told Politico in a story published on Monday that the Maine Democratic Senate candidate had raped her in 2021 after entering her home while heavily intoxicated, she said she did so because the response to a recent New York Times report on Platner’s past dubious behavior had focused on discrediting Lyndsey Fifield, one of the women who featured prominently in the story over her ties to the GOP.
Jenny Racicot, a Democrat, hadn’t wanted to go public with the rape accusation (which she had shared off-record with the Times), in part because she and Platner were largely politically aligned. “One of the reasons I didn’t come forward sooner was, the huge moral conflict that I had between supporting his politics, but not supporting him as a person,” Racicot told Politico. “My part of the story [in the NYT] was just a read-over,” Racicot said. “And the story was Lyndsey, and the accusations of her being politically motivated.”
The unfolding situation in Maine reflects a broader trend in American politics in which immoral or questionable behavior by one’s peers is ignored or obfuscated to serve a perceived “greater good” of electing a political ally despite their failing moral standards.
In recent years, both major parties have increasingly tolerated conduct that would have once been considered disqualifying — even as the #MeToo movement briefly changed the nature of the discourse (see former Minnesota Sen. Al Franken as an example). Similar arguments have surfaced across political controversies over the last decade (including against President Donald Trump), with supporters of embattled candidates and officials insisting that policy positions outweigh personal conduct and dismissing allegations as politically motivated.
In a short span of time, the 2017 rallying cry of “Believe all women” gave way to “Believe women whose politics align with ours” — a mindset that extended to the widespread denial of Hamas’ sexual violence during the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks and against the Israeli hostages kept in captivity in Gaza.
But yesterday’s Politico report, which prompted calls from Platner’s most prominent backers — including Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) — for him to end his bid, may mark the point at which previous defenses of the Maine Democrat become politically untenable.
SORE SPOT
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s (D-FL) reelection race has turned into a local and national flashpoint following the Republican-led redistricting process in Florida, and risks driving a wedge in traditional Black-Jewish alliances in the state and the party. Wasserman Schultz is running in South Florida’s newly redrawn 20th Congressional District, a decision pitting the longtime Democratic leader and former Democratic National Committee chair against leaders who have criticized her for running in a seat historically represented by a Black lawmaker, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Redistricting ramifications: “The situation we’re in is the result of a deliberate decision by the Republican leadership in our state to target all three Jewish members of Congress from South Florida, to target the two African American members of Congress from South Florida and deliberately set something up that was going to result in, let’s say, tension between those two historically allied communities,” said Joe Geller, a former Florida House Democrat, who lives outside the district and is supporting Wasserman Schultz.
LOSING FAITH
The number of Israelis who believe President Donald Trump views Israel’s security as a central consideration has continued to plummet to record lows after Washington signed a memorandum of understanding with Iran, according to a new survey from the Israel Democracy Institute. The June 2026 Israeli Voice Index, conducted between June 28 and July 1, found that 28% of respondents — including 26% of Jewish Israelis and 36% of Arab Israelis — believe Israel’s security is a key consideration for Trump, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
Survey says: Among Jewish Israelis, the figure dropped 15 percentage points from a month ago, when 41% of respondents said they felt Israeli security was a key consideration for Trump as his administration engaged in negotiations with Tehran. At the time, those findings marked the lowest levels of Israeli trust in Trump since the research center began tracking the metric when he was elected to a second term in November 2024.
DISARMAMENT DOUBTS
American and Israeli officials expressed skepticism on Monday that Hamas would follow through with its pledge to dissolve its governing body that has ruled Gaza for over two decades after Hamas announced the dissolution of the “Emergency Committee,” the terrorist organization’s governing body, and the resignation of Mohammed al-Farra as the committee’s chief, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs and Matthew Shea report.
State of play: The terrorist group said that it was prepared to transfer authority to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), the technocratic committee established under President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan and overseen by the Trump administration’s Board of Peace. The Board of Peace said that it was withholding judgment on the announcement, instead vowing to assess Hamas’ “actions, not promises, to meet the critical needs of the people of Gaza.” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar dismissed the move outright, saying that Hamas had agreed to give up governing control of the Gaza Strip in a largely symbolic overture while sidestepping disarmament calls.
DEAL DISPUTE
Jerusalem and Beirut see their trilateral agreement signed with the U.S. last month as “superseding” the memorandum of understanding signed between the U.S. and Iran, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said on Monday. “Whether the United States does, you’ll have to ask the administration spokesman,” he added, speaking at an event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Conflicting clause: Leiter specifically referenced the first clause of the MOU, to which Israel and Lebanon were not parties, which called for an end in hostilities around the region, including Israel’s war against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Leiter acknowledged that Iran — as well as mediating countries Pakistan and Qatar — views the MOU differently and believes it overrides the Israel-Lebanon framework deal.
WINGS CLIPPED
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced opposition to the Trump administration’s sale of jet engines and potential sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey on Monday, saying on “Fox & Friends” that such moves “will upset the power balance in the Middle East, which is ultimately guaranteed by Israeli air superiority” and “America’s posture” in the region, Jewish Insider’s Christina Sher reports.
Turkey talk: Netanyahu’s remarks came hours before President Donald Trump’s departure for a NATO summit in Turkey, on the sidelines of which Trump is expected to hold a bilateral meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. “I don’t think they should be given F-35s or the engines for their fighter jets,” Netanyahu said, describing Turkey as “infected by the Muslim Brotherhood, an extreme movement that hates America.” He also pointed to recent comments by Erdoğan and Turkish ministers that Netanyahu characterized as “calling for the annihilation of Israel.”
EXCLUSIVE
Two leading psychologists are launching an initiative to help future clinicians better care for Jewish patients, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen has learned, amid a surge of antisemitism in the mental health field that has left Jewish therapists and clients facing isolation and discrimination.
Pilot program: Created by Miri Bar-Halpern, a lecturer in psychology at Harvard Medical School, and Dean McKay, a professor of psychology at Fordham University, the pilot program, announced on Tuesday, will roll out in doctoral psychology programs at universities across New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts through faculty workshops and curriculum development. The Academic Engagement Network, a network of faculty and staff countering antisemitism on campus, is supporting the effort.
Worthy Reads
Speaking From the Grave: The Wall Street Journal’s Saleh al-Batati and Benoit Faucon report on the messages being signaled by Iran’s leaders during funeral proceedings for the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “A delegation from the Palestinian militia Hamas received a verse praising believers ‘who have remained true to the covenant they made with God.’ … The Iranians picked a quote [for Saudi Arabia’s delegation] referring to the Battle of Badr, in which the Prophet Muhammad’s followers defeated a much larger force through what was interpreted as a divine intervention. ‘There has already been a sign for you in the two armies that met,’ the verse said. ‘One was fighting in the cause of Allah and the other of disbelievers.’” [WSJ]
Guide For the Perplexed: In The New York Times, Nicholas Lemann posits how American Jewry can emerge from what he describes as a “collective identity crisis” amid increasing antisemitism and anti-Zionism. “My own advice for the perplexed among liberal American Jews would be, first, participate actively in the religious life of the community. That will connect you deeply to your people, back through time and everywhere in the world in the present. Second, and inextricably linked, study the Torah and the other essential texts. … Our patriarchs and matriarchs were all deeply flawed people, and the consistent failings of our people were collective as well as individual. Understanding that makes for a much better vantage point from which to contemplate the situation of Israel today than being subjected to litmus tests about Zionism from people who don’t understand how deeply embedded it is in most Jewish hearts.” [NYTimes]
Word on the Street
Explosions — reportedly caused by explosive devices — were heard in Damascus on Tuesday as French President Emmanuel Macron met with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa at the presidential palace; the French president’s office said Macron was safe and his trip was continuing, while Syrian media reported that 18 people, including four police officers, were wounded in the incident…
An Iranian soccer federation official boasted that “the whole world is dancing to celebrate politics’ humiliating defeat by football” in response to the U.S.‘ World Cup loss on Monday to Belgium, after Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said he did a “happy dance” after Iran was eliminated earlier in the tournament…
In a Substack post, Democratic Majority for Israel President Brian Romick breaks down what he calls Vice President JD Vance’s “troubling rhetoric” about Israel…
A member of Washington state’s Human Rights Commission resigned following the release of video taken at a meeting last year in which he suggested during debate over an antisemitism resolution that Jewish people were “always crying” and raised concerns that the resolution’s passage would be “an open door for them to now continue to demand”…
Jewish students at Columbia University who reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with the school over its handling of antisemitism filed a lawsuit against attorney Marc Kasowitz, alleging that the lawyer, who had represented dozens of students, netted more than half of the settlement’s payout, totaling some $6.4 million, in legal fees after telling plaintiffs that a third party would be covering the fees…
The Israeli-inspired café Tatte is opening its first location in New York’s Flatiron District; read our interview with Tatte founder Tzurit Or here…
Two British men who filmed themselves shouting antisemitic slurs at a Jewish man in the London neighborhood of Clapton Common and posted the video to social media were given suspended sentences after pleading to religiously aggravated intentional harassment…
Police in the western Australian city of Albany are investigating an incident in which swastikas and antisemitic messages were spraypainted on an Anzac memorial…
In response to the Israeli government’s rejection of a High Court ruling against the creation of an alternative television broadcast regulator, the court warned that “principle of the rule of law is undermined, and social order disintegrates” without compliance with the court’s rulings…
Former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is joining Harvard’s Institute of Politics as a resident fellow beginning in the fall semester…
Pic of the Day
Germany Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul (left), visiting Israel this week, signed an agreement with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar upping Berlin’s annual contribution to Yad Vashem from €1 million to €5 million through 2030.
Birthdays
Academy Award-winning screenwriter, director, and producer, Akiva Goldsman turns 64…
Retired president of The Seeing Eye, the world’s premier guide dog school for the blind, Kenneth Rosenthal turns 88… Early collaborator on object-oriented computer programming in the 1970s, Adele Goldberg turns 81… Michigan-based real estate developer, he served as U.S. ambassador to Slovakia during the Bush 43 administration, Ronald N. Weiser turns 81… Cardiologist and former president of CRIF, the umbrella organization of French Jews, Richard Prasquier turns 81… Board member of the Israel Policy Forum, he spent 27 years as a bankruptcy attorney at Cooley LLP, Lawrence C. Gottlieb turns 79… Israeli business mogul with vast holdings in energy (Delek Group) and real estate (El-Ad Group), Yitzhak Tshuva turns 78… Former president of Hebrew University and a past member of the Knesset, Menachem Ben-Sasson turns 75… Co-founder and CEO of the biotechnology company Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Leonard Steven Schleifer turns 74… Pioneer of Israeli punk rock, nicknamed “HaMeshuga,” Rami Fortis turns 72… USAID official for 28 years until 2008, he now consults internationally on Rule of Law issues, Richard Gold… President of The Lapin Group, Avrum Lapin… Co-rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion, Rabbi Mosheh Lichtenstein turns 65… Former president of the United Synagogue in the U.K., Michael Howard Goldstein turns 63… President of HIAS since 2013, he first joined the immigration group in 1989 as a caseworker in Rome, Mark Hetfield turns 59… Comic book creator and a cappella singer, he published the Passover Haggadah Graphic Novel, Jordan B. Gorfinkel turns 59… Chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit, David Jeremiah Barron turns 59… Television and film actor, Robin Weigert turns 57… Azerbaijani-born businessman, he is a VP of the Russian Jewish Congress and the president of the International Charity Foundation of Mountain Jews, German Zakharyayev turns 55… Chief communications officer for Democratic Majority for Israel, Rachel Rosen… Consultant and project manager for nonprofits, Amy Handman… Head coach of the Florida Gators men’s basketball team that won the NCAA national championship in 2025, Todd Raymond Golden turns 41… WNBA player, she played on Israeli teams for six seasons, Alysha Angelica Clark turns 39… Ethiopian-born Israeli actor, she is active in the protest movement for social justice, Netsanet Mekonnen turns 38… Prime Video analytics expert on “Thursday Night Football,” Sam Schwartzstein turns 37… Olympic sports sailor, she competed for Israel in both the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics, Gil Cohen turns 34… Originally a figure skater and later a pairs skater, now an active competitive pairs skater competing for France, Megan Wessenberg turns 28… U.S. editor at Jewish Insider, Danielle Cohen-Kanik… Shalom Klein…
The unfolding situation in Maine comes amid a broader trend in American politics in which immoral or questionable behavior by one’s peers has at times been ignored or obfuscated to serve a perceived 'greater good'
(CJ Gunther/Getty Images)
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner speaks at his Primary Election event on June 9, 2026 in Blue Hill, Maine.
When an ex-girlfriend of Graham Platner told Politico in a story published on Monday that the Maine Democratic Senate candidate had raped her in 2021 after entering her home while heavily intoxicated, she said she did so because the response to a recent New York Times report on Platner’s past dubious behavior had focused on discrediting Lyndsey Fifield, one of the women who featured prominently in the story, over her ties to the GOP.
Jenny Racicot, a Democrat, hadn’t wanted to go public with the rape accusation (which she had shared off-record with the Times), in part because she and Platner were largely politically aligned. “One of the reasons I didn’t come forward sooner was, the huge moral conflict that I had between supporting his politics, but not supporting him as a person,” Racicot told Politico. “My part of the story [in the NYT] was just a read-over,” Racicot said. “And the story was Lyndsey, and the accusations of her being politically motivated.”
The unfolding situation in Maine comes amid a broader trend in American politics in which immoral or questionable behavior by one’s peers has at times been ignored or obfuscated to serve a perceived “greater good” of electing a political ally despite their failing moral standards.
In recent years, both major parties have increasingly tolerated conduct that would have once been considered disqualifying — even as the #MeToo movement briefly changed the nature of the discourse. Similar arguments have surfaced across political controversies over the last decade (including against President Donald Trump), with supporters of embattled candidates and officials insisting that policy positions outweigh personal conduct and dismissing allegations as politically motivated.
In a short span of time, the 2017 rallying cry of “Believe women” gave way to “Believe women whose politics align with ours” — a mindset that extended to the widespread denial of Hamas’ sexual violence during the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks and against the Israeli hostages kept in captivity in Gaza.
But yesterday’s Politico report, which prompted calls from Platner’s most prominent backers — including Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) — for him to end his bid, may mark the point at which previous defenses of the Maine Democrat become politically untenable.
Since shortly after the launch of his campaign, Platner — a virtual unknown before last summer — has faced numerous controversies, from his tattoo of an SS totenkopf to Reddit comments praising Hamas tactics to the revelation that he exchanged inappropriate messages with numerous women despite being married. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Platner’s vetting process — normally a weeks-long process — took place in a matter of days, expedited by Platner’s top strategist and done at a fraction of the cost of a standard background check, which likely would have flagged at least some of these issues.
Yet none of those allegations proved politically fatal — and Platner ended up winning the Democratic primary with 72% of the vote. Platner’s defenders echoed the rhetoric of many of Trump’s early backers: that the party establishment had targeted him, that the media had unfairly covered the incidents and that a candidate’s positions, rather than their personal lives, should be on the ballot.
Unlike Trump, who was weeks away from his 2016 presidential victory when the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape leaked, Platner had only recently clinched his party’s nomination after Gov. Janet Mills ended her bid. He can still be replaced on the ballot, provided he exits the race by next Monday, though any new candidate will face a much more difficult battle against Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) in what had been the Democrats’ best hope for a pickup and control of the Senate.
Now, the question is whether American politics still has a meaningful threshold beyond which partisan leanings give way to concerns about character and ethics — or whether that threshold has simply become much higher than it once was.
Senate leaders threatened to withhold funding from the race if Platner remains the nominee, while several of his progressive backers rescinded their endorsements
Laura Brett/Getty Images
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner speaks to voters at a town hall at the Elks Lodge 188 on June 7, 2026 in Portland, Maine.
Democratic leaders coalesced around calls for Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner to withdraw from the race on Monday following a Politico report in which an ex-girlfriend of Platner’s accused the Democrat of sexual assault, an account the outlet backed up with her correspondence and other interviews.
Platner denied the allegation outright but said in a video statement that he’s “mindful of the political reality it will inflict” and would be “taking the time to reflect on the best path forward.” If Platner voluntarily drops out by July 13, the Maine Democratic Party would have until July 27 to pick a replacement to appear on the ballot.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), the chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said in a joint statement that Platner should withdraw, and that the DSCC would not invest financially in the Maine Senate race if Platner remained the nominee.
“The allegations reported today are incredibly disturbing — violence, abuse and sexual assault are absolutely unacceptable,” Schumer and Gillibrand said. “Graham Platner needs to immediately withdraw as the Democratic nominee for Senate and allow Maine Democrats the opportunity to choose a new candidate who can defeat Susan Collins.”
Schumer and Gillibrand had offered tepid support for Platner in the wake of previous scandals he has weathered on the campaign trail.
Senate Majority PAC, the Senate Democratic super PAC, said in a statement that Platner should withdraw and that the PAC would be “redirecting resources away from the Maine Senate race.” The group said the race would be winnable “if Platner is not on the ballot.”
The Maine Democratic Party’s leadership also called on Platner to end his candidacy.
“Over the past several weeks, multiple women have made serious, credible allegations against Graham Platner. Today’s statements take those allegations even further,” party leaders said in a statement. “Maine Democratic Party leadership is calling on Graham Platner to withdraw as the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate.”
The party leaders said it’s “essential that we refocus this campaign” on defeating Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and the Trump administration.
Maine Statehouse Speaker Ryan Fecteau, a Democrat, also called on Platner to drop out, saying it’s clear that he cannot win the seat.
Several prominent progressives who had previously defended and supported Platner, even through his previous scandals and controversies — including his now-covered Nazi tattoo and domestic abuse allegations — also said that the latest sexual assault allegations were a breaking point.
Sen. Elizbeth Warren (D-MA) said that there can be “no tolerance for sexual assault” and that “the best path forward is for Graham Platner to step aside.”
“I’ve been very clear that sexual assault or violence against women is a red line. These allegations are very serious and credible. Graham Platner should drop out from the race. I am withdrawing my endorsement,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) said on Monday evening.
Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) called the allegations “troubling and deeply serious” and likewise rescinded his endorsement.
Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) said, “The allegations reported against Graham Platner are deeply disturbing and must be taken seriously. I cannot support his candidacy.”
Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) similarly rescinded his endorsement and called for Platner to step aside.
Some of Platner’s prominent media boosters also said that they wanted to see him pull out of the race or otherwise criticized him.
“Platner needs to drop out ASAP — these are awful, credible allegations,” said Jon Favreau, co-host of “Pod Save America.” “It’s now abundantly clear that he just hasn’t been honest about his past and can’t be trusted as a candidate for office.”
Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), one of Platner’s most prominent progressive backers, has not yet addressed the latest allegations.
The End Citizens United PAC also pulled its support for Platner, as did the Sanders-linked Our Revolution, though the group warned “the Democratic establishment: this is not your opening.” TrackAIPAC also pulled its endorsement of Platner.
Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), who is running for U.S. Senate in Michigan, also condemned Platner, who campaigned alongside her primary rival, Abdul El-Sayed.
“The allegations against Graham Platner are extremely troubling and completely unacceptable,” Stevens said. “There should be no room for this conduct in the U.S. Senate or any public office. Graham Platner must step aside.”
Numerous other Democratic Senate candidates followed her. El-Sayed, in a statement, did not unequivocally call for Platner to withdraw.
Speculation has already turned to who might replace Platner on the ballot, with many pointing to logger and former state Senate President Troy Jackson, a former gubernatorial candidate who finished third in the 2026 primary, as an alternative choice with a similar background and politics to Platner.
Jackson also campaigned alongside and supported Platner, something that could hinder his electoral prospects.
Jackson was endorsed by the Maine Democratic Socialists of America in his gubernatorial bid.
Former acting Centers for Disease Control Director Nirav Shah, who finished second in the primary, has also been floated as a potential replacement and has reportedly expressed interest.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills, the favored candidate of the Democratic establishment who suspended her campaign for the seat before the primary, could also see a second wind.
A recent poll also tested “Grey’s Anatomy” star and Maine resident Patrick Dempsey’s popularity in the state, as well as Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who also ran in the gubernatorial primary; state Sen. Joe Baldacci; former House candidate Jordan Wood; Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME); former state Rep. Sara Gideon, who lost to Collins in 2020; former Rep. John Baldacci (D-ME); Attorney General Aaron Frey; and former Rep. Mike Michaud (D-ME).
State Sen. Baldacci said that the party “can’t handpick a replacement candidate without some process involving all Democrats” in the state.
Retiring Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME), who had been eyed by Democrats as a potential recruit for the seat, said last month that he was not interested in replacing Platner on the ballot.
Plus, Rahm Emanuel says Israel support should come with strings
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner speaks at a “Fighting Oligarchy” tour stop held by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) at the Collins Center for the Arts on the University of Maine campus on May 24, 2026 in Orono, Maine.
Good Monday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
A woman who dated Maine Senate nominee Graham Platner alleged in a series of interviews with Politico that the Democrat sexually assaulted her in 2021, an account the outlet backed up with her correspondence and other interviews.The woman, Jenny Racicot, said Platner came into her home uninvited while intoxicated and forced himself on her despite her repeated objections.
In a video statement, Platner denied the accusation outright but said he’s “mindful of the political reality it will inflict” and would be “taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love,” a different tone than Platner has struck in the aftermath of his previous controversies. The Maine Democratic Party can only choose a replacement nominee for the general election ballot if Platner voluntarily withdraws by July 13…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced opposition today to the Trump administration’s sale of jet engines and potential sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey, hours before President Donald Trump was set to depart for the NATO summit in Ankara, Jewish Insider’s Christina Sher reports.
Netanyahu suggested on “Fox & Friends” that such moves “will upset the power balance in the Middle East, which is ultimately guaranteed by Israeli air superiority” and U.S. posture in the region. Axios reports that Netanyahu relayed the same message directly to Trump in a phone call last week and asked him to help address Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan‘s escalating anti-Israel rhetoric…
The percentage of Jewish Israelis who believe Israel’s security is a central consideration for Trump has reached a record low of 26%, according to a new survey from the Israel Democracy Institute, JI’s Matthew Shea reports. The figure marks a 15-point decrease from a month ago, during which time the Trump administration signed its memorandum of understanding with Iran…
Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem announced at a press conference in Gaza today that the terror group’s Emergency Committee — the administrative body that has governed the enclave for more than two decades — is dissolving and that its civil servants, who will remain in their roles, stand ready to work under the new technocratic government established by the Board of Peace.
The BoP expressed skepticism about the announcement, JI’s Emily Jacobs and Matthew Shea report, saying its “assessment will be guided by actions, not promises” and calling for a “genuine transfer of authority” and for Hamas to disarm. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar dismissed the move outright, calling it a “trick … designed to prevent [Hamas’] own disarmament”…
Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said both Israel and Lebanon see the agreement signed between Jerusalem, Beirut and Washington earlier this month as “superseding” the first clause of the U.S.-Iran MOU, which calls for the end of hostilities on all fronts. “Whether or not the United States does, you’ll have to ask an administration spokesman,” Leiter said at an event with the Council on Foreign Relations.
Leiter also said he “can’t imagine that any ultimate agreement with Iran would be absent a clause limiting the development of ballistic missiles,” though the MOU did not mention Iran’s ballistic missile program…
In a preview obtained by Politico of the speech former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel is set to deliver at Tel Aviv University on Wednesday, the prospective 2028 presidential candidate is set to say that the U.S. has spent too long “averting its eyes” from what he views as Israel’s misadventures, calling for “significant changes and a new direction” in the bilateral relationship.
“Going forward, Emanuel plans to say, Israelis should regard U.S. support as expressly contingent: On reviving a serious commitment to Palestinian sovereignty; On rejecting dreams of asserting dominion beyond official borders in pursuit of ‘Greater Israel’; On abandoning a security strategy that emphasizes brutally effective military force with scant attention to diplomacy or credible what-next plans in Gaza and Iran,” the outlet reported…
French President Emmanuel Macron became the first major Western head of state to visit Syria since the fall of dictator Bashar al-Assad in 2024, landing in Damascus today for meetings with Syrian leaders. Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa is also expected to meet with Trump on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Turkey this week…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
The two-day NATO summit begins in Turkey tomorrow with leaders of all 32 NATO countries expected to attend, as well as a congressional delegation comprised of Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Chris Coons (D-DE) and Mike Rounds (R-SD) and Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH). At the top of the agenda are increasing defense investments, as Trump continues to press NATO allies to shoulder a greater share of the alliance’s defense burden and threatens to draw down U.S. troops from Europe, and continuing to support Ukraine in its war with Russia.
Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) and Abdul El-Sayed, now the only remaining candidates in Michigan’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary, will participate in a televised debate on local news tomorrow night, their first head-to-head matchup since state Sen. Mallory McMorrow suspended her campaign yesterday.
The annual Contemporary Antisemitism conference, which bills itself as the largest annual academic conference on contemporary antisemitism, will kick off tomorrow at the University of Haifa. The three-day summit will feature hundreds of academics and experts, with a keynote speech tomorrow from former State Department antisemitism envoy Deborah Lipstadt and a lifetime achievement award presented to Tel Aviv University professor emerita Dina Porat.
NO FLIGHT PLAN
Rep. Dina Titus is leading the Joint Resolution of Disapproval against the Trump administration’s $700 million sale of F110 jet engines to Turkey despite legal restrictions on U.S. military sales to the country
TEACHING MOMENT
Some Jewish Affairs Caucus leaders say they weren’t consulted about the changes, which are meant to prevent issues around antisemitism that occurred at last year’s assembly
The Maine senator said she learned to reject anti-Jewish hate at a young age, inspired by her World War II veteran father and her mother who quit a sorority for excluding Jewish students
Mark Makela/Getty Images
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) addresses the press on Nov. 6, 2022.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) reiterated her criticism of Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner and accused him and his supporters of antisemitism at an Orthodox Union event on Tuesday.
Speaking at the OU luncheon, Collins called out Platner for his Nazi tattoo, pointing to accounts by former romantic partners that he had described it as a Nazi symbol despite later denying that he knew what it was. She said that even though he covered up the tattoo on the campaign trail, “the stain remains.”
Collins also referenced comments from a Platner supporter who said she did not find the Nazi tattoo disqualifying but would find an Israeli tattoo to be a deal-breaker, which Collins said she found “even more distressing.”
She also repeated comments she made a day earlier on Fox News asserting that her support for Israel remains in spite of shifting political winds.
“Our support for Israel remains as strong as ever,” Collins said, to a standing ovation. “We must all stand with Israel. In my case, I learned that lesson at an early age.”
She said that her father, a World War II veteran, taught her from childhood the need to stand against evil. Collins said that her mother also taught her to reject antisemitism, noting that her mother quit her sorority in college after it rejected a fellow student because she was Jewish.
“The friendship that I share with the people of Israel is that which our true nation shares, a friendship that is anchored by common principles, a love of liberty and the courage to defend [them],” Collins said.
The GOP senator, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, also said that a major priority for her this year is to make the U.S.’ defunding of UNRWA permanent. She said that it “should not have been a close call” to cut off U.S. funding to the agency after its employees were revealed to be involved in the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, but that she had to “fight” to add and extend that provision in recent funding bills.
Collins said that the rise in antisemitism since Oct. 7 has “revealed … the oldest hatred is not only still alive, but sicker than ever. Tragically, the prognos is has only worsened since then.”
She praised David Greene, the president of Colby College, in her home state, which she said had not seen the anti-Israel demonstrations and encampments that plagued other colleges. Greene told her that “the key is, you do not negotiate, you do not allow this to occur,” she recalled.
She said Greene had also told her that the protests at other schools were directed by radical professors, graduate assistants and outside agitators, rather than grassroots activities.
Collins said a member of her own congressional staff was assaulted at an encampment at the University of Pittsburgh for carrying an American and an Israeli flag, and that no action was taken against his attacker — something she described as a pattern under the prior presidential administration.
“I think it shows how much we need to do to make sure that our students are [equipped] with the truth,” Collins said.
Sens. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Kevin Cramer (R-ND) also spoke at the OU event.
Collins said her Senate opponent makes AIPAC sound like ‘some sort of evil foreign influence, and that is absolutely wrong’
(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on December 9, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) accused Maine Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner of antisemitism and defended her support for Israel in a Fox News interview on Monday.
“I remain a very strong supporter of Israel, the one democracy in the Middle East, our true ally in the Middle East,” Collins said when asked about increasing hostility to Israel and AIPAC among the American public. She attributed such trends to “rising antisemitism in our country that Graham Platner certainly is part of, and has been since his high school days. That’s been a consistent theme throughout his entire life.”
WATCH: Sen. Susan Collins accused Maine Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner of antisemitism and defended her support for Israel in a Fox News interview on Monday.
— Jewish Insider (@jewishinsider) June 22, 2026
“I remain a very strong supporter of Israel, the one democracy in the Middle East, our true ally in the Middle… pic.twitter.com/iShufv15PM
Collins pointed to Platner’s accusations of genocide against Israel and his comments praising Hamas’ tactics in a raid that killed multiple Israeli soldiers, as first reported by Jewish Insider in April, calling his activity “appalling.”
“AIPAC is made up of Americans who care deeply about our relationship with Israel,” Collins continued. “Platner makes it sound like this is some sort of evil foreign influence, and that is absolutely wrong.”
The progressive Israel advocacy group said it did not ‘have anything to share at this time’ about Maine’s scandal-plagued Democratic Senate nominee
Sophie Park/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Graham Platner, Democratic Senate candidate for Maine, left, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) during a Fighting Oligarchy event in Portland, Maine, on May 25, 2026.
J Street, the progressive Israel advocacy group, is for now withholding an endorsement of Graham Platner, the scandal-plagued Democratic Senate nominee in Maine, underscoring the extent to which even some left-wing Jewish activists appear skeptical of his insurgent campaign.
A spokesperson for J Street told Jewish Insider on Wednesday that the group did not “have anything to share at this time” about a Platner endorsement but would provide more information “if that changes.”
The spokesperson declined to confirm if J Street, which this cycle has backed a handful of Democratic Senate candidates vying for open seats or challenging Republican incumbents, had considered whether it will make an endorsement. The group had told JI in early May that it did “not currently have a position in the race.”
In a statement to JI on Thursday, the spokesperson said that it “is incorrect to frame J Street as actively withholding an endorsement from Graham Platner.”
The group “evaluates candidates and makes endorsement decisions on a rolling basis,” and its “endorsement process is ongoing,” the spokesperson said. “The timing of endorsement decisions does not reflect judgment about any individual candidate.”
J Street’s response came after Platner had clinched the nomination on Tuesday to challenge Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), in a high-profile race Democrats see as crucial to reclaiming control of the upper chamber.
Platner won the Democratic primary decisively even as he has faced a mounting series of controversies over alleged “toxic” relationships with past girlfriends, sexual messages he sent to women while married and deleted Reddit comments expressing a range of incendiary views.
He also weathered a scandal relating to a Nazi tattoo on his chest for nearly two decades that he covered up last October. Platner has insisted that he did not recognize its imagery, despite claims to the contrary from a former girlfriend who first spoke with JI last year, shortly after he had announced his campaign.
The tattoo, along with Platner’s hostile criticism of Israel and insistent demonization of AIPAC, have stoked ongoing concerns among Jewish Democrats. Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, has said the group is not ready to endorse Platner.
“We won’t support a Democrat who doesn’t represent the views and values of the vast majority of American Jews,” Soifer said in a statement in late April echoing a sense of discomfort with Platner’s candidacy felt by mainstream Jewish leaders.
JDCA had endorsed Maine Gov. Janet Mills, who suspended her campaign amid lackluster fundraising but remained on the ballot Tuesday, pulling in 19% of the vote. Platner won 72%.
Following Tuesday’s win, some prominent Senate Democrats have also declined to endorse Platner as he prepares for a bruising and expensive campaign.
J Street, which has moved to the left in recent years as it has sought to capitalize on growing Democratic frustration with Israel, is in many ways aligned with Platner on Middle East policy, including accusations that Israel committed genocide in its war in Gaza and calls to block U.S. military aid to the Jewish state that are now gaining momentum in Congress.
Still, the group has shown its intolerance for some extreme views that could be seen as antisemitic. In 2024, for instance, J Street revoked its endorsement of former Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), who was at the time fighting for reelection in a bitterly contested primary he would later lose, saying his inflammatory rhetoric on Israel had crossed a line.
Even as the group officially stays on the sidelines in Maine’s marquee Senate race, J Street’s state leader, Steven Koltai, who helped organize a Passover Seder with Platner, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency he is “still very much” supporting the oyster farmer and former Marine in spite of recent revelations about his past.
In the statement to JI on Thursday, J Street’s spokesperson said the group “remains steadfast in our commitment to ensuring a pro-Israel, pro-peace majority in the Senate and House come January.”
Klain claimed ‘the tattoo was a skull and crossbones to remember his fallen comrades from his service in Afghanistan’ — an explanation the campaign itself has not previously offered
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Ron Klain, the White House chief of staff under President Joe Biden, leaves an interview in the Rayburn House Office Building on July 24, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Ron Klain, the former chief of staff to President Joe Biden, defended Maine Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner’s tattoo of a Nazi symbol in a comment responding to the Republican Jewish Coalition on Instagram.
The RJC, after Platner’s victory in Tuesday’s primary election, called on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to rescind his support for Platner. Klain, in a comment on the RJC’s Instagram post, declared, “This is just a partisan attack. The tattoo was a skull and crossbones to remember his fallen comrades from his service in Afghanistan.” Platner was deployed to Iraq, not Afghanistan, when he got the tattoo.
Platner has denied that he knew what the symbol was until late last year, when the campaign was contacted by media about it, but has not claimed, as Klain did, that it was intended to memorialize fallen comrades.
Klain, now the chief legal officer at Airbnb, has reportedly been quietly backing and advising Platner’s campaign, as well as several other prominent progressives, including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, potential presidential candidate Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), California gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra, New York congressional candidate Jack Schlossberg and Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA).
But he had previously declined to comment to Politico last week on his political activities, and had otherwise not discussed his involvement with Platner.
Platner’s former romantic partner, Lyndsey Fifield, who has accused him of domestic abuse, has said that he described the tattoo to her as “my Totenkopf” and would joke about it being a Nazi symbol. She said that Platner told her that he and his Marine colleagues chose the symbol because they saw a parallel between themselves and the Nazi SS as a “death unit.”
Fifield shared text messages with The New York Times showing that she had informed friends that Platner had a tattoo of a Nazi symbol in August 2025, months before it became public knowledge.
The RJC said on X that “Klain’s pathetic rationalization of a clear Nazi symbol is a total disgrace,” and that, as a former U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum board member, “Klain absolutely knows better.”
“Every Jewish family in America knows what the insignia of the Nazi SS — the unit that ran the death camps — looks like and Klain knows exactly what it is too,” the group said.
Following his victory in Maine’s primaries on Tuesday, some Senate Democrats who appeared wary of Platner after the domestic abuse allegations once again appear to be rallying around him.
“I think Graham showed a great deal of support in the primary, and I think … that’s going to build momentum and will assure that we win Maine,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), who chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, told CNN.
In his victory speech, Platner railed against the political establishment and criticized U.S. wars in the Middle East
Sophie Park/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Graham Platner, Democratic Senate candidate for Maine, arrives to speak during a Fighting Oligarchy event in Portland, Maine, on May 25, 2026.
Maine Democrats rallied behind scandal-plagued oyster farmer and military veteran Graham Platner as their Senate nominee against Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) in Tuesday’s primary, turning to a left-wing outsider running against the political and institutional establishment as its standard-bearer for the general election.
Platner — whose controversies, including his now-covered Nazi tattoo and abuse allegations, have unnerved many Democrats — will be a political test over whether his brand of progressive populism can win over swing voters in a state critical to the Democrats’ hopes of winning back the Senate.
“In trying so hard to understand me, [the media] failed to understand that this is not about me at all. This is a movement about us, about the far too many, working far too hard and struggling far too much,” Platner said in his victory speech.
Attacking “forever wars,” Platner railed against the Trump administration’s war in Iran, and slammed Collins for “closing hospitals while using our tax dollars to destroy them halfway around the world.” (The line was an apparent attack against Israel’s targeting of Hamas terror infrastructure that was often lodged in medical facilities during the war in Gaza.)
Platner won about 72% of the primary vote despite Gov. Janet Mills remaining on the ballot, a solid enough showing amid all the controversies that should mute any calls for him to drop out of the race. In a statement on Platner’s victory, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) reiterated their support for the nominee: “In November, Maine voters will elect Graham Platner, and we will win a Senate majority.”
Mills, for her part, did not mention Platner at all in her statement about the election results.
The most recent polls in the race, conducted as Platner’s scandals hit the news, suggest a highly competitive matchup between Collins and Platner. Maine is the only state Trump lost in the 2024 presidential election that is represented by a Republican in the Senate, but Platner’s personal baggage is complicating the party’s path to victory.
Collins, meanwhile, is one of the most politically resilient senators, winning reelection even when the political environment for her party has been less than favorable.
Platner was surrounded by mostly older women as he delivered his victory speech, a critical constituency for him to win in the general election in the state with the oldest median population, especially given the allegations of abuse towards several ex-girlfriends.
In other primary news on Tuesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) coasted to renomination, though he only won 58% of the GOP vote against weak competition.
In his victory speech, Graham railed against Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), two isolationist, anti-Israel GOP lawmakers who left or were ousted from Congress. “What did we prove tonight? That South Carolina is Trump country, not Massie country. We proved tonight that nobody gives a damn what Marjorie Taylor Greene thinks about who to vote for in South Carolina,” Graham said.
In South Carolina’s governor’s race, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, who was endorsed by President Donald Trump, will face state Attorney General Alan Wilson in a runoff for the nomination. Reps. Ralph Norman (R-SC) and Nancy Mace (R-SC) lagged well behind in the primary, with Mace’s fifth-place finish serving as a disappointing conclusion to her congressional career.
Plus, Platner's promoters face pushback
Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty Images
US President Donald Trump speaks about the conflict in Iran in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House on April 6, 2026, in Washington, DC.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on questions that Democratic officials supporting Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner are facing following new allegations surrounding his past romantic relationships, and spotlight Cliff Sims, who last month was tapped to serve as Vice President JD Vance’s national security advisor. We report on the launch of talks between Israel and the U.S. to discuss a new partnership framework that will succeed the expiring 10-year memorandum of understanding between the countries, and talk to the Israeli startup founders who attended last week’s New York Tech Week. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Steven Spielberg, Sen. Rick Scott and Ron Klain.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with assists from Danielle Cohen-Kanik and Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- We’re closely monitoring the situation in the Middle East following last night’s escalation between Israel and Iran. Earlier this morning, Iran and its Houthi proxy fired several barrages at Israel, and Israel struck an Iranian petrochemical plant in southwestern Iran as well as additional targets that the IDF described as “strategic defense systems” belonging to the Iranian regime. Early this afternoon local time, Iran reportedly said it was halting its fire against Israel. More below.
- President Donald Trump said that “Israel and Iran must immediately stop ‘shooting,’” in a post on Truth Social early Monday morning. For the latest developments delivered throughout the day, premium subscribers can stay updated with JI’s What We’re Watching live briefing.
- The Senate Armed Services Committee is holding its markup of the 2027 NDAA.
- Rachel Goldberg-Polin and Jon Polin will be the keynote speakers at tonight’s annual Rabin lecture hosted by Washington Hebrew Congregation and the Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School.
- Elsewhere in Washington, the American Council on Education is convening faith-based higher education leaders today for a daylong summit.
- Trump and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani are both expected to attend Game 3 of the NBA Finals tonight in New York, where the Knicks will take on the San Antonio Spurs. The Knicks lead 2-0 in the best-of-seven championship series.
- The Seminar Annual Forum in Scottsdale, Ariz., kicked off yesterday and runs through tomorrow. Among those slated to speak is Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS
Millions of people across northern Israel heard a familiar sound from their phones late Sunday night: an alert from Israel’s Homefront Command, notifying them for the first time in two months, of an incoming ballistic missile attack from Iran.
Just after sunrise, residents of Israel’s center — from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem — received the same notification, and groggily huddled in shelters as Iran, joined by its Houthi proxy in Yemen, launched fresh salvos at Israel. Shortly after, Israel struck a petrochemical plant in southwest Iran.
Last night’s initial Iranian attack came in response to Israeli strikes in the Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, a Hezbollah stronghold that had in recent weeks been off-limits to the IDF in accordance with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire with Lebanon that limited Israeli action to southern Lebanon, another Hezbollah stronghold.
What matters more than how the latest round of fighting started is what will happen next. Israeli media reported that its overnight strikes on Iran had been coordinated with the U.S., even as President Donald Trump spent Sunday afternoon on the phone with reporters trying to publicly de-escalate the situation. But early this afternoon local time, Iran reportedly said it was halting its fire against Israel.
Shortly after Iran’s initial missile attack on Sunday, Trump told Fox News that the incident was “certainly not going to help” the ongoing negotiations between the U.S. and Iran. He continued, “What I would suggest to Iran: You’ve shot your missiles, that’s enough, get back to the table and make a deal.”
Trump’s comments could be taken at face value — or viewed with some skepticism in light of the Israeli media reports that the strikes were coordinated with Washington. It would not, after all, be the first time in which the U.S. and Israel publicly emphasized their differences while privately remaining aligned — even amid alleged fissures in the relationship. That includes leaks to NBC News and The New York Times over the weekend that the Defense Department’s Defense Intelligence Agency had raised its counterintelligence threat level for Israel to the highest level. The Times named three U.S. officials that were allegedly being tracked for information on the Iran negotiations: White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, the Pentagon’s Elbridge Colby and Colby’s deputy, Michael DiMino.
But things move fast in the Middle East. Recall that last June, after 12 days of intensive strikes between Israel and Iran, joined by the U.S., a ceasefire was announced mere hours after Iran launched missiles at a U.S. airbase in Qatar. Addressing the overnight escalation between Israel and Iran — and Iran’s continued intransigence in the region — is likely to be the White House’s top order of business today. Indeed, Trump issued his first comments of the day shortly before 6 a.m. ET, posting on his Truth Social site that “Israel and Iran must immediately stop ‘shooting.’”
DAMAGE CONTROL
Top Democrats faced questions on Sunday over Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner’s scandals, days after The New York Times shared details of abusive behavior alleged by past romantic partners, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Reactions: Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), who has endorsed Platner, said he continues to support him even as he criticized Platner’s past behavior and said his campaign should not attack his accusers, while Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) declined to offer any support for Platner and said that Platner and Maine voters will need to address the scandal.
Progressive-pilled: Ron Klain, who served as chief of staff in the Biden administration, is reportedly advising Khanna as the California Democrat and Israel critic weighs a 2028 presidential bid. Klain, Politico reports, had also signed on to prepare Platner for a Democratic primary debate with Gov. Janet Mills, which did not materialize after the governor dropped her Senate bid.
SIMS SELECTION
Vice President JD Vance tapped Cliff Sims last month as his national security advisor, picking a longtime GOP operative with close relationships across the party’s ideological spectrum on foreign policy. The hire bolsters Vance’s foreign policy operation at a time when intraparty fissures are widening over the lack of diplomatic or military progress in the war with Iran and the broader question of American engagement abroad, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
Ratcliffe’s reference: In addition to being a Vance confidante, Sims, 42, has advised or worked with President Donald Trump, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, most recently serving as chairman of the CIA’s external advisory board. “Cliff served as one of my deputies when I was DNI and I saw firsthand his exceptional judgment and command of the most sensitive national security matters,” Ratcliffe told JI. Vance’s appointment of Sims also received praise from Jeff Miller, a leading Republican lobbyist and the board chair of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and Dan Conston, former president of the Congressional Leadership Fund. Both worked alongside him at Watchtower Strategy, the consulting firm they cofounded last year.
REIMAGINING THE RELATIONSHIP
The Israeli Ministry of Defense and the Trump administration have launched formal talks on a “new security cooperation framework” to replace the current U.S.-Israel memorandum of understanding on military aid upon its expiration in 2028, the ministry said in a statement on Friday, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik reports.
Details: The Israeli team will be led by Defense Ministry Director-General Amir Baram and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter, while the U.S. team will be led by State Department counselor Daniel Holler and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. The two sides held a formal inaugural meeting this week and have further discussions planned in both countries in the coming weeks, the ministry said, without specifying a timeline for when the talks might conclude.
Regional rebuilding: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is examining pathways to repurpose Iranian assets to compensate the U.S.’ Gulf allies for damage inflicted by Iranian attacks during the war, and potential future damages, a source familiar with Bessent’s thinking told JI’s Marc Rod.
EXTREMISM WATCH
Darializa Avila Chevalier, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s endorsed candidate to unseat Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), on Friday defended her attendance at an anti-Israel rally one day after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, denied knowledge regarding her own history of posting anti-U.S. and pro-Russian sentiments online and maintained she owed nothing to the Texas tycoon underwriting a PAC backing her campaign, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports.
What she said: The Democratic Socialists of America-endorsed congressional contender faced questions from reporters following a press conference, including over her decision to participate in an anti-Israel protest organized by pro-China, pro-Iran groups on Oct. 8, 2023. “I was at this rally because I have always, as someone who has followed the issues that happened in the region, I have seen a pattern in which whenever there is an incident, the State of Israel engages in a response that is often disproportionate and creates a greater loss of life,” she said. “And that is what I was there to stand against.”
DEMS DEBATE
The four leading Democrats running in a closely contested Manhattan primary to succeed retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) all declined to describe Israel’s military conduct in Gaza as genocide during their first televised debate on Thursday evening, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports. Micah Lasher, an assemblyman who is backed by Nadler and other Democratic leaders in New York, called the number of Palestinian casualties “horrific” but characterized the question as “one of a set of definitional debates that does more to divide people of good faith than it does to find common ground.”
Choice of words: Alex Bores, a fellow assemblyman who has gained left-wing endorsements even as a defender of Israel, said he was “not comfortable” using the word, while Jack Schlossberg, a Kennedy scion and social media influencer, told the PIX11 debate moderator that he was “less interested in what we call it than what we do about it.” George Conway, a former Republican who is now an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump, said he did not think Israel’s war “meets the threshold” for genocide.
FOUNDER NATION
There’s a mantra in the Israeli startup world that its founders are months behind their American counterparts. New York Tech Week gave them a chance to close that gap, according to investors who descended on Manhattan last week. Michael Morgenstern, head of startups at financial technology platform Airwallex, which teamed up with Andreessen Horowitz — one of the world’s leading venture capital firms — to bring a delegation of Israeli founders to tech week for the first time, told Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen that VCs are looking to see more AI products come out of Israel, which historically has been security focused.
AI aspirations: “It would be interesting to see an AI lab out of Israel,” Morgenstern said. “Why haven’t we seen an OpenAI or Claude, something of that status, coming out of the Israeli ecosystem? It makes me wonder if we are stagnating as an ecosystem. So exposing the Israeli market to what’s going on on the ground gives Israeli entrepreneurs the chance to get months ahead.”
Worthy Reads
No Room for Debate: In his Substack, commentator and “Making Sense” podcast host Sam Harris explains why he refuses to debate critics of Israel. “What do the Jews and Muslims in the region really yearn to accomplish? What are they willing to sacrifice for? What are they willing to die for? And what are they willing to let their children die for? When we focus on the present this way, if we’re being honest, we must concede that there are two very different realities on either side of this conflict: culturally, psychologically, ethically, spiritually — in every way that matters. Yes, Israel has its religious fanatics too. But they aren’t the same sort of fanatics we find in Hamas or Hezbollah, and they’re far less representative of the surrounding culture.” [Substack]
The Platner Paradox: The Washington Post’s Ramesh Ponnuru reacts to efforts by some supporters of embattled Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, who last week was the subject of a lengthy New York Times piece in which former girlfriends raised concerns about his behavior, to defend Platner in spite of the latest reporting. “Progressives, who went all in on ‘believe women’ just a few years ago, have in many cases decided that certain exceptions apply. Conservative women whose testimony is inconvenient for Democratic hopes of running the Senate apparently are on that list. … Maine voters are free to support Platner, of course, as are progressive political commentators — notwithstanding the tattoo, the lying about it, the lying about his home loan, the extramarital sexting and everything else. But it’s a strange race to jettison moral standards for.” [WashPost]
Word on the Street
Axios spotlights growing concerns among Jewish Democratic officials and political staffers over growing antisemitism — and its acceptance — within the party…
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) is calling on the Tampa Sports Authority to reconsider the city’s plans to host two upcoming Kanye West concerts, citing concerns that taxpayer funds will go to support performances by West, who has made numerous antisemitic remarks in recent years…
The Boulder, Colo., Jewish community unveiled a plaque during the Boulder Jewish Film Festival paying tribute to the victims of last year’s antisemitic firebombing targeting a hostage-awareness rally, in which one woman was killed…
The New York Times Magazine profiles director Steven Spielberg ahead of the release of his 35th film, “Disclosure Day,” this weekend…
Actor John Lithgow won the Tony Award for Best Lead Actor in a Play for his portrayal of antisemitic author Roald Dahl in “Giant”…
Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein married Caryn Zucker on Friday; the couple first exchanged vows in a ceremony officiated by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, followed by a religious ceremony at Washington’s Sixth and I synagogue officiated by Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt…
Police in Canada arrested a man in connection with last week’s arson attack at Montreal’s Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom, one of the city’s oldest synagogues…
The Bank of Israel purchased approximately $800 million in May in an effort to stem the growing strength of the shekel; the move came as some Israel-based companies and NGOs were forced to downsize as a result of the currency’s appreciating value against a weakening dollar…
Ireland will issue travel bans prohibiting far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir from entering the country…
One person was killed and five injured in what is believed to be a terror attack in central Israel; the alleged assailant, an Arab Israeli man from the town of Tayibe, was killed by police soon after the spree…
Heedo Abu Laban is joining The New York Times as a reporter and researcher in the outlet’s Jerusalem bureau; Abu Laban previously worked at Israel’s Kan broadcaster and i24News…
Israeli singer Yishai Levi, known for his contributions over the decades to Mizrahi music, died at 63…
Pic of the Day
William Daroff and Betsy Berns Korn, respectively the CEO and chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Jerusalem on Sunday. Daroff told JI it was a “warm meeting that discussed a wide range of issues of concern to American Jewry and to the diaspora, generally.”
Birthdays
Winner of many Emmy and SAG awards, star of the long-running TV series “The Good Wife,” Julianna Margulies turns 60…
Hebrew University mathematics professor emeritus and 2005 Nobel Prize laureate in economics, Robert Aumann turns 96… Guru of alternative, holistic and integrative medicine, Dr. Andrew Weil turns 84… Hedge fund founder and manager, founder of the Paloma Funds, Selwyn Donald Sussman turns 80… Detective novelist, best known for creating the character of V.I. Warshawski, Sara Paretsky turns 79… Founder and CEO of Sitrick and Company, one of the most prominent crisis management firms in the U.S., Michael Sitrick… Classical pianist, teacher and performer at the Juilliard School and winner of several Grammy Awards, he is the child of Holocaust survivors, Emanuel Ax turns 77… Former member of Knesset from the Zionist Union and Labor parties, now a professor emeritus at Ben-Gurion University, Yosef “Yossi” Yona turns 73… Barbara Jaffe Panken… Senior advisor at Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based O2 Investment Partners, Robert Harris “Rob” Orley… Journalist, stand-up comedian, author, cartoonist and blogger, Aaron Freeman turns 70… CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau, Stacy Ritter turns 66… AVP for campaign at the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago, Patti Frazin… Moscow-born, living in the U.S. since 1976, he is a major figure in the Russian energy sector and co-founder and chairman of the Genesis Prize Foundation, Stan Polovets turns 63… Israel’s state comptroller and ombudsman, Matanyahu Englman turns 60… Actor, screenwriter and producer, Dan Futterman turns 59… Former congresswoman (D-AZ), she is a survivor of an assassination attempt near Tucson in 2011, Gabrielle Giffords turns 56… Actor who starred in USA Network’s “Royal Pains,” he also co-wrote and created the CBS series “9JKL,” Mark Feuerstein turns 55… Former executive director at Consulate Health Care in New Port Richey, Fla., Daniel Frenden… Inaugural executive director of American Friends of IDF Widows and Orphans, Daniel Elbaum… Former deputy chief of staff for Charlie Baker when he was governor of Massachusetts, Michael Emanuel Vallarelli… Lead organizer at LA Voice, a multiracial multifaith community organization, Suzy Stone… Businesswoman, art collector and editor, founder of the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Dasha Zhukova turns 45… Fourth-generation supermarket executive at Klein’s ShopRite of Maryland, Marshall Klein… Corporate litigation partner in the Wilmington office of Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor, Daniel Kirshenbaum… Three-time Tony Award-winning theatrical producer, he is the co-founder at Folk Media Group, Eric J. Kuhn turns 39… CEO of BZ Media and the Bnai Zion Foundation, Rabbi Ari Lamm… Offensive tackle in the NFL for nine seasons until he retired in 2022, his Hebrew name is “Mendel,” Mitchell Schwartz turns 37…
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Sen. Mark Warner declined to defend the embattled Maine Senate candidate, but Rep. Ro Khanna said he’ll continue to support him
Sophie Park/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Graham Platner, Democratic Senate candidate for Maine, arrives to speak during a Fighting Oligarchy event in Portland, Maine, on May 25, 2026.
Top Democrats faced questions over Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner’s scandals on Sunday, days after The New York Times shared details of abusive behavior alleged by past romantic partners.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), who has endorsed Platner, said he continues to support him even as he criticized Platner’s past behavior and said his campaign should not attack his accusers, while Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) declined to offer any support for Platner and said that Platner and Maine voters will need to address the scandal.
Khanna, who campaigned with Platner in Maine after last week’s Times scoop, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that Platner’s past actions were “misogynistic, they were shameful, they were wrong, but they didn’t come as a surprise to a lot of the folks in Maine,” arguing that the state’s voters knew the presumptive Democratic nominee went through a dark period after his time serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“He took accountability, he himself has said that it was shameful,” Khanna said, explaining that he continues to support Platner because of his policy platform. “The Maine voters that I met said they don’t like it. They knew that he had these chapters. They are willing to extend him grace and redemption, and they’re focused now on what he’s running for.”
He said that if there was “evidence of violence” or “evidence of sexual assault” he would not be supporting Platner.
One of Platner’s ex-girlfriends interviewed by theTimes detailed instances when Platner was physically aggressive, including forcing her into a room and preventing her from leaving. She said he had also grabbed her hard enough to leave marks.
“Even according to The New York Times piece, they said there was no harm, no injury. There was toxicity, and there was verbal intimidation, which I condemn,” Khanna told host Margaret Brennan. “But Graham has made it clear that there was no evidence of violence. That to me is a red line.”
He also defended Platner’s ex-partners, and said that Democrats should not be attacking them, praising them for coming forward, even as Platner’s campaign has disparaged one of the accusers as a Republican operative.
“They should not attack her. They should not attack The New York Times reporters who wrote the story,” Khanna said.
In an interview with ABC News’ “This Week,”, Warner declined to offer any support for Platner, and suggested he wants to stay far away from the issue.
“If the allegations are true, they are disturbing. End of the day, though, Maine voters are going to decide this,” Warner continued, adding that he’s focused on his own reelection campaign in Virginia.
Asked about whether Platner has handled the issue properly, Warner said that President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign appeared to rewrite the rules of what was acceptable in the political realm. He suggested that similar activity would likely have been considered more damaging in decades past.
“At the end of the day, American voters will make those decisions,” Warner said. “I don’t know Mr. Platner, I’ve never met him. I would just say this: the allegations [that] are made, I think you ought to have at least some attempt to prove … or disprove them, if that’s the case.”
He said that he wishes “all candidates in both parties maybe held themselves to a different standard,” before again reiterating that it’s up to Maine voters to judge whether Platner’s past is disqualifying.
Jeffries also declined to offer support for Platner in an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Briefing” show.
“Violence against women in any way, shape or form is unacceptable. It’s a red line, and nobody should cross that,” Jeffries said. “Any abuser who comes forward has to be treated with dignity and respect.”
He said, however, he isn’t involved in the Maine Senate race and that he hasn’t spoken about the race with Khanna.
Asked whether Platner’s candidacy, and Platner’s attacks on AIPAC and the pro-Israel community, are evidence that the Democratic Party has an antisemitism problem, Jeffries said that Platner is “going to have to speak for himself,” but that antisemitism shouldn’t be a partisan issue.
“We should all be committed to crushing antisemitism and all other forms of hatred into the ground,” Jeffries said.
Pressed subsequently about Adam Hamawy, the Democratic New Jersey Congressional nominee with a history of connections to convicted terrorists and terrorist organizations, Jeffries — who congratulated Hamawy on his victory last week — repeatedly sidestepped the issue.
“I haven’t spoken to him, he’s going to have to speak for himself and address these allegations,” Jeffries responded, when asked about Hamawy’s testimony in defense of Omar Abdel-Rahman, the terrorist mastermind known as the Blind Sheikh, before pivoting to attacking the administration over the war in Iran and high gas prices.
Pressed again, he criticized Republicans for their own hateful comments and the administration for the rising cost of living.
Plus, Platner’s prickly past persists
GETTY IMAGES
Digital generated image of yellow robotic arms constructing AI sign standing on white ramp.
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at how the latest allegations against Graham Platner may affect the Senate candidate’s campaign ahead of next week’s Maine Democratic primary, and talk to Jewish thought leaders about the use of AI in Jewish study and education. We report on the House’s rejection of a Lebanon war powers resolution put forward by Rep. Rashida Tlaib, and look at how President Donald Trump’s plans to ink a civilian nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia are being received on Capitol Hill. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Brig.-Gen. Guy Markizeno, Julie Menin and Rep. Dina Titus.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with assists from Danielle Cohen-Kanik and Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- We’re keeping an eye on the tenuous situation along the Israel-Lebanon border, after Hezbollah on Thursday rejected the ceasefire deal that had been reached between Israeli and Lebanese officials in Washington a day prior. Hezbollah head Naim Qassem on Thursday called the deal a “farce” and said that the Iran-backed terror group had “given no commitment to anyone” regarding a cessation of hostilities.
- Stateside, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) is set to participate in a rally today in Maine with embattled Senate candidate Graham Platner. The rally comes a day after an in-depth New York Times report on Platner’s past volatile romantic relationships, including with several women who detailed the Maine Democrat’s “unsettling” behaviors.
- Speaking to Fox News earlier Thursday, prior to the latest allegations, Khanna said, “Where I draw the line is if there are any credible allegations of abuse or assault or domestic violence.” In a statement after the Times report was published, Khanna called the “behavior described in the New York Times story … wrong and toxic,” but said, “The people of Maine deserve a senator who is going to stand up to the billionaire class, against genocide, and for the working class.”
- A California jury is expected to begin deliberations today in a case involving seven anti-Israel activists whose demonstration halted traffic on San Francisco’s Bay Bridge for hours in April 2024. If convicted, the activists face up to 15 years in prison.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR
TheNew York Times’ detailed exposé about Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner’s history of toxic, alcohol-laden and occasionally physically threatening relationships with three former girlfriends landed Thursday afternoon — with Platner’s campaign hoping to limit the fallout amid signs his campaign is losing support.
In an interview with MS NOW’s Chris Hayes Thursday evening, Platner denied the most serious allegations of physical abuse leveled by Lyndsey Fifield, who dated him from 2013-2015. Fifield recounted one incident where Platner “twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a bedroom and held the door closed from the other side so she couldn’t get out.”
She also said he knew about the Nazi origin of his Totenkopf tattoo — first reported by Jewish Insider in October — saying he taught her the word for it when they were dating.
“There are some allegations in this piece that I want to be unequivocal about — they’re not true. Anything alleging physicality, anything alleging I knew what my tattoo was, these are the statements of someone politically motivated,” Platner told Hayes.
The one-two punch of allegations this week of sexually explicit text messages to women while he was married now combined with reports of abuse in past relationships are merely the latest hits against the scandal-plagued candidate who, under normal political circumstances, would be a political nonstarter.
PROMISES AND PERILS
A group of rabbis, educators and thinkers in the Jewish world is deeply engaged in examining questions related to Judaism’s approach to artificial intelligence, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. Some of them are theological, almost halachic: Should rabbis be allowed to use AI to write sermons? Can an AI chatbot be considered a havruta, or study partner, in place of an actual human? Should AI even be used for serious Jewish study?
Keeping it human: David Zvi Kalman, a research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute who studies Judaism and technology, argued strongly against AI being used to write sermons. “I think people in religious communities would like to know that there’s at least one space in their lives when they are able to be free of machines, when they can actually just be humans interacting with other humans,” he said. The Orthodox Union faced criticism from within its ranks after releasing a new app in March that uses AI to help people study Torah.
PROVISION PROTECTED
The House Armed Services Committee blocked an amendment that sought to strip a relatively routine provision on U.S.-Israel cooperation out of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act by a bipartisan voice vote, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Pushing back: Leaders of the committee on both sides of the aisle spoke out against the amendment, led by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), saying that critics of the provision — who have claimed it would fuse the U.S. and Israeli militaries or subvert U.S. sovereignty — were misrepresenting the legislation. Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), the Armed Services Committee ranking member, said he is “very sympathetic” to Khanna’s “frustration … with Netanyahu’s leadership in Israel” but said that “the way this amendment was described is simply not accurate.”
SAUDI SIGHTS
As the Trump administration prepares to submit a proposed civil nuclear pact with Saudi Arabia to Congress, U.S. lawmakers are raising concerns about the potential agreement while nonproliferation experts and former Trump administration officials are sounding the alarm, warning that the pact abandons traditional safeguards and could ignite a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
Left out: Experts told JI that the agreement in its current form would not require Riyadh to adhere to the nonproliferation “gold standard” – a commitment to forgo domestic uranium enrichment and fuel reprocessing. Other regional partners, such as the United Arab Emirates, accepted this stringent safeguard in past U.S. deals specifically to prevent military or illicit nuclear activity. Democrats across the ideological spectrum have previously indicated concern over the potential civil nuclear pact, reflecting a historical trend in which Congress has typically supported a stringent nonproliferation policy toward Saudi Arabia that includes robust safeguards.
Read the full story here with comments from Reps. Brad Sherman (D-CA), Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), Tim Burchett (R-TN) and Sen. James Lankford (R-OK).
VOTED DOWN
The House rejected a war powers resolution by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) on Thursday that aimed to block U.S. support for Israeli operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon, after House Democratic leaders publicly came out against the effort, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. The resolution failed by a vote of 324-92, with most votes in favor of the resolution coming from progressive House Democrats, though several more moderate lawmakers also voted in favor. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) was the only Republican to support the effort.
Looking ahead: But the Democratic leaders said they would support a future effort by Tlaib along similar lines that will include carveouts for other U.S. operations inside Lebanon, indicating that Tlaib’s next effort is likely to pick up greater Democratic support. Democratic critics said that the current legislation, which directed the administration to “remove the United States Armed Forces from Lebanon” within seven days, would have also required the U.S. to remove military guards from its diplomatic facilities and U.S. servicemembers that train and advise the Lebanese Armed Forces.
SPENDING DISPUTE
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) on Thursday called out recent AIPAC and crypto-linked spending in the crowded Democratic House primary in Maryland to replace retiring Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), accusing “outside groups” backing state Del. Adrian Boafo of “trying to buy this congressional seat.” Speaking at a press conference he said, “I think voters need to be aware that these outside groups do not have the voters’ interests at heart,” Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Reaction: In a statement to JI, Patrick Dorton, a spokesperson for UDP, shot back at the senator, an outspoken critic of Israel who in March called AIPAC anti-American in an address to the progressive Israel advocacy group J Street. “Once again, Chris Van Hollen is deliberately misrepresenting our views and discriminating against millions of pro-Israel Democrats who are members of AIPAC,” Dorton said.
GOLDEN MEMORIES
Four friends gather around a table as a waiter serves a tray of pastrami sandwiches; a Torah scroll is passed from grandfather to father and son, marking a bar mitzvah; three grandmothers sit on lawn chairs outside of a brownstone, watching passersby on a summer night. These candid glimpses of ordinary American Jewish life, part of a new art exhibition, “Golden Age: Nostalgia for the American Jewish Century” — currently on display at the Altneu, an Upper East Side Orthodox synagogue — evoke a bygone era, before today’s historic rise in antisemitism,Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Reminiscing: “I grew up in the golden age [of North American Jewry], the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. It was an easy time,” Jacqueline Kott-Wolle, one of the seven artists whose work is highlighted in the exhibit, told JI on Wednesday at an event to mark the gallery’s opening. “My memories of growing up Jewish [in Toronto] were very positive. Everybody was Jewish — even the people at my high school who weren’t Jewish were Jewish. It was a good time to be alive. [Today,] antisemitism slammed into us so hard. It shocked us.”
Worthy Reads
Army Upgrade: In The Washington Post, former Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy calls for additional resources to help the military modernize to address current and future threats. “But with the past decade’s budget cuts, the Army has had to innovate as it adapts to today’s warfare. In its weapons development and training exercises, the service has embraced unmanned systems that can replace personnel at the tactical edge. Learning from the Ukraine war and its so-called kamikaze drones, the Army is working to deploy such loitering munitions and reconnaissance tools to even its smallest units. … Without the Army’s capacity for theater-wide logistics, long-range fires, and command and control for distributed forces, the U.S. military cannot sustain a major combat operation, let alone win one. ” [WashPost]
Covering Our Bases: In The Wall Street Journal, Reuel Marc Gerecht and Ray Takeyh argue in favor of maintaining U.S. military bases in the Middle East, positing that they act as a critical check on Iran’s power and influence in the region. “Whatever credibility Washington still has in the Middle East depends on its willingness to maintain bases in the Gulf and in Iraq — and that places U.S. forces in harm’s way. Given our failure so far to fight the Battle of Hormuz and our inability to defend our allies adequately, this lever has lost some of the deterrence that once scared the Islamic Republic’s rulers. But it’s all we have now in an otherwise deteriorating situation.” [WSJ]
Maine Drag: New York magazine’s David Freedlander looks at the debate around campaign strategist Morris Katz’s recent threat to Graham Platner’s former chief of staff regarding the release of damaging information about the Maine Democrat. “In the hothouse world of New York City Democratic political consultants, which Katz came out of, the reaction was mixed: There was fear, of course, about dreams of a Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate slipping away but also something that, if not quite glee, has a suitable German equivalent. ‘Schadenfreude,’ said one local operative describing the mood in her group chats. ‘Everyone is delighting in this and is guns blazing for Morris Katz.’” [NYMag]
Graham Cracking: The Atlantic’s Elizabeth Bruening reflects on Platner’s recent controversies as the embattled Maine Senate candidate argues he has changed and learned from past missteps. “The trouble with hiding damning information is that when it ultimately comes out, it demonstrates a willingness to readily lie, and invites reasonable suspicion that there may be yet more to the story. … Platner and his wife have characterized public concern about his past behavior and statements as mere gossip and trashy headlines, but there’s good reason to see in this mess both evidence of poor personal judgement and a harbinger of things to come.” [TheAtlantic]
Food Fight: In The New York Times, Rabbi Rachel Timoner explains why she resigned from the Park Slope Food Coop following the institution’s member vote to boycott Israeli products. “BDS weakens and undermines the fragile Israeli left, made up of people working for equality and justice for all in Israel and Palestine. And in addition to being ineffective and, in my opinion, counterproductive, the global BDS movement divides local communities like ours in Park Slope. … In the case of the Park Slope Food Co-op, a member was able to use the rules to block all discussion of the boycott proposal, so that no argument could be made during last week’s meeting — not one word could be spoken — against the boycott before the vote.” [NYTimes]
Word on the Street
President Donald Trump said that Bill Pulte, whom he named as acting director of national intelligence, will not be nominated as the administration’s “permanent” pick for the role, as some Senate Republicans, including Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), expressed concerns about Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency…
Former National Security Advisor John Bolton reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors and will plead guilty to one felony count of illegal retention of sensitive national security information; Bolton, who will avoid jail time, will also pay a fine of more than $2 million…
Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) accused U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack of “clientitis” over his advocacy for Ankara to be brought back into the F-35 program…
Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee proposed providing $315 million for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program in 2027, a slight increase from 2026 funding levels but far below the $1 billion that supporters of the program in the House and Jewish and other faith communities have called for, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…
City & State NY reports that far-left congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier, who is challenging Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) with the backing of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, participated in a Democratic Socialists of America-organized rally in the city the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks that was criticized by numerous officials and Jewish leaders for demonstrators’ apparent support for the attacks…
Founders Fund released the first episode of its “Mafia” card gameshow, which featured, among others, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Signal creator Moxie Marlinspike, Figma CEO Dylan Field, Anduril co-founder Trae Stephens and Oculus founder Palmer Luckey…
Universal Music Group stock dropped as much as 7.6% following Pershing Square’s sale of its $1.5 billion stake in the company, as the firm, led by Bill Ackman, unloaded its holdings following a failed takeover bid…
Yeah That’s Kosher spotlights Kosher Square Pizza, the Oakhurst, N.J., outpost of Brooklyn Square Pizza, which kosher restaurateur David Mizrahi opened in partnership with Brooklyn Square owner Peter Grippo…
The Jewish Federation of Greater Harrisburg (Pa.) listed the Alexander Grass Campus for Jewish Life less than two years after it moved into the complex, amid mounting financial challenges that have also resulted in the closure of its fitness and early learning centers in the last several months…
The Financial Times spotlights efforts by Iran and Russia to recruit European teenagers as proxies to assist and carry out attacks on targets on the continent…
CNN reports that Israel deployed units to Azerbaijan and Somaliland during the Iran war…
Haredi protesters on Wednesday demonstrated outside the home of Israeli Supreme Court Judge Noam Sohlberg, damaging property on the premises…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed Brig.-Gen. Guy Markizeno as his military secretary, following Roman Gofman’s promotion to head the Mossad…
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced plans to open its first embassy in Slovenia following the formation of a new center-right government in the country under new Prime Minister Janez Janša…
The IDF said that the head of Hezbollah’s engineering unit was killed in a strike last week…
Petroleum Development Oman said Mina Al Fahal port was operating as usual, following reports that oil loading had been suspended after an explosion near its mooring berths…
Anne Neuberger, who served as deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology in the Biden administration, is joining Andreessen Horowitz as a general partner and head of global affairs…
Asaf Elia-Shalev was named editor-in-chief of J. The Jewish News of Northern California, after five years as an investigative reporter at the Jewish Telegraphic Agency…
Virologist Bernard Roizman, whose work focused on the herpes virus, died at 96…
Wine of the Week
JI’s wine columnist Yitz Applbaum reviews the Aegerter Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru 2020:
Drinking great kosher French wine has always been a passion. Drinking great kosher Burgundy has always been a dream. Benjamin Uzan, who has all but built the market for fine kosher French wine, has finally brought us a Burgundy masterpiece. He poured it for me in Paris yesterday, and I am hooked.
The Aegerter Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru 2020 is elegant and subtle, beautifully composed, with flavors that arrive in layers. It opens on mint, settles into rose petals at the mid-palate and finishes on ripe plum with a touch of sweetness. The perfume has stayed with me, and I have no wish to forget it. Drink it on its own. It will keep for at least 15 years.
Pic of the Day
New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin on Thursday addressed Holocaust survivors at a “Coffee House” social event organized by Selfhelp and UJA-Federation of New York at the federation’s Manhattan headquarters.
Birthdays
Owner of the NFL’s New England Patriots, Robert Kraft turns 85 on Friday…
FRIDAY: Lithuanian-born Holocaust survivor, co-founder of the Virginia Holocaust Museum in Richmond, Va., known for his ever-present cowboy hat, Jay M. Ipson turns 91… Sales associate of the Santa Monica, Calif., Berkshire Hathaway Home Services branch, Saul Bubis… The first woman to serve as international president of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, Judy Yudof turns 81… Senior project manager in tech product development, Dan Yurman… Israeli politician, diplomat and businessperson, he served as consul general of Israel in Philadelphia from 1988 to 1992, Israel Peleg turns 77… VP of new business development at Maresco & Partners, Linda Greenfield… Author of several personal finance books, financial advisor, motivational speaker and television host, Susan Lynn “Suze” Orman turns 75… Staff member at Burbank Temple Emanu El, Audrey Freedman-Habush… Portrait photographer and visual anthropologist, she is the author of The Jews of Wyoming: Fringe of the Diaspora, Penny Diane Wolin turns 73… Former commissioner on the U.S. International Trade Commission, now a consultant, Dean A. Pinkert turns 70… Best-selling instrumental musician, the saxophonist “Kenny G,” Kenneth Bruce Gorelick turns 70… Columnist for the New York Post, Andrea Peyser turns 67… Senior associate general counsel at Compass real estate, Sam Kraemer… EVP and managing director at D.C.’s Burson, Michael Heimowitz… Member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament for eight years until 2022, Gila Deborah Martow turns 65… President of Weprin Public Affairs, Mark S. Weprin turns 65… First-ever Jewish speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, she served from 2020 until 2022, Eileen R. Filler-Corn turns 62… Manager of the Jeff Astor Legacy Fund, Beth Astor Freeman… Member of Congress (D-PA), her father is a Jewish Holocaust survivor from Poland, Christina Jampoler Houlahan turns 59… Member of the British House of Commons for 15 years, now a member of the House of Lords, Baron Ed Vaizey turns 58… Entrepreneur, venture capitalist and author, he holds approximately 100 granted and pending patents, Nova Spivack turns 57… Professor of Israel studies at UCLA, Dov Morris Waxman turns 52… Film and television actor, Liza Rebecca Weil turns 49… Actor, voice actor, comedian, writer and producer, Nicholas Kroll turns 48… Co-founder of BlueLabs and director of analytics for the campaigns of both Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Barack Obama in 2012, his father and grandfather were both rabbis, Elan Alter Kriegel… Senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, he was previously a member of the New Hampshire state legislature, Jason Bedrick turns 43… Humorist, novelist and screenwriter, Simon Rich turns 42… Partner relationship manager at Voyant, Arielle Levy Marschark… VP on the corporate PR team at M Booth, Maya Bronstein… Clara Moskowitz… Susan Stein… State and federal political fundraiser in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, Ashley Barth…
SATURDAY: One-half of the husband-and-wife screenwriting and television production team, Esther June Shapiro turns 98… Senior judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Frederic Block turns 92… Real estate entrepreneur, member of the Pritzker family and former executive chairman of the Hyatt Hotels Corporation, Thomas Pritzker turns 76… U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) turns 74… Diplomat who has served as Israel’s ambassador to South Sudan and then Egypt, Haim Koren turns 73… Five-time Tony Award winner, he is an actor, playwright and screenwriter, Harvey Fierstein turns 72… Comedian, political critic, musician and author, Sandra Bernhard turns 71… Radio news personality known as “Lisa G,” Lisa Glasberg turns 70… Former chair of the board of Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools and president at Micah Philanthropies, Ann Baidack Pava… CEO of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks and the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Steve Koonin turns 69… Israeli conductor and musician, Nir Brand turns 65… Former majority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives and now vice chairman of investment bank Moelis & Company, Eric Cantor turns 63… Partner in the strategic communications division of FGS Global, Jonathan Kopp turns 60… Israeli American behavioral economics professor at UCSD, Uri Hezkia Gneezy turns 59… Best-selling author, journalist and television personality, she has focused on addiction and recovery as well as relationships, Anna Benjamin David turns 56… Chairman of Israeli fintech entrio (formerly The Floor), he is the only child of Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, Elisha Wiesel turns 54… Hedge fund manager and founder of Saba Capital Management, he is also a skilled chess player, Boaz Weinstein turns 53… Producer of 11 network television programs, Jennie Snyder Urman turns 51… 2019 Trump impeachment witness, now Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate seat in Florida, Lt. Col. (ret.) Alexander Semyon Vindman… and his twin brother, Lt. Col. (ret.) Yevgeny Vindman, a member of Congress from Virginia’s 7th District, both turn 51… Pundit, political activist and lobbyist, founder and chairman of The Washington Free Beacon, Michael L. Goldfarb turns 46… Washington managing editor at ABC News, Katherine B. Faulders… Director at FGS Global, Anna Epstein… White House staffer during the Biden administration, Jordan G. Finkelstein… Communications manager at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, Allie Freedman…
SUNDAY: Chicago- and Aspen-based businessman, he owns large stakes in Hilton Hotels, the New York Yankees and the Chicago Bulls, Lester Crown turns 101… Rehoboth Beach, Del., resident, Dennis B. Berlin… Former five-term Democratic congressman from California, he now serves as counsel in the Century City office of Gibson Dunn, Mel Levine turns 83… Professor of linguistics at Georgetown University, and author of 13 books, Deborah Tannen turns 81… Epidemiologist, toxicologist and author of three books about environmental hazards, Devra Davis turns 80… Deputy secretary of state of the U.S. during the first half of the Biden administration, Wendy Ruth Sherman turns 77… Retired senior advisor at the State Department’s Office of the Inspector General, Hillel Weinberg… President of Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art in Israel, he is a grandson of former Israeli PM Levi Eshkol, Sheizaf Rafaeli turns 71… Member of the U.S. House of Representatives (D-PA) until 2025, Susan Ellis Wild turns 69… Former vice president of the United States, Mike Pence turns 67… Jerusalem resident, Deborah Lee Renert… Founder chairman and CEO of the Naftali Group, Miki Naftali turns 64… U.S. district judge for the Southern District of New York, Jesse Matthew Furman turns 54… U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) turns 54… Brooklyn rapper better known by his stage name Necro, Ron Raphael Braunstein turns 50… One-half of the Arab-Jewish electronic music duo Chromeo, David “Dave 1” Macklovitch turns 48… Israeli actor, singer and pianist, she performs in Hebrew, Russian, French and English, Ania Bukstein turns 44… Senior director of strategic initiatives at the Nathan Cummings Foundation, he was an early J Street activist, born Isaac Goldstein, Isaac Luria… Editor of The New York Review of Books, Emily S. Greenhouse… Actor and model, Emily Ratajkowski turns 35… Chinese-Canadian ice hockey forward, he played for China in the 2022 Winter Olympics, now a free agent, Ethan Werek turns 35… Andrea Gonzales…
The strongest evidence that the controversies are taking their toll on Platner came from his own campaign, which released an internal poll Wednesday showing the Democrat leading Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) by only four points
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner speaks at a “Fighting Oligarchy” tour stop held by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) at the Collins Center for the Arts on the University of Maine campus on May 24, 2026 in Orono, Maine.
The New York Times’ detailed exposé about Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner’s history of toxic, alcohol-laden and occasionally physically threatening relationships with three former girlfriends landed Thursday afternoon — with Platner’s campaign hoping to limit the fallout amid signs his campaign is losing support.
In an interview with MS NOW’s Chris Hayes Thursday evening, Platner denied the most serious allegations of physical abuse leveled by Lyndsey Fifield, who dated him from 2013-2015. Fifield recounted one incident where Platner “twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a bedroom and held the door closed from the other side so she couldn’t get out.”
She also said he knew about the Nazi origin of his Totenkopf tattoo — first reported by Jewish Insider in October — saying he taught her the word for it when they were dating.
“There are some allegations in this piece that I want to be unequivocal about — they’re not true. Anything alleging physicality, anything alleging I knew what my tattoo was, these are the statements of someone politically motivated,” Platner told Hayes.
The one-two punch of allegations this week of sexually explicit text messages to women while he was married now combined with reports of abuse in past relationships are merely the latest hits against the scandal-plagued candidate who, under normal political circumstances, would be a political nonstarter.
But given that so many other damaging reports barely dented his political standing — whether it was his Totenkopf tattoo, admiration of Hamas terrorist tactics, social media posts cheering the killing of American military heroes, along with dozens of misogynistic and bigoted comments online — it’s anyone’s guess whether the latest news will crater his campaign.
These latest allegations appear to be having more of an impact on Platner’s political standing in part because they contradict the narrative his campaign has presented that he’s become a changed man in the years since he wrote many of his extremist social media posts. In addition, reports of abuse and misconduct have lately been career-enders for many prominent politicians, most recently for former Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and Tony Gonzales (R-TX).
The strongest evidence that the controversies are taking their toll on Platner came from his own campaign, which released an internal poll Wednesday showing the Democrat leading Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) by only four points — one of the smallest leads he’s had in the general election since he entered the race. The poll was conducted before the latest NYT story hit.
A newly-released poll conducted between June 1-4 by Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio (first reported by Politico this morning), shows Collins now tied with Platner at 46% apiece, with Platner’s unfavorables skyrocketing. The poll was in the field after the sexting story broke but before the latest allegations of physical abuse.
It won’t take long to get some more empirical evidence about how much Platner’s standing has slipped with Democratic voters.
Next Tuesday’s Maine primary, which looked like an afterthought since Gov. Janet Mills left the race, is suddenly looking a lot more consequential. Mills is still on the ballot despite suspending her campaign, and would be a logical vote for any Democrat uncomfortable with anointing Platner as their Senate standard-bearer.
If Platner underperforms in the primary — winning at least 65% of the Democratic vote is something of a necessity for him — it would suggest that he’s entering the general election wounded, with his candidacy potentially costing the Democrats’ a must-win Senate seat.
The whole episode is a reminder that the laws of political gravity still apply, and that 2026 could shape up as a year for Democrats akin to the GOP’s Tea Party year of 2010 — when deeply flawed candidates in swing states and districts cost the party winnable races despite running in an overall favorable environment.
Platner and Abdul el-Sayed’s Senate candidacy in Michigan are the most high-profile far-left candidates to fit the bill, but other lower-profile House candidates like Colorado state Rep. Manny Rutinel and California educator Randy Villegas could also potentially cost Democrats valuable swing seats — in a year in which every contest could determine which party holds the majority.
Most aren’t calling for him to leave the race, or throwing their support behind Gov. Janet Mills, who still remains on the primary ballot even after suspending her campaign
Sophie Park/Getty Images
Senate candidate from Maine Graham Platner speaks at a town hall at the Leavitt Theater on October 22, 2025 in Ogunquit, Maine.
Senate Democrats sounded wary of Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner after the latest revelations that he had engaged in sexual conversations with numerous women while married, but most aren’t calling for him to leave the race, or throwing their support behind Gov. Janet Mills, who still remains on the primary ballot even after suspending her campaign.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who recruited Mills to run for the seat to challenge Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) but got behind Platner after Mills dropped out, met with Platner in Washington on Tuesday and repeatedly offered a terse response when asked about Platner at a press conference, offering neither effusive support for nor criticism of the presumptive Democratic nominee.
“I met with Graham Platner today. We’re going to beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate,” Schumer said.
Asked whether he was standing behind Platner or whether Mills should restart her campaign, Schumer again said, “We’re going to beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate.” He repeated the same answer two additional times in response to subsequent questions.
Asked whether he’s still endorsing Platner, Schumer offered nearly the same line once again, while noting that he had “endorsed” Platner.
Other Senate Democrats are keeping Platner at arm’s length.
“He has to answer those questions, directly and forthrightly. They’re fair questions and that’s going to be on him to answer that and it’s going to be up to the voters of Maine to decide,” Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) said on Monday.
Welch said that Platner’s electability is “going to depend on how he handles it.”
Welch joined several other Senate Democrats who met with Platner at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee offices on Tuesday afternoon. The meeting ran for more than an hour and a half, but Platner avoided reporters while entering and exiting the building, dashing from a side exit to an awaiting car on his way out, pursued by a throng of press.
“I oppose inappropriate sexual behavior no matter who does it, but it’s up to the voters of Maine to decide,” Sen. Jeanne Shaneen (D-NH) said.
Asked if she thinks Platner can still win, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) told JI, “I’ll work with whoever wins.”
Sens. Andy Kim (D-NJ) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) both said they’d been focused on other matters — the ongoing demonstrations outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in New Jersey and a trip to Ukraine, respectively — and hadn’t been keeping up with the latest on Platner.
Sen. Angus King (I-ME) declined to comment, saying he never gets involved in campaigns involving any sitting colleagues, regardless of party.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), who said months ago he planned to stay out of the race but has been directly attacked by Platner several times, offered the harshest criticism of the candidate, and suggested he would be eager for a direct confrontation with him.
“I’d be happy to [meet him.] I’d love to. He’s a tough guy. When I was growing up, if someone had a Nazi tattoo, you could pretty much assume he’s a Nazi sympathizer,” Fetterman said, and referred to several of the scandals plaguing Platner’s campaign. “If you describe an American soldier, a Purple Heart recipient, as a dumb motherf***** that doesn’t deserve to live — who describes the U.S. Army as absolutely trash? Who joins a disgusting platform like Kik and puts a [topless] picture — what are you looking for? He’s expressed frustration [with] how I dress, and this a****** is on Kik and sexting to a dozen women and dressing like this.”
He told JI that his Democratic colleagues could be endangering the party’s chances of taking the seat by sticking by Platner, but said it’s ultimately their decision and that of Maine voters.
“The last time a lot of [Democrats] defended someone who was sexting and saying inappropriate things to women, that was Swalwell,” Fetterman said, referring to former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) who resigned amid a flurry of sexual harassment and assault allegations. “If they want to carry water for that, they’re entitled to that. I don’t live in Maine, I’m not a voter. Whoever Maine decides for that.”
Platner’s strongest supporters are standing firmly behind him.
Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) told JI that he is still confident that Platner can win the seat.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), asked about the latest scandals, offered a similar response multiple times during the day on Tuesday, deflecting by discussing Republican megadonors’ spending plans in the state.
“There are some concerns that some of the wealthiest people in this country [backing] Republican super PACs are planning to spend $100 million in the state of Maine,” Sanders said. “Why do you think that Republicans super PACs controlled by billionaires want to spend a troubling amount of money to defeat Graham Platner?”
A group of people — at least one of them a spokesperson for the National Republican Senatorial Committee — gathered outside of the DSCC headquarters during Platner’s meeting chanting through a bullhorn and holding signs referencing Platner’s various scandals and, without evidence, accusing him of pedophilia.
A handful of them, including the NRSC staffer, were shirtless wearing towels wrapped around their waists, mimicking Platner’s profile photo on the messaging app Kik, where he communicated with other women.
Following the meeting with Democratic senators, Platner canceled a planned appearance with the campaign group VoteVets and left Washington, D.C. early because reporters had visited his in-laws’ home and his family’s restaurant, according to NOTUS.
Renewed scrutiny of congressional hopefuls Graham Platner and Adam Hamawy highlight the potential for far-left candidates to complicate the party’s midterm ambitions
Sophie Park/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Graham Platner, Democratic Senate candidate for Maine, left, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) during a Fighting Oligarchy event in Portland, Maine, on May 25, 2026.
The latest revelations that Graham Platner, the Democrats’ anti-establishment, far-left standard-bearer in the Maine Senate race, was sending sexually explicit texts to as many as a dozen women while he was married — an issue his wife raised to campaign staff as a potential liability — is another sign that the candidate’s extensive baggage may be too much for the party to handle. (As commentator Haviv Rettig Gur posted on X: “I’m starting to think that SS tattoo might have been a red flag.”)
Meanwhile, a New York Times interview, published over the weekend, with leading New Jersey Democratic congressional candidate Adam Hamawy about his past affiliations with Islamist extremists is going to raise more red flags for Democrats.
Asked about his travels with Omar Abdel Rahman, known as the “Blind Sheikh,” who was connected to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Hamawy downplayed the spiritual leader’s jihadist sermons. “He wasn’t preaching death and destruction all the time,” Hamawy said. “He had certain views that he spoke in certain forums, but that’s not what he did every single day.”
With the calendar now approaching June, it’s yet another reminder that Democrats are on the verge of nominating some truly radical and damaged candidates for congressional office as a critical mass of primaries take place this month.
Many of the races are taking place in safely blue seats, so Democrats haven’t raised that much concern over candidates such as Hamawy, whose terror ties (including volunteer work for what was later revealed as an al-Qaida front group) at the very least, raise questions about suitability for public office.
But others, such as Platner, are running in battleground Senate seats where the stakes couldn’t be higher. In California and Montana, candidates are running in swing districts where the battle for the House majority will be fought.
If May was the month that tested President Donald Trump’s power over the Republican Party (lesson: he’s still firmly in control of GOP voters), June will be the month that determines whether the Democratic Party is going to abandon its moderate moorings and nominate a roster of radicals.
The stakes couldn’t be higher — especially for Jewish Democrats, who have been among the leading voices alarmed by the rise of these candidates, who, not surprisingly, often hold virulently anti-Israel views and don’t have a problem mainlining antisemitic rhetoric.
While Platner’s expected nomination and Hamawy’s potential one are generating the most attention, several under-the-radar races will have a direct bearing on the Democrats’ midterm prospects.
In California’s congressional races, the pro-Israel advocacy group Democratic Majority for Israel has been involved in two swing-district races where the group fears left-wing candidates could jeopardize the party’s chances of a pickup. In the seat held by Rep. David Valadao (R-CA), the group endorsed Assemblywoman Jasmeet Bains and has been airing ads on her behalf in the Central Valley-based district.
Bains is facing a Democratic challenge from school board trustee Randy Villegas, who has landed endorsements from many of the leading anti-Israel lawmakers in Congress and who many Democrats fear could cost the Democrats a seat if he’s the nominee against the battle-tested Valadao.
In the race to succeed retiring Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) in a San Diego-area district, the pro-Israel group has endorsed San Diego Councilwoman Marni von Wilpert, who is running against Ammar Campa-Najjar, who is of mixed Palestinian and Mexican American descent and has twice unsuccessfully run for Congress. The district was redrawn to elect a Democrat, but it still remains a competitive battleground.
In Iowa, Democrats will be choosing whether to nominate the party-favored state Rep. Josh Turek, the more moderate candidate, or go with a true-blue progressive in state Sen. Zach Wahls. The nominee is expected to face Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA) in a state that Democrats hope will become competitive, given the rough national environment for Republicans.
And in Montana’s 1st District, in the race to succeed retiring Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), Jewish leaders are alarmed by several candidates in the Democratic primary field over their anti-Israel rhetoric and online antisemitic activity. Army veteran Matt Rains appears to be the most mainstream Democratic candidate of the four in the race, but lags behind in fundraising.
The district has been solidly Republican since its creation, but in a Democratic wave, it’s competitive enough that it could flip. Given the extreme rhetoric of some of the Democratic candidates, however, that prospect would be less likely.
Also of note: Los Angeles voters will be determining which two candidates will square off in a runoff for mayor. Assuming embattled Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass finishes in the top two, her opponent will either be running further to her left (Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nithya Raman) or to her right (reality star Spencer Pratt). The matchup will determine whether the campaign focuses more on catering to progressive voters or moderates disenchanted with the direction of the city.
‘I find that tattoo and his commentary about it to be personally disqualifying,’ Auchincloss told CNN
Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) participates in the House Transportation Committee hearing on Thursday, June 27, 2024.
Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) said on Monday that Maine Democrat Graham Platner’s tattoo of a Nazi Totenkopf was “disqualifying,” weeks after Gov. Janet Mills’ departed from the Democratic primary race, leaving Platner as the party’s presumptive nominee challenging Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME).
“I find that tattoo and his commentary about it to be personally disqualifying,” Auchincloss told CNN. “I hope Maine voters agree with me. I think it would be a mistake for the Democratic Party to think that Graham Platner’s brand of the Democratic Party is what wins us durable majorities throughout this country.”
Jewish Insider reported last year that Platner had on at least one occasion identified the tattoo on his chest as a Nazi SS symbol, known as a “Totenkopf,” to a former acquaintance and had been fully aware of the tattoo and its meaning well before entering the race to replace Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), even bragging about having it.
Platner has since covered up the tattoo and dismissed wrongdoing, claiming he had no idea the tattoo symbol was a Nazi insignia when he got it with fellow Marines while in Croatia in 2007.
Far-left Democrat Saikat Chakrabarti, a cofounder of Justice Democrats who is mounting a bid for the seat being vacated by Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), rebuked Auchincloss, writing on X, “Auchincloss is essentially endorsing Susan Collins in Maine. Absolutely no excuse for a Democrat in the House to back a Republican for Senate in a crucial swing seat. Auchincloss should be primaried. His primary election is September 1 in a safe, D+11 seat.”
Last year, Auchincloss became the first elected Democrat to call on Platner to drop out of the Senate race in Maine after news of his tattoo emerged.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has campaigned with Platner, dismissing criticism of him and describing him as “my kind of man.” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) has also defended Platner, saying “people should have second chances.”
There hasn’t been much incentive for party groups to set red lines against radicals looking to disrupt the party in lower-profile races
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Members of the Democratic Socialists of America May 01, 2019 in New York City.
As the Democratic Party lurches left in the run-up to the midterms — and amid the rise of high-profile, far-left Senate candidates such as Graham Platner in Maine and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan — candidates affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) have gradually been making inroads and positioning themselves to win nominations in several key House races.
This has happened without much protest or opposition from Democratic Party leadership. And given that the urban districts where the DSA-endorsed candidates have the most support are so heavily Democratic, there hasn’t been much incentive for party groups to set red lines against radicals looking to disrupt the party in these lower-profile races.
One of the most insidious aspects of the advocacy of many DSA chapters is the demand that its endorsees cut ties with any Jewish group that recognizes the State of Israel. Some chapters celebrated or justified Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attacks against Israel.
“They are trying to do in America what [the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement] seems to do internationally, which is to make being Jewish unacceptable in polite society,” Ron Halber, the CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, recently said on a webinar of D.C-area Jewish leaders.
But despite the group’s radical views, DSA-endorsed candidates have a real shot at prevailing in several upcoming Democratic primaries in major cities.
Pennsylvania state Rep. Chris Rabb, one of several Democrats looking to succeed retiring Rep. Dwight Evans (D-PA) in his Philadelphia district, has the notoriety of recirculating an Instagram post blaming the Bondi Beach terrorist attack that killed 14 Jewish Australians on “Zionists,” insinuating the terror attack was a false flag. (His campaign later blamed a former staffer for reposting the item.)
Rabb, who has been endorsed by many of the leading anti-Israel progressives in Congress, also recently campaigned with antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker. His far-left views and virulent criticism of Israel has alarmed Gov. Josh Shapiro, according to Axios, and the popular Pennsylvania governor has worked behind the scenes to oppose his campaign.
Democratic sources familiar with the primary, however, suggest that any behind-the-scenes efforts aren’t having much effect in derailing the DSA candidate’s campaign. Rabb’s two leading opponents — surgeon Ala Stanford and state Sen. Sharif Street — are both mainstream Democrats and may potentially split the more-moderate vote. The primary is on Tuesday.
Next month, a similar clash between the Democratic mainstream and socialist wing of the party is taking place in New York City, where state Assemblymember Claire Valdez, who is backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York’s DSA chapter, is squaring off against Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, the progressive establishment’s favorite.
The race, in one of the most left-wing districts in the city, which covers part of Brooklyn and Queens, will mark a major test of Mamdani’s political capital — and whether the DSA brand is more compelling to progressives than the endorsement of Reynoso by retiring liberal stalwart Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY).
Reynoso, in an interview with The New York Editorial Board, proclaimed himself the underdog in the race despite boasting endorsements from organized labor, the outgoing congresswoman, state Attorney General Letitia James and the left-wing Working Families Party line. “Zohran Mamdani is a celebrity-status, inspiring figure at the levels of AOC and Bernie Sanders. He is a movement and is deeply important,” Reynoso said.
Meanwhile, in Denver, another DSA hotbed, Rep. Diane DeGette (D-CO) faces a primary threat from DSA-backed challenger Melat Kiros, a 28-year-old attorney. Kiros has made criticism of Israel a centerpiece of her campaign, accusing Israel of genocide, and she supports an arms embargo against the Jewish state. Kiros dominated DeGette at a districtwide party convention filled with activists in March, and the congresswoman has been airing ads touting her progressive record, in anticipation of a competitive June primary.
And in St. Louis, the local DSA chapter is again backing former Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), who was one of the most extreme anti-Israel lawmakers when serving in Congress, in her attempt at a comeback against Rep. Wesley Bell (D-MO).
(The other major contest featuring a DSA-endorsed contender is next month’s D.C. mayoral primary, where Jewish groups have been alarmed by Janeese Lewis George’s rhetoric around Israel and antisemitism.)
All told, there could be at least four Democratic Socialists of America-endorsed lawmakers in the next Congress, with limited party efforts to marginalize the extremists from within. It underscores how fast the Democratic Party is evolving, and how quickly the guardrails that kept the party centered — and largely free of antisemitism — are falling out of place.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, on the Maine Senate candidate: ‘If he's the Democratic nominee, I'm going to help him if he wants my help, absolutely’
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel speaks on Capitol Hill on July 23, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, a likely Democratic presidential candidate, on Friday signaled his backing for Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, who has drawn scrutiny over his far-left views and decades-old Nazi tattoo that he recently covered up.
“I would hope at this point in the process he understands what a Nazi symbol is,” Emanuel said. “He’s going to have to make his way. And the Democrats — he’ll be the nominee — should support his candidacy,” Emanuel told CNN’s Kasie Hunt.
Asked by Hunt if he was personally backing Platner, Emanuel said, “If he’s the Democratic nominee, I’m going to help him if he wants my help, absolutely.”
“You have to put an end to Donald Trump,” Emanuel added.
Emanuel, who served as mayor of Chicago from 2011-2019, later quipped about a meeting with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a vocal critic of Israel, after Mamdani’s election as mayor. “I told him when I first met him, I said, ‘I don’t know who’s going to hate this meeting more, my rabbi or AOC,’ but we had an honest meeting … an honest discussion about what to face as mayor,” he said.
Platner is now the expected Democratic nominee against Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) after the Democratic establishment’s favored candidate, Maine Gov. Janet Mills, dropped out of the race on Thursday. Mills, despite holding a strong political track record, consistently trailed Platner in primary polling since launching her campaign.
Over the weekend, Platner’s campaign also drew support from another unexpected voice: far-right podcaster Tucker Carlson.
In a lengthy interview with The New York Times, Carlson said he “appreciated” Platner’s foreign policy views, and plans to meet with the candidate. “I appreciate how different [his foreign policy views] are from everybody else in his party,” Carlson said.
‘We won’t support a Democrat who doesn’t represent the views and values of the vast majority of American Jews,’ Halie Soifer said
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
Jewish Democratic Council of America CEO Halie Soifer in Washington on May 24, 2023.
The Jewish Democratic Council of America is not ready to endorse Graham Platner, the controversial presumptive Democratic nominee in Maine’s Senate race, said Halie Soifer, the group’s CEO.
“We won’t support a Democrat who doesn’t represent the views and values of the vast majority of American Jews,” Soifer said in a statement. “JDCA has endorsed more than 120 candidates across the country who are fighting for the issues Jewish Americans care about and standing against antisemitism. It’s those many Democrats who have our backs, and we’ll have theirs as they work to defeat Republicans aligned with this White House whose views are antithetical to our values.”
Soifer additionally told The Forward on Thursday that Platner’s record of incendiary past comments and personal controversies are “reasons for concern” about his candidacy, saying that the far-left insurgent would first need to clarify his views to receive possible consideration from the group.
Reached by Jewish Insider on Thursday, Soifer confirmed JDCA’s position on the race but declined to comment further.
JDCA, a leading Jewish Democratic group, typically endorses most Democrats in major federal races, especially closely contested ones like the Senate seat in Maine.
The group had backed Maine Gov. Janet Mills in the June primary to unseat Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME). But Mills, the establishment favorite, said Thursday that she was suspending her campaign due to a lack of financial resources, clearing the way for Platner to secure the nomination in a race viewed by Democratic leaders as key to regaining control of the upper chamber.
Previously, JDCA had expressed criticism of Platner after it was revealed that he had a Nazi tattoo on his chest for nearly two decades. He has since removed the tattoo and claimed he was unaware of its links to Nazism until recently, even as a former acquaintance told JI that he had long known the icon represented a skull-and-crossbones known as a Totenkopf, adopted by an infamous SS unit.
“Hateful rhetoric and Nazi symbols must have no place in the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, or anywhere in our politics,” JDCA said last year after JI’s report. “Under any and all circumstances, it must be unacceptable to glorify Nazis or Nazism. Period.”
Platner’s hostile approach to Israel and demonization of AIPAC have also faced scrutiny among mainstream Jewish leaders at the state and national levels.
He has repeatedly accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza and called for blocking U.S. aid to the Jewish state. In a past Reddit post recently uncovered by JI, the Marine veteran voiced admiration for Hamas’ tactics in a violent raid into Israel in 2014.
JDCA’s reservations over Platner’s campaign reflect ongoing discomfort among both Democratic and nonpartisan Jewish organizations that are now reckoning with the implications of his popularity in spite of the tattoo and other issues he has weathered.
The Anti-Defamation League as well as Maine’s Jewish federation have also raised concerns about Platner’s tattoo and past comments.
Platner, for his part, has pledged to engage further with the Jewish community, recently hosting a Seder in Maine that included the state chair of J Street, the progressive Israel advocacy group.
A spokesperson for J Street did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday night about whether it would endorse Platner’s campaign.
Democratic leadership, who had backed the Maine governor in the primary, voiced tepid support for Platner moving forward
Robert F. Bukaty/AP/Graham Platner campaign
Gov. Janet Mills and Graham Platner
Maine Gov. Janet Mills said on Thursday that she was suspending her primary campaign to challenge Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), clearing the path for her Democratic primary rival, Graham Platner, to secure the party’s nomination.
“While I have the drive and passion, commitment and experience, and above all else — the fight — to continue on, I very simply do not have the one thing that political campaigns unfortunately require today: the financial resources,” she said in a statement.
Her sudden exit, with just over a month until the June primary, marks a stunning development in the closely watched race that Democratic leadership has regarded as one of its best pick-up opportunities this cycle as the party seeks to reclaim the majority in the upper chamber.
Mills, a moderate two-term governor who had been favored by the Democratic establishment, struggled to gain traction in the race against Platner, a far-left political newcomer who had continued to maintain a commanding polling and fundraising lead, even as he has faced ongoing scrutiny for his extensive record of incendiary statements and personal controversies.
Since he entered the primary last year, Platner, a 41-year-old oyster farmer and former Marine, has weathered criticism over a now-covered Nazi tattoo whose imagery he claims not to have recognized until recently as well as a series of past online comments in which he praised Hamas’ tactics during a violent raid into Israel in 2014, among other posts that have been surfaced amid his campaign.
He has otherwise drawn blowback for boosting extremists — telling a podcast host who has spread antisemitic conspiracy theories, for instance, that he was a “longtime fan” of his show.
In a statement, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chair, called Mills “a formidable governor who has broken barriers and never hesitates to stand up to bullies to fight for Maine,” adding that they “will work with the presumptive Democratic nominee Graham Platner to defeat” Collins, viewed as among the most vulnerable Senate Republicans up for reelection.
The statement, hardly a ringing endorsement of the now-presumptive nominee in a crucial battleground state, underscored the uncomfortable nature of their relationship with Platner, who has been a vocal critic of the Democratic establishment and its support for Israel.
Platner, casting himself as a populist, had won an early endorsement from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) that helped him rise to prominence at the beginning of his campaign, and has continued to claim backing from a handful of other national progressive leaders such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA).
Nirav Shah, a Democrat running for governor of Maine, also announced he was endorsing Platner on Thursday after Mills had bowed out of the primary.
Mills, whose comments did not mention Platner, has not indicated if she will back her now-former rival.
In a statement, Platner voiced gratitude for Mills’ “service to Maine” and said he looked “forward to working with her between now and November” to defeat Collins.
Republicans, for their part, have seemed particularly eager to go up against Platner, whose vulnerabilities the Senate GOP campaign arm had been aggressively highlighting even before Mills ended her campaign.
“Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats just coronated a phony who is too extreme for Maine,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), the National Republican Senatorial Committee chair, said in a statement on Thursday. “Susan Collins has always put in the work for her constituents and delivered. Washington Democrats always fall short in Maine and will again, because they just nominated a dishonest radical.”
Collins, in comments to a CNN reporter on Thursday, praised Mills but would not weigh in on Platner as she prepares for what is now expected to be a bitterly contested general election.
Warren lauded Platner’s economic populist message rather than address his extremist rhetoric
Brian Stukes/Getty Images for Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) speaks during the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator (VPA) Luncheon at Eaton DC on April 22, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) dismissed criticism of Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner’s scandals on Wednesday, after calling him “my kind of man” at his rally in Maine on Saturday.
“You care about character,” CNBC host Sara Eisen said to Warren. “This is a guy that had a chest tattoo with a Nazi symbol — OK, he apologized for it. It’s a guy that reportedly wrote that people concerned about rape should take some responsibility for themselves and not get so effed up that they wind up having sex with someone they don’t mean to. He praised military tactics used by Hamas, reportedly, in comments online when they were murdering Israeli soldiers. So I’m just curious why you think he’s ‘your kind of man’?”
Warren responded, “So, as you rightly point out, he has apologized. He’s out meeting with the people of Maine every single day so they can evaluate not who Graham Platner was but who Graham Platner is today.” She went on to say her comment was in reference to her experience reading an interview of Platner’s where he condemned the lack of consequences for bankers during the 2008 financial crisis.
Eisen said, “OK, well, ‘I dig it,’ next to a video of a bunch of terrorists killing five soldiers?” referring to a Jewish Insider report unearthing Platner’s 2014 Reddit comments. “I don’t know, I mean, you guys want to be the party of inclusivity, right?”
“I want to be the party that stands up for hardworking people,” Warren answered. “I want to be the party that is transformative of an economy that right now is hip deep in corruption … and that’s what Graham Platner wants to do and I’m there to stand with him and to help in that fight.”
‘The guy that’s going to win the primary in Maine has a Nazi tattoo on his chest and now that’s no problem for a lot of voters. … That’s crazy,’ Fetterman told CNN
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) is seen after the Senate luncheons in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, April 14, 2026.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said on Friday that the Democratic Party “absolutely” has an issue with rising antisemitism, calling out the party’s embrace of candidates including Graham Platner in Maine and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan while criticizing the recent progressive push to cut off defensive aid to Israel.
The Pennsylvania senator made the comments after being asked on CNN’s “The Arena with Kasie Hunt” if he believed the Democratic Party has a problem with antisemitism. Fetterman argued that the growing support for both candidates in their respective primaries was indicative of a tolerance for antisemitism within the party.
He pointed to Platner surviving the controversy surrounding his Nazi tattoo and Jewish Insider’s reporting in recent days that the first-time candidate repeatedly praised Hamas’ tactics in a 2014 Reddit forum that shared video of the terrorist group killing several Israeli soldiers.
“I mean, the guy that’s going to win the primary in Maine has a Nazi tattoo on his chest and now that’s no problem for a lot of voters,” Fetterman said. “I don’t know why. That’s crazy. And now, I mean, we know he knows, he knew what that was. I mean, if you’re back over 12, 13 years, cheering about the death of Israeli soldiers, I mean, you clearly have a serious issue, and the left has a serious issue with antisemitism.”
“It was just released that he was praising and celebrating a video online where Hamas was beating and torturing Israeli soldiers to death,” Fetterman said, referring to Platner.
Fetterman also made note of El-Sayed’s lead in one recent primary poll despite his decision to campaign alongside antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker.
“The guy in Michigan, he’s leading now in that race, as my party becomes more and more hostile to Israel,” Fetterman said. “They’re just palling around someone like Hasan Piker, you know the guy that, absolutely, I mean, he absolutely is proud to cheer for Hamas, loves Hamas.”
“The Democrats are proud to stand with him and campaign with him,” he added. “Go ahead, try to win Pennsylvania and campaign around Hasan Piker, or saying, ‘Yeah, America deserved 9/11’ or ‘Hamas is 1,000% better than Israel’ or ‘I don’t care about the rapes and for all this other things.’ We have a serious problem with my party.”
Fetterman, one of most vocal pro-Israel Democrats in the Senate, told Hunt that Israel is “becoming more and more toxic for a Democrat to support,” pointing out that “80% of Democrats view Israel in a negative way.” He specifically condemned the uptick in progressive and far-left voices coming out against continued defensive aid to Israel.
“You have people like [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] voting against Iron Dome, the technology that prevents tens and tens of [thousands] of Israeli deaths from the rockets that those cowards fire at civilians,” he said.
Fetterman went on to criticize members of his party for opposing the war in Iran, saying that there were other Democrats who felt the same as him in supporting the effort but were not speaking out because doing so would be “politically toxic.”
“Every single Democrat has already been on record saying, ‘We can‘t ever allow Iran to acquire a nuclear bomb,’” Fetterman said, specifically naming former Vice President Kamala Harris and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and “everyone that’s run for president” who said “we can’t ever allow that to happen.”
“Then, [President Donald] Trump happened to do something about that to prevent that. That’s why I support that,” he continued. “I’m not the only Democrat who supports this, but I’m the only Democrat that’s willing to stand up and say it’s the right thing because I know how politically toxic it is as a Democrat to support this.”
Fetterman surmised that he is the “only Democrat … perhaps left in the entire Congress” who will say publicly that recent U.S. military action in Iran “was necessary” because doing so “contradicts every single thing that every Democrat has said” about how “we can’t ever allow Iran to acquire a nuclear bomb.”
Fetterman went on to criticize the Democratic lawmakers who voted for the recent war powers resolutions in the House and Senate, arguing that their opposition to the war has been “celebrated” by Iranian leadership and calling their response to the conflict “absurd.”
“Iran has celebrated this,” Fetterman said of the broad Democratic opposition. “A lot of people in my party and a lot of people in the media has turned Iran into the underdog. They’re like Rudy” — making a reference to the 1993 sports movie — “and putting them up on their shoulders and cheering for Iran at this point.”
Asked to respond to Sen. Elissa Slotkin’s (D-MI) statement that “being pro-Israel today is not about simply supporting the political or military agenda of Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu, just like being pro-American should not be equated with loyalty to President Trump,” Fetterman argued that her comments on her votes for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) measures on Thursday blocking military sales to Israel were similarly “absurd.”
“She’s a Democratic senator. Why aren’t you criticizing Iran? Why aren’t you criticizing Hamas or Hezbollah or these other kinds of forces? If you have to pick a side here, criticize that. So that’s where we are as a Democratic Party, and you’re going to vote against the kinds of critical aid that Israel requires and needs in order to beat back and destroy an organization like Hezbollah. Like I said, if you have to pick a side in a war, and clearly we have a side, I’m proud to stand on the side of Israel and America.”
Pressed on if he was still committed to being a Democrat given that his comments marked his harshest criticism yet of his party, Fetterman responded affirmatively.
“Well, of course. Yeah, I am absolutely committed to [remaining a] Democrat, absolutely,” Fetterman said. “I vote 91, 92 percent the Democratic line, but I am the only Democrat now that’s proud to consistently stand with Israel, and I’m going to do that, and that’s been very damaging with my standing as a Democrat.”
“If it’s what’s necessary, I’ll be the last Democrat standing with Israel through this,” he later added.
Fetterman also predicted that the war in Iran would not go on much longer, noting that “things kind of continue to wind down,” and said it’s “important to support” the U.S. securing an outcome in which Iranian leadership “surrenders.”
“I think these are very positive developments,” he said of Israel and the U.S. targeting Iran and their leading proxies.
“I think it seems like it’s going to wind down,” Fetterman said. “And we’re heading to a strong end at this point.”
Plus, when Graham Platner praised Hamas
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on April 03, 2024 in Washington.
👋 Good Thursday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we have the scoop on Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner’s praise for a violent 2014 Hamas attack on an Israeli military base, and report on last night’s failedSenate votes on weapons sales restrictions to Israel, which garnered the support of most Senate Democrats. We cover Meta’s defense of its content moderation policies following an Anti-Defamation League report that found that the platform failed to remove the vast majority of reported extremist and hateful content, and look at how Israel is preparing for a potential future Houthi ground assault. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Ken Marcus, Avi Issacharoff and Matt Brooks.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with assists from Danielle Cohen-Kanik and Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- President Donald Trump suggested yesterday that a call between Israeli and Lebanese leaders could take place today, following a State Department summit on Tuesday between the ambassadors from the two countries. Israeli Science and Technology Minister Gila Gamliel, a member of Israel’s security cabinet, said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun were slated to speak, while a Lebanese government official told Reuters earlier today that Beirut was “not aware” of any upcoming contact with Israeli officials.
- Pakistani army chief Asim Munir is in Tehran today for meetings with senior Iranian officials aimed at convening a second round of U.S.-Iran talks in Islamabad. Yesterday, Munir met with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. The meetings come as Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif conducts a multicountry trip through the weekend, traveling to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey. In Jeddah yesterday, Sharif met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
- Voters in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District are heading to the polls today for the election to succeed now-Gov. Mikie Sherrill. Progressive organizer Analilia Mejia, who since the primary has gotten the backing of top Garden State Democrats, is the favorite to win in the blue district against Republican Joe Hathaway.
- The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is holding a confirmation hearing for several positions: NTIA Deputy Administrator Adam Cassady to be ambassador at large for cyberspace and digital policy, attorney Todd Steggerda to be U.S. representative to the U.N. in Geneva and the State Department’s Preston Wells Griffith III to be U.S. representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
- The House Appropriations Committee is holding a series of budget hearings over the course of the day. Committee members will hear this afternoon from Karen Evans, the acting administrator of FEMA, which administers the Nonprofit Security Grant Program.
- Harvard University is hosting a landmark public conference on antisemitism and civil rights today, one of the terms of a legal settlement between the school and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law. More below.
- The Shalom Hartman Institute’s Yehuda Kurtzer and The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg will sit in conversation at an event this evening at the Capital Jewish Museum focused on “Jewish America at 250” ahead of the U.S. Semiquincentennial.
- Semafor’s World Economy summit in Washington continues today. Speakers today include Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, Sens. James Lankford (R-OK), Mark Warner (D-VA), Steve Daines (R-MT), Todd Young (R-IN) and Susan Collins (R-ME), Steve Bannon, former Biden administration official Amos Hochstein and former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR
There’s been a lot of debate lately over whether President Donald Trump is losing some of his grip on the Republican Party, amid growing economic concerns and the ongoing military operations in Iran.
While the media coverage has been amplifying any sign of intraparty discontent — to the point that former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is getting strange new respect from some Democrats and mainstream press — polls continue to show Trump with widespread backing from within his own party, and especially within the MAGA faction of the GOP.
Ultimately, election results are the best reality check. And you couldn’t draw up a better test on the degree of Trump’s impact on the Republican Party than examining the results from four states holding highly consequential primaries next month that will be a benchmark of the president’s power.
Key races in Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana and Texas will speak volumes about the president’s ability to shape the GOP agenda for the remainder of his second term — and most consequentially, whether he will be able to maintain a unified front with his party on continuing to pursue military action against Iran.
The biggest intraparty showdown, especially when it comes to foreign policy, is the May 19 primary between Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and military veteran Ed Gallrein. Massie, one of the few anti-Israel Republicans in Congress, is being opposed by Trump but also has a solid base of grassroots support in the northern Kentucky district, which has thus far supported his anti-establishment brand of politics. But Gallrein has proven to be a credible challenger, raising millions and giving Massie the biggest political test of his career.
Trump has spent some valuable political capital to boost Gallrein, including appearing at a recent rally in Massie’s district to promote his challenger. He’s been joined by the Republican Jewish Coalition, which has poured $3.5 million into the race, airing five ads underscoring Massie’s record of breaking with Trump. (Further drawing Trump’s ire: Massie also joined with Democrats in championing the release of the Epstein files.)
It’s never easy to beat a sitting incumbent, but Trump also has an imposing record of winning primaries in which he chooses to engage. If Massie pulls out a victory despite breaking so flagrantly with Trump on a number of key issues, it will be a sign of the president’s diminished political clout.
SCOOP
Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner repeatedly praised the tactics used by Hamas terrorists in comments made about a graphic video of a Hamas raid into Israel in 2014, in which terrorists killed at least five Israeli soldiers, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What he said: “Looks like an all around well executed and successful small unit raid to me,” Platner wrote in 2014 on the Reddit forum r/CombatFootage, a discussion board for footage and photographs of past and current armed conflicts. “Pragmatically I have little problem with killing an enemy combatant who you attempt to capture but for whatever reason cannot. From a strictly professional standpoint, this was a damn fine looking and successful raid against a superior opponent, I dig it,” he added, in response to another user.
FEELING THE BERN
Most of the Democrats in the Senate — 40 in total, including some traditionally pro-Israel lawmakers — voted on Wednesday evening for a measure led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) that aimed to block sales of bulldozers to Israel, with 36 of them also voting to advance a second Sanders-backed resolution to block sales of thousands of 1,000-pound bombs, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Newcomers: After having opposed previous similar efforts, Sens. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Gary Peters (D-MI), Mark Warner (D-VA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) all flipped and voted in favor of Sanders’ latest resolutions. Warner and Peters, along with Sens. Jack Reed (D-RI) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), voted to advance the resolution to block the bulldozer sale but against advancing the one on bombs.
Also on the Hill: An effort by Senate Democrats to force an end to the war in Iran was again blocked by Republicans on Wednesday, the fourth such failed attempt mounted by Senate Democrats since the war began in late February.
META-MORPHISIS
Amid accusations that Meta’s moderation policies enable antisemitic content to circulate on its platforms, a Meta leader on Tuesday highlighted efforts to combat online Jew-hatred, including restrictions on Holocaust denial, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Pushing back: “We remove Holocaust distortion and denial, not because it’s false, which it is, but because it’s antisemitic. It is hate speech against Jewish people, so we’ve drawn a clear line against it,” said Ben Good, director of content policy at Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp. Good spoke at “Hack the Hate NYC 2026,” an event at the Yeshiva University Museum in Manhattan spotlighting Israeli tech experts and Jewish leaders working to combat digital antisemitism. But even as Meta has made strides in addressing Holocaust denial, the Anti-Defamation League released a new report on Tuesday, just hours before the event, revealing that Instagram failed to remove 93% of reported extremist and hateful content, tying the trend directly to Meta’s efforts to roll back content moderation last year.
CAPITAL CONTEST
As voters in Washington, D.C., get ready to elect their first new mayor in more than a decade, the two leading candidates — former colleagues on the Council of the District of Columbia — are proposing drastically different visions for the city’s future: political moderation or democratic socialism. In an interview with Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutchthis week at his campaign headquarters in Northeast Washington, former Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie drew a direct contrast between his campaign and that of his Democratic Socialists of America-endorsed rival, Janeese Lewis George.
DSA direction: “I didn’t seek, nor would I accept, the endorsement of Democratic Socialists of America, or any organization, for that matter, that requires some sort of divisive pledge to exclude people that are a part of the fabric of the community of the District of Columbia,” McDuffie said. He was referring to a DSA endorsement questionnaire that asked candidates not to engage with “the Israeli government or Zionist lobby groups.” Lewis George, a longtime DSA member, vowed not to attend events that promote Zionism when she filled out the questionnaire, which earned her the DSA endorsement.
CONTINGENCY PLANS
Like a desperate poker player holding an ace in the hole, Iran has a “strategic reserve” if the ceasefire in the war with Israel and the U.S. collapses and fighting resumes: the Houthis, the Tehran-backed Yemeni terrorist group. How Iran plays the Houthi card has been the subject of concern in Israel, with analysts telling Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov that everything from a ground invasion from the east — with echoes of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, rampage in southern Israel — to making good on the threat to block the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to further choke off international shipping remains in play.
Seeking revenge: Yoni Ben-Menachem, a senior Middle East analyst at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, told JI that the Houthis planned “to take revenge and bring back their honor” since Israel killed much of their leadership in August 2025. “They see that Israel’s air defenses are strong, and it’s hard for them to reach military achievements with missiles and drones. They want to surprise Israel, so they are looking at ways to do it on the ground,” he said.
Cautious optimism: The first round of direct talks between Israel and Lebanon has been received positively by diplomats, pro-Israel lawmakers and experts, who see it as a sign of Hezbollah’s waning influence in Lebanon. But despite the optimism surrounding the discussions, experts caution that disarming the terrorist group remains a daunting obstacle that stands in the way of any meaningful change, JI’s Matthew Shea reports.
CAMPUS CONVERSATION
A Jewish legal group will convene its inaugural conference on antisemitism and civil rights law at Harvard University on Thursday, an event that was born out of last year’s settlement of a Title VI lawsuit against the school and framed around the upcoming 250th anniversary of the United States, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
On the agenda: “We’re very excited to have a mix of federal, high-level leadership, prominent scholars, Jewish communal leaders, high-powered litigators and experts in the field,” Ken Marcus, founder and chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, the group hosting the conference, told JI. The daylong event is slated to open with an address from Marcus and benediction from Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi, who leads Harvard Chabad. Held as America prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary this summer, Marcus said the headline session will focus “on how we define antisemitism as lawyers and professionals, and why a proper definition of antisemitism matters for America at this point in time.”
Cambridge chatter: Federal prosecutors filed a 160-page brief calling on a circuit court to reinstate the Trump administration’s multibillion-dollar freeze on Harvard’s research funding.
Worthy Reads
The Problem with Piker: The Free Press’ Peter Savodnik looks at Democrats’ continued embrace of Hasan Piker, despite the far-left streamer’s extensive history of praising terrorists and antisemitic and anti-American rhetoric. “The truth is they’re afraid of challenging Piker because they don’t want to alienate his next-gen Bernie Bro audience — a fear that is greatly exacerbated by their hand-wringing about not being on ‘the right side of history,’ down with the kids. … There’s a deeper problem here, one that is more cognitive, even spiritual: Too few Democrats can see that Piker is obviously, deeply wrong, that he lacks imagination, that he’s ignorant, that he camouflages his ignorance with just enough lingo to make his highly unoriginal neo-Marxist riffs and rants sound incisive.” [FreePress]
The Future of Warfare: In The Wall Street Journal, former CIA Director David Petraeus posits that despite the U.S.’ military successes in Iran, the war in Ukraine is more instructive as to the future of warfare. “War is increasingly defined by unmanned systems, artificial intelligence and mass precision. The Gulf offers useful insights, but Ukraine is the more demanding laboratory. There, the true challenges of unmanned systems at scale and the rapid emergence of autonomous capabilities are already on display. … The Gulf conflict demonstrates what American forces can achieve from a position of strength. Ukraine has shown what war looks like from a more vulnerable position, when that strength is contested at scale.” [WSJ]
Word on the Street
At Semafor’s World Economy summit in Washington on Wednesday, Chuck Robbins, CEO of the tech giant Cisco, spoke about his decision a decade ago to acquire Leaba Semiconductor, an Israeli company, before it had even developed a product, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports…
UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation Reem Al Hashimy, speaking at the confab, called for the Strait of Hormuz to be an international passageway that is not under the control of any one country…
Also speaking at the summit yesterday, “CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil, speaking to David Rubenstein, talked about documentarian Ken Burns‘ July 4 tradition of reading the Declaration of Independence out loud with his family, calling it “a Seder for America”…
A second U.S.-sanctioned supertanker entered the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz, despite the U.S.’ maritime blockade of the waterway…
The Wall Street Journal looks at how growing economic distress in Iran could push Tehran back to negotiations with the U.S. as it seeks much-needed sanctions relief…
Seb Gorka, a deputy assistant to President Donald Trump, is reportedly looking to be named the head of the National Counterterrorism Center, following Joe Kent’s resignation last month…
The Financial Times spotlights Paolo Zampolli, a close personal friend of President Donald Trump and the U.S. special representative for global partnerships, as he conducts multibillion-dollar deals on behalf of the White House…
The Wall Street Journal reports on the hurdles facing Kevin Warsh ahead of his confirmation hearing to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve…
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), appearing on “Pod Save America,” praised former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) — once a vocal Omar foe who called for the congresswoman’s deportation while they were both in the House — and far-right influencer Candace Owens over the pair’s break with Trump, JI’s Marc Rod reports…
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul issued a challenge Wednesday to those seeking to challenge her plan to penalize protesters who get too close to religious institutions — “Bring it on.” Announcing new state programs to provide support and security for organizations deemed “vulnerable to hate crimes,” the governor, a Democrat, took questions regarding her proposal to bar demonstrations of more than two people from occurring within 25 feet of a house of worship, JI’s Will Bredderman reports…
Rama Duwaji, the wife of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, apologized for using racist language in social media posts as a teenager, but fell short of addressing more recent comments in which she suggested that Tel Aviv “shouldn’t exist in the first place,” and celebrated “freedom fighters of Palestine”…
A new report from Yale University’s Committee on Trust in Higher Education found that universities themselves cultivated significant public distrust of higher education, citing soaring tuition costs, unclear admissions processes and the uneven applications of standards and rules…
Kent Syverud, who earlier this year had been tapped as the next chancellor of the University of Michigan, announced that he has been diagnosed with brain cancer and will not assume the position in Ann Arbor; the school’s Board of Regents said it will begin a new search process in the coming days…
Duke University suspended its Students for Justice in Palestine chapter on Tuesday, one month after students began submitting complaints about an antisemitic Instagram post from the group, which depicted the U.S. and Israel as pigs frothing at the mouth, JI’s Haley Cohen reports…
Hebrew Union College President Andrew Rehfeld told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher that the school was “deeply disappointed” by a decision by the Ohio Attorney General’s office to file a lawsuit to block the institution’s plans to shutter its Cincinnati rabbinical programs…
Apple TV released the trailer for the upcoming Israeli thriller series “Unconditional,” which stars Liraz Chamami and Talia Lynne Ronn as a mother-daughter pair stranded in Russia and at the mercy of Moscow crime rings following Ronn’s character’s arrest on drug-smuggling charges…
“Fauda” co-creator Avi Issacharoff shared a sneak peek of the show’s upcoming fifth season, which takes place in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks…
Police in the U.K. arrested two people following an attempted arson attack at a synagogue in North London…
U.K. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called for the deportation of foreigners who engage in antisemitism…
Immanuel College, one of London’s only private Jewish secondary schools, is set to close at the end of this year, citing financial challenges…
Kanye West postponed an upcoming show in Marseille, France, after government officials, as well as the mayor of Marseille, suggested the rapper would not be welcome in the country; the decision comes days after U.K. authorities revoked West’s visa ahead of a summer festival he was set to headline in the country…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed into law legislation levying criminal penalties — including fines and prison sentences — against individuals convicted of antisemitic offenses…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hungary Prime Minister-elect Peter Magyar spoke by phone on Wednesday, with a readout from the Prime Minister’s Office saying that the incoming Hungarian leader invited Netanyahu to the country for the 70-year commemoration of the Hungarian Uprising…
LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil denied reports that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund was planning to pull its financial support for the league, weeks before its first scheduled U.S. tournament of the season, slated to take place next month at Trump National Golf Club in Virginia…
Front Office Sports reports that a multiyear deal between Michael Rubin‘s Fanatics and Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority is on the verge of collapse…
Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brooks is joining Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck as a senior strategic advisor; Brooks will continue in his position at the RJC, in addition to his role leading the Jewish Policy Center…
Israel Malachi was named the new director general of Israel’s Finance Ministry after serving for nearly four years as the ministry’s deputy director general…
Amy Marks is joining JCC Association of North America as the organization’s chief advancement officer…
Former “All Things Considered” host Ari Shapiro is joining CNN as a contributor, where he’ll co-host a new podcast focused on digital trends with his former NPR colleague Audie Cornish…
Author and TV producer Barbara Gordon, whose memoir about her addiction to Valium and mental health challenges became a bestseller, died at 90…
Pic of the Day
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (center right), cut the ribbon at the official launch on Wednesday of ARC Landing Boston, a joint initiative between Healey’s administration and Israel’s Sheba Medical Center. Joining Healey for the ribbon-cutting were New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Sheba Director General Yitshak Kreiss and ARC Innovation Founder and Director Eyal Zimlichman.
Birthdays
Emmy- and Tony Award-winning actress and movie producer, Ellen Barkin turns 72…
CEO and president of American Express in the 1990s, he now serves on many corporate and charitable boards, Harvey Golub turns 87… Chasidic singer, known by his stage name Mordechai Ben David or MBD, Mordechai Werdyger turns 75… Olympic track-and-field athlete, and survivor of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, Esther Roth-Shachamorov turns 74… Cofounder of Jordan Company LP, a New York private equity firm, David Wayne Zalaznick turns 72… Physician and venture capitalist focused on biotechnology and life-sciences industries, Lindsay Rosenwald turns 71… Professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University, Aaron Louis Friedberg, Ph.D. turns 70… Filmmaker, he directed the 2011 documentary “Paul Williams Still Alive” and the 1997 slapstick comedy “Vegas Vacation” starring Chevy Chase, Stephen Kessler turns 66… Former dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School and former director of the Congressional Budget Office, Douglas Elmendorf turns 64… Former secretary of state of the United States under the Biden administration, Antony John “Tony” Blinken turns 64… Emmy Award-winning television producer and writer, he co-created and produced “Will & Grace” and “Boston Common,” David Sanford Kohan turns 62… Long Island native, he is a Los Angeles pharmacist, Jeffrey D. Marcus… U.S. ambassador to Egypt during the Trump 45 administration, Jonathan Raphael Cohen turns 62… Former mayor of Hoboken, N.J., Dawn Zimmer turns 58… Israel’s former ambassador to the U.S. and minister of strategic affairs, Ron Dermer turns 55… Canada’s minister of the environment, climate change and nature, Julie Dabrusin turns 55… Celebrity plastic surgeon, he is active on social media as “Dr. Miami” and has been on reality TV about his practice, Michael Salzhauer, M.D. turns 54… Board member of Jewish Community High School of the Bay in San Francisco, Ellen K. Finestone… Founder and president of Glass Ceiling Strategies, she is also a managing director for communications at Climate Power, Alex Glass… Founder of Jewish Fashion Council and journalist at Fabologie, Adi Heyman… Former pitcher in the Washington Nationals organization, he played for Team Israel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Richard Sidney Bleier turns 39… Attorney who has served as a law clerk to three Maryland judges, now a VP at JPMorgan Chase, Geoffrey S. Middleberg… Lead product manager at Anthropic, Uriel Kejsefman… Singer, pianist and composer, he is best known as half of the folk-rock duo the Portnoy Brothers, Mendy Portnoy turns 34… Climate and energy transition investor, he was a White House staffer in 2017, Matthew Saunders… Senior client strategy and success manager at Grow Progress, Adam Gotbaum… First baseman and free agent, he played for Team Israel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Matthew Jared “Mash” Mervis turns 28… Josh Goldstein… Sarah Wolfson…
Platner, in Reddit post on Hamas terrorist attack: ‘From a strictly professional standpoint, this was a damn fine looking and successful raid against a superior opponent’
Sophie Park/Getty Images
Senate candidate from Maine Graham Platner speaks at a town hall at the Leavitt Theater on October 22, 2025 in Ogunquit, Maine.
Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner repeatedly praised the tactics used by Hamas terrorists in comments made about a graphic video of a Hamas raid into Israel in 2014, in which terrorists killed at least five Israeli soldiers.
In archived posts from his now-deleted Reddit profile under the username “P-Hustle,” Platner commented on a video post titled “Helmet Footage from Hamas cross-border raid,” which showed the attack on multiple Israeli soldiers.
The original video, also now deleted but still archived, was posted by a YouTube channel called Sabah on July 29, 2014, with the description, “Secret footage shows the storming of a settlement by the Qassam Brigades and the killing of 10 soldiers.” The description and comments in the Reddit thread appear to match a raid by Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades on a military base near Kibbutz Nahal Oz the day prior.
According to a text description of the video and the raid shared online, the video includes footage of the shootings of several Israeli soldiers, at least one of whom is screaming as the terrorists attempt to kidnap him.
“Looks like an all around well executed and successful small unit raid to me,” Platner wrote in 2014 on the Reddit forum r/CombatFootage, a discussion board for footage and photographs of past and current armed conflicts.
Responding to another user who criticized the “execution” of the Israeli soldiers and emphasized that the attack would lead to heavy reprisals in Gaza, Platner said he was not interested in discussing the geopolitical or strategic implications, but suggested Hamas’ tactics and actions were reasonable.
“As for your aversion to ‘execution’, a small unit raid tends to be used to inflict casualties and take prisoners in a short period of time,” Platner wrote. “Pragmatically I have little problem with killing an enemy combatant who you attempt to capture but for whatever reason cannot. From a strictly professional standpoint, this was a damn fine looking and successful raid against a superior opponent, I dig it.”
He acknowledged, in response to another user, that the terrorists’ actions were brutal and that the terrorists should have shot one of the soldiers instead of beating him to death.
Responding to another user who disputed Platner’s characterization of the Hamas attack as a “raid” and said that the attack was “not resistance its just drawing blood to score imaginative points in the war,” Platner suggested the Hamas terrorists were preferable to those who attacked U.S. forces in Iraq.
“It was Iraq, and those guys were in civilian clothing with silenced weapons. This videos shows a unit of men in full uniform assaulting uniformed military personnel of an enemy their organization is currently engaged in military operations with. There is no comparing the two,” Platner wrote. “Generally you try to catch the enemy off guard, and kill them with the least resistance. This looks like a pretty audacious plan that worked, and I’ll certainly give credit where credit is due, no matter who they are fighting for.”
Platner’s campaign did not return a request for comment.
Platner has come under fire by Gov. Janet Mills, who is his main competitor in the Democratic primary, and by Republicans for other past Reddit posts under the “P-Hustle” username which have disparaged a wide range of groups and included various offensive comments.
He also has faced scrutiny for his criticism of Israel and a tattoo on his chest of an apparent Nazi symbol.
In an interview on CNN, Platner accused Israel of committing genocide and alleged that the Trump administration started the war to distract from the Epstein files
Sophie Park/Getty Images
Senate candidate from Maine Graham Platner speaks at a town hall at the Leavitt Theater on October 22, 2025 in Ogunquit, Maine.
Graham Platner, the progressive Maine Senate candidate, in a CNN interview that aired Sunday accused Israel of committing genocide and said the U.S. should cut off all aid, as well as dismissed concerns that bringing the Iran war to a halt would endanger U.S. forces in the region.
“I fundamentally believe that a nation that is committing a genocide should not be a place that we are putting money. We should be leveraging the fact that we have a lot of power in this relationship due to our funding,” Platner said in the interview. “We should be leveraging that to, frankly, get the Israeli government to stop behaving in such an utterly atrocious fashion.”
Platner said that he would vote against any further funding for the war in Iran, dismissing concerns that cutting funding for the war would leave U.S. forces in harm’s way, despite ongoing attacks by Iran.
“I’ve been very close to the realities of wars [in Iraq], and that was a war that never should have happened, and that we find ourselves here with another war that should not be happening, that is resulting in destruction and horror, all, frankly, on the taxpayers dime,” Platner said. “That is money that should be spent here in the United States, on schools, on hospitals, on infrastructure.”
He said that U.S. troops would not be in danger if Congress defunds the operation “because the troops should not be in harm’s way. End the war. Bring people home. Stop bombing. We started this thing, we can end it.”
Platner said he believes the Trump administration started the war to distract from revelations in the Epstein files because “Benjamin Netanyahu finally found a president that was sucker enough to launch the war that he’s been pushing for for 30 years.”
The Arizona senator’s outspoken commentary has repeatedly placed blame for the military operation on Israel, leading one Jewish Democrat to pull her support
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Then-Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) in Rayburn Building on Capitol Hill on June 9, 2022.
With a series of pugnacious tweets and media appearances, Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) has made himself a face of the Democratic opposition to the war in Iran, issuing one of the first comments from a U.S. lawmaker opposing the effort in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Gallego’s outspoken commentary, which has repeatedly pinned blame for the operation on Israel — a notion that colleagues on both sides of the aisle have disputed — also coincide with Gallego’s endorsement of Graham Platner, the progressive Maine Senate candidate who has faced a series of scandals related to antisemitism.
The high-profile moves come as Gallego, who claimed victory in Arizona in 2024 even as President Donald Trump won the state, is seen by political observers as positioning himself for a 2028 presidential campaign — and as anti-Israel policies have become a litmus test for the progressive left.
“So Netanyahu now decides when we go to war? So much for America First,” Gallego said earlier this week, in response to comments by Secretary of State Marco Rubio that seemed to suggest that the timing of the war was dictated by Israel.
“What the f*** happened to America First?” Gallego wrote in another post, adding that the U.S. should have left Israel to go ahead with the operation alone.
Though some lawmakers emerged from a Monday briefing echoing that line, Rubio has since said his comments were misrepresented, and others on both sides of the aisle have denied that Israel forced the U.S. into the conflict.
“They’re following Netanyahu, who has literally told us … that he’s been trying to do this for 47 years. I know — I suffered the first attempt at this in 2005, and now America is suffering again because of it,” Gallego said on MS NOW this week, referencing his service in Iraq. “There’s a lot of ways that we can be supportive of Israel. There’s a lot of ways that we could defend Israel’s existence, its sovereignty. I’m 100% for that. We don’t need to go to war for them, especially when it’s a dumb war.”
He said that the U.S. should have threatened to withhold intelligence, support and munitions from Israel if it went ahead with an attack on Iran.
And he said on “Pod Save America” that the U.S. should have tried “calling Iran, saying ‘This is not us, we’re going to be staying out of this.’ No, we just decided that we’re going to let Netanyahu choose our wars. This is very disturbing to me.”
The Arizona senator also said he would not support funding to replenish U.S. munitions expended in the war, saying that Middle Eastern partners should be responsible.
“When the bill comes to pay for the replenishment of interceptors and munitions, the Middle Eastern countries that we have been protecting need to pay for it,” Gallego said on X. “We aren’t cutting more Medicaid, food stamps for protecting these countries in a war of choice and not in our interest.”
In a podcast appearance on The Bulwark this week, he also urged fellow Democrats to reject the war forcefully and wholeheartedly, without caveats or appeals to constitutional authority as other lawmakers have used to justify their opposition.
“Why are we spending all this money? All these countries in the Middle East have a lot of money. Why are we spending all this money?” Gallego continued, explaining questions he’s hearing from constituents. “These are the things that are very simple for people to understand. I think we should not be afraid to communicate that.”
Endorsing Platner, Gallego called him “the kind of fighter Maine hasn’t seen in a long time, someone who tells you exactly what he thinks, doesn’t owe anything to the special interests, and wakes up every day thinking about working families,” also referencing their shared history as veterans.
Platner most recently faced scrutiny for appearing on a podcast in January with an antisemitic conspiracy theorist of whom Platner said he was a “longtime fan.” Just before that podcast appearance came to light, Platner came under fire for retweeting a prominent neo-Nazi influencer. Platner also, for decades, had a tattoo that closely mirrored a Nazi emblem on his chest.
While Platner has claimed not to have been aware of the significance of the symbol, both Jewish Insider and CNN reported that Platner described the tattoo as a Totenkopf, a symbol used by an SS unit.
Gallego and Platner are both represented by the same consulting firm, Fight Agency, which has signed on a number of far-left candidates who have made opposition to Israel a central focus of their campaigns. Another one of the Fight Agency’s clients is New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who the senator defended during his polarizing mayoral campaign.
Gallego, who has a Jewish child with his ex-wife, has spoken in the past about his concerns about antisemitism and its impacts on his own family. But pressed this week on Platner’s antisemitic ties, a Gallego spokesperson referred JI to an interview Gallego conducted on “Pod Save America” about the endorsement.
Asked about Platner’s appearance on and praise for the antisemitic podcaster, Gallego downplayed the situation, noting that many Democrats have appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast, which has also spread antisemitic conspiracy theories.
“A working class man goes and has a conversation on a platform that is very similar to what Joe Rogan talks about … but everyone freaks out on this guy,” Gallego said. “Why? Because the establishment doesn’t want him. This is very simple … so they’re going to make sure that he looks bad.”
Gallego also said that Platner was “young and stupid” when he got the tattoo but argued that it was not clearly identifiable as a Nazi symbol, and that subsequent security checks and physicals did not identify the tattoo as a problem.
And he argued that Democrats are too focused on finding “perfect” candidates who are ultimately unable to appeal to voters.
The Arizona senator separately said on a Bulwark podcast this week, “I also endorsed Haley Stevens and Angie Craig, right? And, I was accused by the left of being in the pocket of Israel.” He said that he’s supporting people he believes can win general elections.
Arizona state Rep. Alma Hernandez, a Jewish Democrat and outspoken supporter of Israel, said she was surprised and disappointed by Gallego’s endorsement of Platner.
“It is a really hard one to justify. I, quite frankly, do not care if they are both veterans. There are plenty of veterans who are not complete bigots and jerks who you could endorse,” Hernandez told JI. “There is a woman who’s running, who is the governor, who has not had any history of being a bigot like this individual. I mean, for God’s sake, he has a Nazi tattoo.”
She added, “you can’t excuse and pretend that there is no pattern of bigotry and, quite frankly, just a real disregard for Democratic values” from Platner, pointing to offensive comments about people of color and women that the Maine candidate has made.
“I’m disappointed as an Arizonan, as a woman and as a Jewish woman,” Hernandez continued. “I think it says a lot about a person who’s willing to put their name behind someone like him.”
Hernandez said that, in response to Gallego’s support for Platner and his shifting stance and recent comments on Israel, she’s heard from other Jewish Democrats in Arizona who say they won’t support Gallego going forward.
In the House, Gallego was generally a supporter of Israel — and voted against the 2015 Iran nuclear deal — within what was at the time the mainstream of the Democratic Party, but was not particularly active on the issue.
The then-congressman appeared to take a more hawkish position during and immediately after his Senate race in 2024, leading an effort to expand U.S.-Israel counter-tunneling cooperation, supporting efforts to sanction the International Criminal Court, backing the redesignation of the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization, strongly condemning Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) for including the phrase “from the river to the sea” in a video she posted and quickly urging the administration to freeze Iranian assets shortly after the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks, when other Democrats were slower to endorse that position.
He also said, through a spokesperson, that he would have opposed efforts earlier this year to block certain U.S. aid shipments to Israel that were supported by a majority of Senate Democrats. Gallego himself was absent for the vote, citing family duties as a new father.
But Gallego’s recent statements, particularly since the start of the Iran war, indicate a sharp tack in the opposite direction as he eyes a potential national campaign. Other potential 2028 Democratic candidates, like California Gov. Gavin Newsom, appear to be making a similar calculation.
Podcaster Nate Cornacchia has said that Israel was behind John F. Kennedy’s assassination and the global war on terror
Sophie Park/Getty Images
Maine Senate Graham Platner speaks at a town hall at the Leavitt Theater on October 22, 2025 in Ogunquit, Maine.
Weeks before Graham Platner promoted an antisemitic conspiracy theorist in a now-deleted social media post on Thursday, the controversial Maine Senate candidate appeared on a popular YouTube show whose host has spread specious claims about Jews and Israel.
Platner faced blowback this week for boosting a social media comment about a looming war with Iran by Stew Peters, a neo-Nazi influencer who has frequently espoused antisemitic tropes and engaged in Holocaust denial. Platner’s team said the post was made in error and “immediately” removed it after learning it elevated a “despicable account.”
In late January, however, Platner sat for a lengthy online interview with Nate Cornacchia, a retired Green Beret who has also promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories. Near the end of their hour-long conversation, Platner, a fellow military veteran, called himself “a longtime fan” of Cornacchia’s YouTube channel, “Valhalla VFT,” and said it was “an absolute pleasure being” on the show.
Cornacchia, whose show claims nearly 500,000 YouTube subscribers, has in recent months helped stoke a burgeoning far-right conspiracy theory alleging that Israel was involved in the assassination of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Two days before speaking with Platner, for instance, Cornacchia went on a podcast hosted by Jake Shields, a former mixed martial arts fighter who is now a prominent Holocaust denier, and pointed to what he described as “huge links” connecting Israel to Kirk’s killing. “The biggest one, the way I look at it, is because he was basically so important from the Zionist side to the young right wing, sort of that counter Nick Fuentes audience” that “Israel needs desperately,” he said.
“Charlie Kirk said that he was tired of being bullied by his Jewish donors” and that he “no longer could support the pro-Israel cause, and he was dead 48 hours later,” Cornacchia added on the show, where he also agreed with Shields’ assertion that President John F. Kennedy had “probably” been assassinated in a covert “venture between the CIA and Mossad,” the Israeli intelligence agency. “100%,” he replied.
In addition, Cornacchia has suggested that the global war on terror was conducted “on behest of Israel” and claimed Israel would benefit if another 9/11-style attack were carried out during the tenure of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, saying it would help to drum up Islamophobic sentiment and lead to another foreign military entanglement in the Middle East.
The Jewish state “got exactly who they wanted” in Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor whom the Israeli government has accused of antisemitism, he argued on his own show in November. “That’s their candidate, guys. You got to pay attention.”
The conservative YouTube commentator has also questioned why George Soros’ son Alex was seen posing for a photograph with Mamdani on the night of his election. “You may immediately be thinking, ‘Oh, well, of course, that’s because Soros funds all the socialists,’” Cornacchia said of George, a Jewish billionaire donor to left-wing causes and a Holocaust survivor who is often a target of antisemitic attacks.
“No, no, no, no, that’s surface level,” he told his viewers, claiming that the philanthropist “moves in coordination with our greatest ally,” a term he uses to sarcastically allude to Israel.
Platner’s interview with Cornacchia, which he promoted on his social media channels, did not touch on such topics. His team did not respond to a request for comment on Friday about Cornacchia’s antisemitic remarks.
The 41-year-old Senate candidate, who is running in a competitive Democratic primary to challenge Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), faced skepticism from critics last fall after he denied knowing a tattoo that was on his chest for years closely mirrored a Totenkopf, the skull-and-crossbones icon adopted by an infamous Nazi SS unit. A former acquaintance of Platner who spoke with Jewish Insider said he had identified the symbol as such more than a decade ago, a claim he has denied. He had the tattoo removed last October.
Still, even as he maintains a commanding polling advantage in the Maine Democratic primary against Gov. Janet Mills, Platner’s explanation of the tattoo — combined with past and recent online blunders — is raising questions about whether he can weather scrutiny in a general election that party leadership views as key to reclaiming the Senate majority.
Mills, for her part, strongly hinted at such doubts in a snarky X post on Friday. “For what it’s worth,” she wrote, “I don’t have any tattoos.”
And on the same day he was drawing backlash for amplifying a conspiracy theorist this week, Platner was fielding a combative call from a listener during an appearance on a podcast hosted by the comedian Tim Heidecker.
The caller cast suspicion on Platner’s claim that he did not know the tattoo represented a Nazi symbol until recently, citing his self-proclaimed knowledge of World War II history, and called on the candidate to apologize rather than “dodging around” the issue.
But Platner held firm. “I’m not going to apologize for something that I didn’t know about or do,” he insisted. “The moment that it was clear and I was putting it in that context I had it covered, because I don’t want that on my body.”
The Maine Senate candidate quickly deleted his post, in which he approved of a message by neo-Nazi radio host Stew Peters
Sophie Park/Getty Images
U.S. senatorial candidate from Maine Graham Platner speaks at a town hall at the Leavitt Theater on October 22, 2025 in Ogunquit, Maine.
Graham Platner, a far-left Senate candidate in Maine, amplified a social media post on Thursday from a far-right conspiracy theorist well-known for viciously antisemitic commentary — before quickly deleting the statement.
In a comment to X late Thursday morning, Platner approvingly boosted a remark from Stew Peters, an extremist radio host who has frequently promoted antisemitic tropes and engaged in Holocaust denial, calling a war with Iran “the only thing Republicans and Democrats have both given a standing ovation for.”
“As always, there’s one thing that brings Republican and Democratic politicians together: sending other people’s children to die in stupid wars in the Middle East,” Platner, a 41-year-old Marine veteran turned oyster farmer who has sharply criticized U.S. military engagement abroad, wrote in his own post.
He deleted the post an hour or so after it had been flagged by online observers who noted that he was elevating a problematic figure with a long record of hostile rhetoric toward Jews.
The Anti-Defamation League has described Peters as a “prolific antisemite” who blames “‘the Jews’ for everything he believes is wrong with society,” while the Southern Poverty Law Center has said his radio show has “become a central hub for antisemitic and conspiratorial content.”
He has said Judaism is “satanic” and a “death cult,” promoted blood libels, called for a “final solution” to mass-deport American Jews and questioned the existence of gas chambers that exterminated Jews during the Holocaust, among other conspiratorial assertions.
In a statement to Jewish Insider, a spokesperson for Platner said the post had been published due to an oversight. “We were reposting a C-Span clip of Trump speaking about the potential war with Iran and didn’t realize that the video had been posted by a despicable account,” the spokesperson said. “When we learned who the poster was we immediately deleted the post.”
The social media blunder is a particularly sensitive issue for Platner, who earlier in his campaign faced scrutiny over a Nazi tattoo on his chest, which he had covered up last October. He has insisted he was not aware the tattoo closely mirrored a Totenkopf, a skull-and-crossbones icon used by an infamous Nazi SS unit, even as a former acquaintance told JI that he had years ago specifically identified it as such. He has denied such claims.
“I am not a secret Nazi,” Platner said in a podcast interview last year, while calling himself “a lifelong opponent” of “Nazism and antisemitism and racism in general.”
Despite such baggage, polling has shown Platner holds a commanding lead in the Maine Democratic primary race, where he is facing Gov. Janet Mills to challenge Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who is one of the most vulnerable Republican incumbents up for reelection in the midterms.
In a recent conversation at a fundraising event, the Maine Senate candidate claimed the Israeli government funded Hamas and also revealed he is related to Israeli author and analyst Seth Frantzman
Sophie Park/Getty Images
U.S. senatorial candidate from Maine Graham Platner speaks at a town hall at the Leavitt Theater on October 22, 2025 in Ogunquit, Maine.
Like many progressives now running for Congress, Graham Platner, a Democratic Senate candidate in Maine, has made opposition to Israel a central part of his messaging.
He frequently accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza, advocates for blocking U.S. aid to Israel and is an outspoken critic of AIPAC. During a campaign event last month, Platner, a 41-year-old former Marine who runs an oyster farm, also said he believes that Israel is a terrorist state.
But more so than many candidates, the political newcomer seems particularly invested in engaging on Middle East policy, even if his views have drawn scrutiny, according to audio of a recent private discussion in which he debated about Israel with some attendees at a fundraising event in Maine for nearly 20 minutes.
Speaking at the August fundraiser, Platner defended his stances on Israel and shared previously undisclosed details about his personal ties to the region, according to the audio, recently shared with Jewish Insider.
Despite his hostile criticism of Israel, Platner said he believed that the country “has the same right to exist that every nation has to exist,” though he did not confirm whether he recognizes Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.
While he said he agreed that Hamas is a terrorist organization, Platner claimed that Netanyahu had “publicly stated that” Israel was “funding Hamas to make sure that there was going to be no non-radical leadership within Gaza in order to keep a Palestinian state from happening.”
While members of Netanyahu’s coalition have made this argument — Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich referred to the terrorist organization as “an asset” as it serves as an obstacle to Palestinian statehood — the prime minister has never personally made such a claim. New York Times reporting from shortly after the Oct. 7 attacks alleged that the Israeli prime minister had allowed the Qatari government to send money into the Gaza Strip for several years in order to “maintain peace in Gaza.” Netanyahu called allegations that he was empowering Hamas “ridiculous.”
“It is difficult for me to lay the onus of everything only at the feet of the Palestinians,” he explained, “and not include the Netanyahu government.”
Platner also quibbled with an attendee who said that 1,200 Israeli civilians had been killed during the attacks, noting that a percentage of those who had died on Oct. 7 were soldiers in the Israeli military.
“It wasn’t 1,200 civilians. It was 600 military members,” Platner countered, using a number that far exceeded the approximately 300 soldiers who were killed in the attacks.
“Who were taken sleeping, unarmed, out of their beds, I’ve met families,” the attendee responded, likely referring to the tatzpitaniot, unarmed female observer soldiers, and others, who were famously killed and kidnapped in their pajamas.
“When you are wearing a uniform and carrying a gun in the service of a cause, it is difficult for me to feel that you can be called a civilian,” said Platner, who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. “There is a one-way street on this,” he continued, “that I find to be disingenuous.”
The private comments suggest that Platner is not merely paying lip service to such issues on the trail, as he runs in a competitive primary against Maine Gov. Janet Mills for the Democratic nomination to unseat Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME).
Platner’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Platner’s views on Israel and Gaza have received limited attention in recent weeks as his campaign has weathered controversy over his past incendiary Reddit posts and faced questions over when he first became aware that a skull tattoo on his chest he had for nearly 20 years resembled a Nazi symbol known as a Totenkopf.
Platner, who covered the tattoo this month, has insisted he did not know what the skull signified until recently, though reporting from JI and CNN has contradicted that claim.
He has also argued that members of his family are Jewish and never objected to the skull tattoo when he took his shirt off around them. “Eighteen years,” he told The Atlantic recently. “It’s never come up.”
In the conversation about Israel at the fundraiser, which took place before controversy ensnared his campaign, Platner noted his stepbrother is Seth Frantzman, an Israeli author, journalist and security analyst who has long worked for The Jerusalem Post and lives in Jerusalem, saying they are “very close,” according to the audio.
Frantzman, who has previously written admiringly about Platner without mention of their familial ties, did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Platner also said that he had “multiple friends in B’Tselem,” the left-wing Israeli human rights group that has described Israel as an apartheid regime and accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza — as he argued that Israel is not fully a democracy.
He cited his friends from B’Tselem “who have showed me videos, who have introduced me to former soldiers, who have introduced me to Palestinians, who have laid out a very clear and, frankly, well-sourced case that Palestinians living within the borders of the occupied territories do not live in a democracy, that they do not have equal rights, that they do not have equal access to areas.”
He said that, “as an American taxpayer,” he was uncomfortable with sending continued U.S. aid to support Israel’s military.
But even as he has been deployed to the Middle East, Platner confirmed that he had never visited Israel.
The Massachusetts congressman is the first Democratic lawmaker to call on the scandal-plagued candidate to drop out
Courtesy
Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA)
Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) became the first elected Democrat to call on scandal-plagued Democrat Graham Platner to drop out of the race for Senate in Maine amid controversy over a tattoo on his chest with Nazi origins and other controversies.
Jewish Insider earlier reported that Platner had on at least one occasion identified the tattoo on his chest as a Nazi SS symbol, known as a “Totenkopf,” to a former acquaintance and had been fully aware of the tattoo and its meaning well before jumping into the race to replace Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), even bragging about having it.
Auchincloss urged Platner to abandon his Senate bid on Sunday, telling Politico that he finds the progressive candidate’s conduct “personally disqualifying.”
Platner has dismissed wrongdoing and claimed he had no idea the tattoo symbol was a Nazi insignia when he got it with fellow Marines while in Croatia in 2007.
“I am not a secret Nazi. Actually if you read through my Reddit comments, I think you can pretty much figure out where I stand on Nazism and antisemitism,” Platner said on the “Pod Save America” podcast last week.
Auchincloss expressed dissatisfaction with Platner’s defenses, in which the progressive candidate has said his actions aren’t a “liability.”
“I think it’s a liability, and I think we should have high standards for United States senators and one of them is: you don’t have a Nazi tattoo on your body,” Auchincloss told WCVB Channel 5 Boston on Sunday.
“I hope that Maine voters would agree with me,” Auchincloss said to Politico. “Democrats would be united in condemning a Republican candidate who has this episode, and we should be consistent.”
Platner is running against Gov. Janet Mills in the Democratic primary. The winner will face Collins in what is expected to be a hotly-contested race.
Some progressive members of Congress, led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), have defended Platner amid his numerous scandals.
“He sounds like a human being to me,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said of Platner’s tattoo in a CNN interview on Sunday. “A human being who made mistakes, recognizes them, and is very open about it.”
Plus, Platner’s tattoo trouble doesn’t fade
Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) speaks with other House Democrats, on the East steps of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC on October 15, 2025.
Good Monday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we talk to Jewish Democrats about their efforts to reengage the party’s rank-and-file on supporting Israel as the war in Gaza winds down, and report on the mounting evidence that Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner knew the origins of his tattoo of a Nazi symbol prior to national coverage of the body art and his related social media postings. We spotlight a new PAC in Washington state that is backing “pro-Jewish candidates” in Seattle’s upcoming school board elections, and report on a new initiative from the Jewish Book Council aimed at boosting Jewish and Israeli authors. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Alyza Lewin, Brian Romick and Jon Finer.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with an assist from Danielle Cohen-Kanik. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- We’re keeping an eye on efforts to locate and repatriate the bodies of the 13 remaining Israeli hostages, following President Donald Trump’s warning to Hamas on Saturday that the terror group had 48 hours to begin resuming the transfer of bodies. Teams from Egypt and the Red Cross also joined the effort over the weekend.
- Delegates from around the world are arriving in Israel today ahead of the start of the World Zionist Congress, which begins tomorrow in Jerusalem.
- Members of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community are marking the seventh anniversary of the deadly attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in which 11 congregants were killed.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S GABBY DEUTCH
As a fragile cease-fire holds in Gaza, Jewish Democrats see an opportunity to reengage party Democratic activists and elected officials who have grown frustrated with Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Jewish Insider spoke to more than a dozen fundraisers, activists and professionals in the pro-Israel space, most with a long history of involvement in Democratic politics. Their pitch to Democrats at this precarious moment involves two parts: First, push to make President Donald Trump’s peace plan a reality. Second, ensure that Democrats understand that the value of America’s relationship with Israel is independent from the leader of either country — and that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who remains broadly unpopular with the American left, won’t be in power forever.
Unlike naysayers on the right who suggest Democrats have abandoned Israel — a claim made frequently by Trump — the Jewish activists and communal leaders who advocate for a strong U.S.-Israel relationship and for U.S. aid to Israel still insist that support for the Jewish state remains bipartisan, and that congressional Democrats remain broadly pro-Israel. That proposition faced its toughest test during a two-year war, when Democrats became increasingly sympathetic to the Palestinians as Israel’s effort to eradicate Hamas left the Gaza Strip in ruins and claimed thousands of lives.
“I think ending the war turns the temperature down pretty dramatically,” said Brian Romick, CEO of Democratic Majority for Israel. “Right now, what we’re saying is, no matter where you were in the previous two years, we all need the deal to work, and so being for the deal [and] wanting the deal to work is a pro-Israel position right now, and then you build from there.”
At the start of the war, 34% of Democrats sympathized more with Israel, and 31% sympathized more with Palestinians, according to New York Times polling. New data released last month shows that 54% of Democrats now sympathize more with the Palestinians, compared to only 13% with Israel. That stark shift in public opinion corresponded to more Democratic lawmakers voting to condition American military support for Israel than ever before.
“I do think that there is room to build forward,” said Jeremy Burton, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, which works closely with Democratic lawmakers in deep-blue Massachusetts. “We have to be secure enough in our own belief in the future and our hope for the future to say ‘OK, if your point was that you’re committed to the long-term project of Israel’s security and safety, and you were looking for short term ways to pressure the government of Israel, then let’s move forward with the long-term project, even if we disagreed with you in the short term.’”
TATTOO-GATE
Graham Platner, the scandal-plagued Democrat running for Senate in Maine, continued to insist he only recently became aware that a black skull tattoo on his chest resembles a Nazi SS symbol, even amid mounting evidence suggesting he was aware of what the image represented long before he announced his campaign this summer, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports. A new investigation published on Friday by CNN confirmed JI’s earlier reporting that Platner had on at least one occasion identified the tattoo as a Nazi SS symbol, known as a Totenkopf, to a former acquaintance more than a decade ago.
New evidence: The former acquaintance spoke with CNN, which also interviewed a second person who said that the acquaintance had mentioned Platner’s tattoo years ago. In addition, CNN reviewed a more recent text exchange from several months ago in which the acquaintance discussed the tattoo, before Platner himself revealed he had the tattoo in an interview last week, in an effort to preempt what he described as opposition research seeking to damage his insurgent Senate campaign. Both JI and CNN also cited deleted Reddit posts in which Platner, a 41-year-old Marine veteran and an oyster farmer, defended the use of Nazi tattoos, including SS lighting bolts, among servicemembers. In one thread, a user had mentioned the Totenkopf, further indicating that Platner had been aware of its symbolism before he entered the race in August to unseat Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME).
ONLINE APPEARANCE
The executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Ohio branch moderated an online event last week featuring a Hamas official designated as a terrorist by the Treasury Department, as well as other Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members. The Beirut-based think tank Al-Zaytouna Centre for Studies and Consultations hosted an event in Arabic last week titled “Palestinians Abroad and Regional International Strategic Transformations in Light of Operation Al-Aksa Flood,” using Hamas’ name for its Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Terror talk: Among the speakers at the web conference was Majed al-Zeer, who was designated by the Treasury Department in October 2024 as “the senior Hamas representative in Germany, who is also one of the senior Hamas members in Europe and has played a central role in the terrorist group’s European fundraising.” Al-Zeer said that “the resistance” is key to maintaining the momentum of a “strategic shift” in how Europe and the world views the Palestinian issue.
SLATE OF ENDORSEMENTS
With eyes on several high-profile races across the country featuring candidates antagonistic to Jewish interests, activists in one of the most progressive parts of the country are raising the alarm on local seats that act as a “rung on a ladder” to higher office, saying the problems the Jewish community face “start further upstream,” Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik reports. The Kids Table, a new PAC in Washington state supporting “pro-Jewish candidates” and led by “Millennials and moms, public affairs experts and gymnastics dads,” unveiled a slate of endorsements this month in races for the board of directors of Seattle Public Schools, a school district that has seen several major antisemitic incidents since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel and subsequent rise of antisemitism across the country, including in K-12 classrooms, amid the two-year war between Israel and Hamas.
Eye on education: “We need help in the school districts now,” Sam Jefferies, co-chair of The Kids Table, told JI. “We also know that school boards can be a rung on a ladder as [candidates] seek higher office, and we want to make sure that we are building relationships with them early, providing them critical context and education around our issues, and then carry that forward, whether it’s on the school board or elsewhere.”
PEOPLE OF THE BOOK CLUB
For Jewish and Israeli authors and the people who enjoy their books, the publishing industry has been a decidedly depressing place over the last two years, with boycotts against the works of authors deemed to be Zionists. A new initiative from the Jewish Book Council, a 100-year-old nonprofit dedicated to promoting Jewish literature, aims to fight back against the torrent of bad news for Jewish writers. This month, JBC unveiled Nu Reads, a subscription service that will deliver selected Jewish books to subscribers bimonthly, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. The first book, Happy New Years, a novel by the Israeli author Maya Arad, has already shipped to Nu Reads’ inaugural subscribers.
Caring for the community: “There’s a chill for our community across the industry,” JBC CEO Naomi Firestone-Teeter told JI in an interview this month. “If we care about Jewish literature and we care about these authors and ideas, we need to buy these books. We need to invest in them and support them.” More than 230,000 Jewish families in the U.S. and Canada receive children’s books each month through PJ Library, a program modeled on Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. It was PJ Library — which has transformed young Jews’ experience with Jewish books in the two decades it has existed — that served as an inspiration to JBC.
FLIGHT TRACKER
American Airlines announced plans on Friday to resume direct flights to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport starting in March, marking the first time since the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks that the carrier will fly directly to Israel, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
On the calendar: Flights to Tel Aviv are scheduled to resume on March 28, 2026, just days ahead of the Passover holiday, when Israel typically sees an influx of tourism. Tickets will be available for purchase beginning Monday. The announcement comes weeks after Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in the Gaza war. American is the last of the major U.S. carriers to resume flights to Israel.
TRANSITION
The Combat Antisemitism Movement tapped constitutional lawyer Alyza Lewin on Monday to lead its revamped U.S. affairs department, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen has learned. Lewin steps into CAM’s newly established role of president of U.S. affairs following eight years at the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, where as president she spearheaded legal and advocacy efforts protecting the civil rights of Jewish students and employees nationwide.
New role: At CAM, Lewin, an attorney who co-founded Lewin & Lewin, LLP, will “help broader audiences recognize and understand the antisemitism that’s plaguing the United States today,” she told JI. The six-year-old advocacy organization “has developed relationships with so many communities and audiences that need to understand how to recognize contemporary antisemitism,” said Lewin. In her new position, Lewin will oversee coordination and engagement with those groups. “These broader audiences need to understand the tools at their disposal and utilize them to address discrimination that’s taking place,” she said, adding that she plans to educate about the implementation of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism.
Worthy Reads
Peace Dividends: In The Washington Post, Yuval Noah Harari posits that Israel’s peace treaties with its neighbors have been critical to the country’s survival since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and ensuing war. “Hamas hoped that its attack would trigger an all-out Arab onslaught on Israel, but this failed to materialize. The only entities that undertook direct hostile actions against Israel were Hezbollah, the Houthis, Iran and various Iranian-backed militias in Syria and Iraq — none of which had ever recognized Israel’s right to exist. In contrast, Egypt did not break the peace treaty it signed with Israel in 1979; Jordan did not break the peace treaty signed in 1994; and the gulf states did not break the treaties signed in 2020. … As we reflect on the terrible events of the past two years, we should not let the silent success of Middle Eastern peace treaties be drowned out by the echoes of violent explosions. The peace treaties Israel had signed with its Arab neighbors have been put to an extremely severe test, and they have held. After years of horrific war, this should encourage people on all sides to give another chance to peace.” [WashPost]
Filling the Void: In The New York Times, James Rubin, an advisor to former Secretaries of State Tony Blinken and Madeleine Albright, considers the elements that could foster long-term calm in the Gaza Strip. “The linchpin of any lasting peace will be the creation and deployment of an international force, a feature of the U.S. peace plan that was announced by President Trump and endorsed by world leaders in Egypt earlier this month and that spawned the cease-fire. The force would create conditions to realize other aspects of the plan: filling the growing security vacuum in Gaza, allowing for Palestinian self-governance and ensuring that Israel will not be threatened. … With a clear plan, a U.N. resolution and a main troop contributor identified, it would then be much easier to fill out the force with actual commitments of personnel and expand the training of a Palestinian contingent, which would ideally over time replace the international forces, as envisioned in the Trump plan.” [NYTimes]
Annexation Angst: The Atlantic’s Yair Rosenberg reflects on potential conflicts between far-right elements of the Israeli government and the Trump administration, on the heels of two Knesset votes regarding West Bank annexation that took place during Vice President JD Vance’s trip to Israel last week. “The more political and economic influence the Gulf states have over Trump and Israel, the more demands they will be able to make of both. Heading off formal annexation of the West Bank is the first ask, but it won’t be the last. Ultimately, the far right’s program of unfettered settler expansion and violence, unending war and eventual settlement in Gaza, and no negotiations with the Palestinian Authority is irreconcilable with a more regionally integrated Israel and an expanded Abraham Accords. In practice, this means that as long as Israel’s settler right holds power over Netanyahu, it will continue to threaten the Trump administration’s agenda.” [TheAtlantic]
The Next British Invasion: In The Wall Street Journal, Rabbi Pini Dunner suggests that the U.S. accept British Jews as refugees, citing antisemitism in the U.K. that is “marching down the high street, waving flags, shouting slogans,” as well as the recent precedent set by the Trump administration in granting some South Africans a pathway to refugee status. “Let’s offer a lifeline for Jews who can no longer walk the streets of London, Manchester or Birmingham without looking over their shoulders. America has always been a haven. We can open our doors to Jews who no longer feel safe in the country that once promised them safety. Yes, the U.S. refugee system is overwhelmed. Yes, immigration is politically toxic. But this is different. This is moral clarity. Every year, the U.S. admits thousands fleeing persecution because of race, religion or politics. British Jews now fit that category. Their persecutors aren’t warlords or terrorists. They’re neighbors, coworkers, teachers, even police officers — and Jews feel unsafe. When a Western democracy fails to protect its Jews, other countries must act. That isn’t interference, it’s conscience.” [WSJ]
Word on the Street
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who had held off endorsing a candidate in New York City’s upcoming mayoral election, announced his backing of Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani on Friday, the day before early voting began in the city…
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul appeared at a Sunday rally for Mamdani in Queens, the first time the governor campaigned for Mamdani since endorsing him last month…
The Lakewood, N.J., Vaad endorsed GOP gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli, a week and a half ahead of Ciattarelli’s general election matchup against Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), who in recent weeks has stepped up her outreach efforts to the state’s Jewish community…
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said that he would make a decision about the 2028 presidential election after the 2026 midterms, amid speculation that he is preparing for a run…
Northwestern University announced that Provost Kathleen Hagerty will depart the Illinois school by the end of the academic year; the announcement comes a month after the resignation of President Michael Schill amid clashes with the Trump administration over the school’s handling of antisemitism…
British journalist Sami Hamdi, who praised the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, had his U.S. visa revoked during a speaking tour and will be deported over his comments…
A new report from the United States–Israel Business Alliance found that Israeli-founded companies in New York State generated $19.5 billion in gross economic output in 2024…
The Washington Post spotlights the Jewish bubbes who doled out “life advice from a nice Jewish grandma” from a table outside Washington’s Sixth and I Synagogue…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told members of his Cabinet that Israel will determine which countries are “unacceptable” to send troops to Gaza to join an international stabilization force, as The New York Times looks at how tensions between Israel and Turkey are affecting Ankara’s participation in efforts to administer and rebuild postwar Gaza…
British Airways paused its sponsorship of Louis Theroux’s podcast, following an episode that featured an interview with punk musician Bob Vylan, who led cheers of “death to the IDF” at the Glastonbury music festival over the summer; in the interview, Vylan said he would lead the chant “again tomorrow, twice on Sundays”…
Hard-left independent Irish presidential candidate Catherine Connolly, who has called Israel a “terrorist state,” won the country’s election on Friday; read our profile of Connolly here…
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas designated longtime aide Hussein al-Sheikh as his temporary successor should he vacate his leadership role…
Qatar inaugurated its new embassy in Washington, in the 16th Street NW building that housed the Carnegie Institution for Washington until its sale in 2021…
Israel’s Mossad alleged that a senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps official oversaw a network of more than 11,000 operatives that was behind at least three Iranian plots against Jewish and Israeli targets in Western countries…
Iran’s Ayandeh Bank is closing and being folded into the state-run Bank Melli; the shuttering of one of the country’s biggest lenders comes amid a growing economic crisis in the Islamic Republic resulting from crippling international sanctions…
The Financial Times profiles Pakistani Chief of Army Staff Asim Munir, who President Donald Trump has described as his “favorite field marshal,” as the military leader aims to consolidate power in the central Asian country…
Jon Finer, who served as deputy national security advisor during the Biden administration, is joining the Center for American Progress as a distinguished senior fellow on CAP’s National Security and International Policy team…
Journalist Sid Davis, who covered the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and was one of just three reporters on Air Force One during the swearing-in of President Lyndon B. Johnson, died at 97…
Pic of the Day
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar (left) met earlier today with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto in Budapest. Sa’ar was joined on the trip by a delegation of several dozen Israeli business leaders.
Birthdays
Author, actress and comedian, Fran Lebowitz turns 75…
Treasurer of the Pacific Palisades Residents Association, Gordon Gerson… Senior U.S. district judge in Maine, he was born in a refugee camp following World War II, Judge George Z. Singal turns 80… Rabbi emeritus at Miami Beach’s Temple Beth Sholom, Gary Glickstein turns 78… SVP at MarketVision Research, Joel M. Schindler… President emeritus of Jewish Creativity International, Robert Goldfarb… Co-chair of a task force at the Bipartisan Policy Center, he is a former U.S. ambassador to Finland and Turkey, Eric Steven Edelman turns 74… Television writer, director and producer, best known as the co-creator of the 122 episodes of “The Nanny,” Peter Marc Jacobson turns 68… Senior advisor and fellow at the Soufan Group following 31 years at the Congressional Research Service, Dr. Kenneth Katzman… Co-owner of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and English soccer club Manchester United, Bryan Glazer turns 61… New York state senator from Manhattan, he serves as chair of the NYS Senate Judiciary Committee, Brad Hoylman-Sigal turns 60… Creator and editor of the Drudge Report, Matt Drudge turns 59… Hasidic cantor and singer known by his first and middle names, Shlomo Simcha Sufrin turns 58… Managing partner of the Los Angeles office of HR&A Advisors, Andrea Batista Schlesinger turns 49… Sportscaster for CBS Sports, Adam Zucker turns 49… Music composer, he is a distinguished senior scholar at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, Yotam Haber turns 49… Member of the Netherlands House of Representatives, Gideon “Gidi” Markuszower turns 48… Television meteorologist, currently working for The Weather Channel, Stephanie Abrams turns 47… Writer, attorney and creative writing teacher, she has published two novels and a medical memoir, Elizabeth L. Silver turns 47… Israel’s minister of environmental protection, Idit Silman turns 45… Chair of the Open Society Foundations, founded by his father George Soros, Alexander F. G. Soros turns 40… Israeli actress best known for playing Eve in the Netflix series “Lucifer,” Inbar Lavi turns 39… Senior foreign policy and national security advisor for Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Elizabeth (Liz) Leibowitz… Executive producer of online content at WTSP in St. Petersburg, Fla., Theresa Collington… Senior social marketing manager at Amazon, Stephanie Arbetter… Senior director of sales at Arch, Andrew J. Taub… Co-founder of Arch, Ryan Eisenman… Real estate agent and co-founder and president of Bond Companies, Robert J. Bond…
The Democratic candidate has remained defiant amid CNN’s reporting confirming he was aware of the Nazi roots of a recently revealed chest tattoo
Daryn Slover/Portland Press Herald via AP
Senate candidate Graham Platner acknowledges the large crowd that attended Platner's town hall, Sept. 25, 2025, at Bunker Brewing in Portland, Maine.
Graham Platner, the scandal-plagued Democrat running for Senate in Maine, continued to insist he only recently became aware that a black skull tattoo on his chest resembles a Nazi SS symbol, even amid mounting evidence suggesting he was aware of what the image represented long before he announced his campaign this summer.
A new investigation published on Friday by CNN confirmed Jewish Insider’s earlier reporting that Platner had on at least one occasion identified the tattoo as a Nazi SS symbol, known as a Totenkopf, to a former acquaintance more than a decade ago.
The former acquaintance spoke with CNN, which also interviewed a second person who said that the acquaintance had mentioned Platner’s tattoo years ago. In addition, CNN reviewed a more recent text exchange from several months ago in which the acquaintance discussed the tattoo, before Platner himself revealed he had the tattoo in an interview last week, in an effort to preempt what he described as opposition research seeking to damage his insurgent Senate campaign.
Both JI and CNN also cited deleted Reddit posts in which Platner, a 41-year-old Marine veteran and an oyster farmer, defended the use of Nazi tattoos, including SS lighting bolts, among servicemembers. In one thread, a user had mentioned the Totenkopf, further indicating that Platner had been aware of its symbolism before he entered the race in August to unseat Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME).
While Platner has apologized for some recently unearthed Reddit posts in which he had described himself as a “communist,” called all cops “bastards” and downplayed sexual assault in the U.S. military, he has otherwise dismissed JI’s reporting about the tattoo, which he said he had gotten with a group of “very inebriated” Marines while they were on shore leave in Croatia in 2007.
Platner said the group had no idea it was a Nazi insignia and chose it simply because “skulls and crossbones are a pretty standard military thing,” as he put it in an interview with the “Pod Save America” podcast.
He has also dismissed claims by a former political director — who recently resigned from his campaign over objections to his past posts — who said last week that Platner had an “antisemitic tattoo on his chest” that he acknowledged “could be problematic” at the beginning of his campaign.
Platner said on Wednesday he had covered up the tattoo with a dog-themed Celtic knot, displayed in a video he posted to social media soon after JI published its story.
“The amount of money and time it takes to dig through somebody’s entire past who has not lived a very public life is extensive, and yet they are willing to expend those resources,” Platner told a crowd of supporters during an event in Ogunquit, Maine, last week. “They are not trying to organize people. They are trying to destroy my life,” he said, alluding to his perceived political enemies.
Progressives also continued to rally behind Platner, who is facing Gov. Janet Mills and other candidates in the Democratic primary next year — a prelude to what party leadership views as a key race to regain a majority in the Senate.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who is backing Platner and campaigned with him in Maine last month, was among top progressives who stood by the embattled Democrat hoping to withstand the ongoing scrutiny over his tattoo and now-deleted Reddit comments.
And not one Democratic senator has yet to say that Platner’s tattoo or his other controversies disqualify him from running, according to a recent NBC News report.
“He sounds like a human being to me,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said of Platner’s tattoo in a CNN interview on Sunday. “A human being who made mistakes, recognizes them, and is very open about it.”
Some polling has shown that Mills, a two-term governor who landed an endorsement from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), is trailing Platner by double digits — even among respondents surveyed amid the controversy over his past Reddit remarks.
A more recent survey released Saturday, however, showed Platner behind Mills by five points with 36%. But while his deficit broadly increased after voters were informed of his Nazi-linked tattoo, according to the poll conducted by SoCal Strategies, younger voters ages 18-29 still favored the former Marine.
Another recent poll, screenshots of which were shared with JI on Friday, included questions that had inaccurately described Platner’s tattoo as an “anti-Israel tattoo” and asking if such a tattoo “is disqualifying for a candidate seeking public office.”
It was unclear who had commissioned the poll. A spokesperson for Platner said he was not behind it. And the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which also released a poll late last week that showed Platner ahead of Mills, did not respond to a request for comment from JI on Friday.
Meanwhile, Jordan Wood, a former congressional aide also running in the Democratic primary, wrote last week that Platner’s “Reddit comments and Nazi SS Totenkopf tattoo are disqualifying.”
And another Democratic candidate in the primary, Daira Smith-Rodriguez, announced on Friday that she was ending her bid and endorsing Mills, citing her concerns over Platner’s past Reddit comments “as a survivor of military sexual assault.”
Plus, Massie lands Trump-backed primary challenger
Graham Platner campaign
Graham Platner
Good Wednesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on comments from former staff and an acquaintance of Graham Platner who said the Maine Senate candidate lied about knowing the meaning behind his chest tattoo that resembles a Nazi symbol, and cover Vice President JD Vance’s comments, made yesterday in Israel, that Hamas will be “obliterated” if it does not disarm. We report on Paul Ingrassia’s withdrawal from consideration to head the Office of Special Counsel over recently revealed racist and antisemitic texts, and cover yesterday’s Senate hearing on Hezbollah’s operations in Venezuela. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Tzachi Hanegbi, Gov. Josh Shapiro and Rev. Johnnie Moore.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- Vice President JD Vance is in Israel today for meetings with senior officials. The vice president had separate meetings earlier today with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. More below.
- In a ceremony at the president’s residence in Jerusalem tonight, Herzog is awarding the 2025 Presidential Medal of Honor to nine individuals, including Dr. Miriam Adelson, Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner, Israeli historian Dina Porat, entrepreneur Yossi Vardi and Druze leader Sheikh Muwaffaq Tarif. Read more in eJewishPhilanthropy here.
- Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) is slated to visit Lakewood, N.J., today as part of her outreach to the state’s Jewish community ahead of next month’s gubernatorial election. Sherrill’s visit comes as Republican Jack Ciattarelli faces criticism for a recent comment, made by his Muslim affairs advisor at a campaign event over the weekend, that the advisor wasn’t “taking money from Jews.”
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR
One of the defining characteristics of our age is the utter lack of institutional gatekeepers and red lines against hate in our politics and culture. Extremist rhetoric, antisemitism, racism and approval of political violence are all becoming commonplace in our discourse, to the point where Americans have become numb to the crazy.
Just take a look at the headlines over the last month of scandals that have captured national attention — and would have been unthinkable not long ago.
Paul Ingrassia, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel, withdrew himself from consideration yesterday after belated backlash over his history of racist and antisemitic comments — including a recently revealed text message chain where he said he has a “Nazi streak.” We reported on Ingrassia’s extremist record in May, revealing a string of antisemitic and racist public social media posts, including this shocking comment on X days after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack: “I think we could all admit at this stage that Israel/Palestine, much like Ukraine before it, and BLM before that, and covid/vaccine before that, was yet another psyop.”
Ingrassia also has been an ally of Nick Fuentes, a virulently antisemitic podcast host and far-right influencer who has long trafficked in Holocaust denial. He attended a rally in 2024 for Fuentes, and in 2023 defended Fuentes after he was banned from Twitter.
Ample documentation of Ingrassia’s bigotry didn’t stunt his nomination, though the new shocking revelations from the private text chain caused key Republicans — most notably, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and Sens. Ron Johnson (R-WI), Rick Scott (R-FL) and James Lankford (R-OK) — to withdraw their support and end his chances of getting confirmed.
But the fact that he got as close as he did to receiving a hearing for the plum role shows just how much antisemitism is becoming normalized.
Graham Platner, the embattled far-left candidate in Maine’s Senate race, already under scrutiny over social media posts declaring himself a communist and calling the police “bastards,” acknowledged he has a skull-and-crossbones tattoo on his chest that his just-departed political director characterized as “anti-Semitic.” A former acquaintance of Platner’s said he called the tattoo “my Totkenpof,” referring to a symbol adopted by a Nazi SS unit.
Platner is facing Maine Gov. Janet Mills, the favorite of the party establishment (for good reason) in the Democratic Senate primary. Platner has been endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), praised by several progressive senators and backed by a number of leading labor unions, including the UAW.
Despite Platner’s remarkable baggage and Nazi-themed tattoo, Sanders still is standing behind him. ”I personally think he is an excellent candidate. We don’t have enough candidates in this country who are prepared to take on the powers to be and fight for the working class,” Sanders said Tuesday, when pressed by reporters about the tattoo allegations.
TATTOO TALE
Graham Platner, a far-left Democratic candidate running for Senate in Maine who has captured the enthusiasm of the party’s grassroots base, sought to preempt rumors circulating in recent weeks that a black skull-and-cross bones tattoo on his chest is a Nazi symbol, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports. On a podcast earlier this week, Platner, a Marine veteran and oyster farmer in Maine who has faced scrutiny over past online posts, confirmed the existence of the tattoo, seen in a video he shared displaying his bare chest, but suggested that his opponents in the race have been spreading claims that the symbol is affiliated with Nazism, which he forcefully denied.
Conflicting accounts: “I am not a secret Nazi. Actually, if you read through my Reddit comments, I think you can pretty much figure out where I stand on Nazism and antisemitism and racism in general,” said Platner, 41. But according to a person who socialized with Platner when he was living in Washington, D.C., more than a decade ago, Platner had specifically acknowledged that the tattoo was a Totenkopf, the “death’s head” symbol adopted by an infamous Nazi SS unit that guarded concentration camps in World War II. “He said, ‘Oh, this is my Totenkopf,’” the former acquaintance told JI recently. “He said it in a cutesy little way.” Platner’s former political director, Genevieve McDonald, who resigned from his campaign last week over her objection to his recently unearthed incendiary Reddit comments, said in a Facebook post on Tuesday that “Graham has an antisemitic tattoo on his chest.” McDonald wrote in the post, “He’s not an idiot, he’s a military history buff. Maybe he didn’t know it when he got it, but he got it years ago and he should have had it covered up because he knows damn well what it means.”
SELF-SABOTAGE
Graham Platner, a far-left Democratic candidate running for Senate in Maine who has captured the enthusiasm of the party’s grassroots base, sought to preempt rumors circulating in recent weeks that a black skull-and-cross bones tattoo on his chest is a Nazi symbol, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports. On a podcast earlier this week, Platner, a Marine veteran and oyster farmer in Maine who has faced scrutiny over past online posts, confirmed the existence of the tattoo, seen in a video he shared displaying his bare chest, but suggested that his opponents in the race have been spreading claims that the symbol is affiliated with Nazism, which he forcefully denied.
Conflicting accounts: “I am not a secret Nazi. Actually, if you read through my Reddit comments, I think you can pretty much figure out where I stand on Nazism and antisemitism and racism in general,” said Platner, 41. But according to a person who socialized with Platner when he was living in Washington, D.C., more than a decade ago, Platner had specifically acknowledged that the tattoo was a Totenkopf, the “death’s head” symbol adopted by an infamous Nazi SS unit that guarded concentration camps in World War II. “He said, ‘Oh, this is my Totenkopf,’” the former acquaintance told JI recently. “He said it in a cutesy little way.” Platner’s former political director, Genevieve McDonald, who resigned from his campaign last week over her objection to his recently unearthed incendiary Reddit comments, said in a Facebook post on Tuesday that “Graham has an antisemitic tattoo on his chest.” McDonald wrote in the post, “He’s not an idiot, he’s a military history buff. Maybe he didn’t know it when he got it, but he got it years ago and he should have had it covered up because he knows damn well what it means.”
primary pressure
Ed Gallrein, a former Navy SEAL and fifth-generation Kentucky farmer, launched his bid on Tuesday to unseat Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) after being urged by President Donald Trump to challenge the renegade, anti-Israel congressman in the GOP primary, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports. Gallrein’s campaign launch comes four days after Trump declared that the Kentucky native was his preferred candidate to take on Massie, whom Trump had soured on over his growing antagonism towards the White House’s agenda. Massie was one of the only congressional Republicans to oppose Trump’s landmark “big, beautiful” spending bill and has worked with Democrats to force a floor vote to release Justice Department documents on Jeffrey Epstein.
Announcement: “I’ve dedicated my life to serving my country, and I’m ready to answer the call again. This district is Trump Country,” Gallrein said in a statement announcing his bid. “The president doesn’t need obstacles in Congress — he needs backup. I’ll defeat Thomas Massie, stand shoulder to shoulder with President Trump, and deliver the America First results Kentuckians voted for. Thomas Massie has become one of the biggest roadblocks to President Trump’s America First agenda. When Trump fought for historic tax cuts, Massie voted no. When Trump tried to fully fund border security, Massie stood in the way. President Trump endorsed me because Kentuckians deserve a congressman who will stand with our president, not against him.”
HARANGUING HAMAS
Visiting the new U.S.-run Civilian Military Cooperation Center in southern Israel, Vice President JD Vance said on Tuesday that he is “very optimistic” about the advancement of the peace plan, but warned that Hamas must disarm and cooperate with international interlocutors, or else it would be “obliterated.” The vice president’s comments came shortly after President Donald Trump, in a post on his Truth Social site, threatened Hamas with “elimination” should the terror group continue to carry out violence in Gaza and violate the terms of the peace deal, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov and Matthew Shea report.
Veep’s speech: “Hamas has to disarm,” Vance said. “They’re not going to be able to kill their fellow Palestinians. … If Hamas doesn’t cooperate, as the president of the United States said, Hamas will be obliterated. But I’m not going to do what the president of the United States has thus far refused to do, which is put an explicit deadline on it, because a lot of this stuff is difficult … In order for us to give it a chance to succeed, we’ve got to be a little bit flexible.”
WEST BANK WORRIES
Every Senate Democrat except for Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) wrote to President Donald Trump on Tuesday urging him to “reinforce” the White House’s pledge to oppose Israeli annexation of the West Bank, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
What they said: In a letter led by Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the senators offered their “support for your comments opposing any efforts by the Government of Israel to annex territory in the West Bank and to urge your Administration to promote steps to preserve the viability of a two-state solution and the success of the Abraham Accords.” The missive was sent weeks after Trump vowed publicly to not allow Israel to annex the West Bank, telling reporters in the Oval Office in late September that, “I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank, nope, I will not allow it. It’s not gonna happen.”
on the hill
The first congressional hearing on Hezbollah’s malign activities in the Western Hemisphere in a decade took place this week, highlighting Venezuela’s embrace of Iran as a geopolitical partner and the Maduro regime’s efforts to transform the country into a regional hub for narcoterrorism, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
Who, when, what: The bipartisan Senate International Narcotics Control Caucus convened the hearing, titled “Global Gangsters: Hezbollah’s Latin American Drug Trafficking Operations,” on Tuesday, to explore how Hezbollah’s influence in the region had expanded and determine the most effective ways for the U.S. to respond. Witnesses included Ambassador Nathan Sales, who served as the State Department’s counterterrorism coordinator in the first Trump administration; Marshall Billingslea, the special envoy for arms control and a former Treasury official during President Donald Trump’s first term; Matthew Levitt, the director of the Reinhard Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy; and Robert Clifford, a former FBI official who worked in the counterterrorism space.
Worthy Reads
Threat Assessment: In The Wall Street Journal, Elisha Wiesel raises concerns about what a potential victory by New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani could mean for the city’s Jewish community. “Mr. Mamdani’s messaging has made class war and hatred of Jews great again. Smiling, polished, articulate, Mr. Mamdani lies. He lies about Israel as easily as he lies that he can freeze rent and offer free goods through higher taxes, as though the corporations and billionaires he targets can’t relocate. New Yorkers aren’t dumb, but we’re busy. Mr. Mamdani is lying to those too busy to learn the truth. His attack points: ‘occupation,’ ‘apartheid,’ ‘genocide.’ The casualties: truth, friendships, coexistence for New York’s Jews. Unlike Andrew Cuomo, he seeks to ‘other’ us and divide the city. Mr. Mamdani blamed Hamas’s butchery on the ‘occupation’ on Oct. 8, while Israel was reeling. He omitted that Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005 and that Hamas built rockets and tunnels with billions in aid.” [WSJ]
The Two Gazas: In The Washington Post, Palestinian lawyer and former Hamas political prisoner Moumen Al-Natour warns of the threat that Hamas’ continued governance poses for the areas of the Gaza Strip it still controls. “I have been deeply involved in Gaza’s underground civil society movement for many years, much of which was spent preparing for an unknown moment where we would have a chance to be free of Hamas’s cruel domination and break the cycle of war with Israel. That moment is now here, and I am certain that this is the chance for which I spent my life protesting, organizing and suffering. It was worth the scars and the terror to see that there can be a different future here. But on the other side of the yellow line exists another Gaza that will do anything to prevent this from happening. Over there the war continues, albeit not between Israel and Hamas but between Hamas and Gaza itself.” [WashPost]
Fear Factor: The New York Times’ Bret Stephens urges his readers to pause for thought as he lays out the reasons why many Jewish New Yorkers harbor fears concerning the views of mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. “What does it mean for Jewish New Yorkers that a mayoral candidate who pledges to fight antisemitism also proudly avows the very ideology that is the source of so much of the hatred Jews now face? Why, right after Oct. 7, could he do no better than to issue a mealy-mouthed acknowledgment that Jews had died the day before? Why couldn’t he even denounce the perpetrators of the most murderous antisemitic rampage in the past 80 years? … In the long, sorry tale of anti-Jewish politics, it hasn’t just been the prejudice of a few that’s led Jews to grief. It’s been the supine indifference of the many. That’s what frightens Jews like me.” [NYTimes]
Restraining the Hard Right: The Atlantic’s Yair Rosenberg cautions that while President Donald Trump’s new Gaza agreement earned cheers in Israel, it has begun to restrain the Israeli hard‑right’s settlement ambitions — a dynamic that could determine whether his peace deal endures and that will impact Israel’s path forward. “According to the agreement, in the early stages of the current deal, Israel will remain in control of much of Gaza’s uninhabited territory until Hamas is disarmed and displaced. These are precisely the areas that the far right hopes to settle and even annex to Israel. Hamas is dragging its feet on releasing the bodies of dead Israeli hostages, publicly executing Palestinians opposed to its rule, and showing no sign that it intends to give up its weapons. The Israeli army and Hamas are still skirmishing along the cease-fire line. Even if none of this is enough to capsize the accord, it will likely delay further implementation and provide a window for the settlers and their political allies to try to insinuate themselves into those parts of Gaza. Only Trump can stop this from happening — at least until Israel holds new elections next year that could boot Netanyahu and his partners from power.” [TheAtlantic]
Word on the Street
The Trump administration is nearing an agreement with the University of Virginia — the first public university to settle with the federal government — after months of negotiations amid a broader crackdown by the White House on college campuses that included the removal of the school’s president earlier this year…
Efforts to establish a multinational peacekeeping force in Gaza are facing hurdles as countries hesitate to send troops to the enclave due to Hamas’ continued control across broad swaths of the Gaza Strip…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi following media reports of disagreements between the two over Israel’s military strategy; Hanegbi, following his firing, said that the events of Oct. 7, 2023, “must be thoroughly investigated to ensure that the necessary lessons are learned and to help restore the public trust that has been shaken”…
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Rep. David Trone (D-MD) are co-chairing a new national campaign aimed at implementing congressional term limits to curb the degree to which Capitol Hill is “dominated by career politicians, buoyed by re-election rates that routinely exceed 90 percent, who seem more concerned with clinging to power than serving the public”…
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) will announce her future political plans following next month’s vote on California redistricting…
State senators in North Carolina approved a new congressional map that would give the GOP an extra seat in the Tarheel State, amid a broader push by the Trump administration for mid-decade redistricting that would secure additional seats…
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, widely viewed as a likely 2028 Democratic presidential contender, plans to publish a memoir early next year, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports…
The Federman family is transferring control of its 29% stake in Maccabi Tel Aviv to Mark, Zyg and Leonard Wilf, and will continue as limited partners in the team…
OurCrowd CEO Jon Medved is transitioning to a new role as the company’s chair following his diagnosis of ALS…
Israel received the bodies of Kibbutz Nir Oz residents Tamir Adar and Arie Zalmanowicz from Gaza; Adar was killed during the Oct. 7 attacks, while Zalmanowicz, one of the kibbutz’s founders, was injured when he was taken hostage, and is believed to have died in Hamas captivity in November 2023…
The Financial Times looks at Iran’s efforts to speed up production of solar energy projects as the Islamic Republic faces energy shortages due to international sanctions and aging infrastructure…
Former Gaza Humanitarian Foundation head Rev. Johnnie Moore is joining Pepperdine University as its vice chancellor in Washington, D.C., and managing director of the school’s master of Middle East policy studies program in its school of public policy…
The body of Bipin Joshi, a Nepalese kibbutz worker who was taken hostage by Hamas and killed in captivity, was cremated in a funeral ceremony in Nepal after his remains were repatriated earlier this week after being turned over by the terror group in Gaza…
Rabbi Arthur Waskow, the author of The Freedom Seder, died at 92…
Pic of the Day
Eli Taher, the chairman of Yad L’Banim, which commemorates fallen soldiers, planted a tree yesterday in honor of his son, Yossi Taher, who was killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, in the Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund’s “Iron Swords Forest,” which was inaugurated yesterday outside Kibbutz Beeri. In his speech at the ceremony, Taher, whose brother and another son were also killed while serving in the military, discussed his struggles to overcome his grief.
“Every day when I wake up, at 5 a.m., I set for myself a hill to climb. I imagine my two boys sitting on that hill, with a bonfire and a bottle of beer. And every day, I climb that hill. I fall, I get hurt, I yell, I cry, I laugh, but at the end of every day, I drink that beer with my kids. Every day, I overcome that loss and destruction,” Taher said. “Like a tree can grow, so can we, bereaved families, continue to grow despite the pain and loss.”
Birthdays
Actor and producer, best known for his roles as a child actor starting at age 6, Jonathan Lipnicki turns 35…
Australian philanthropist, real estate investor and longtime chairman of Westfield Corporation, Frank Lowy turns 95… Pioneer of the venture capital and private equity industries, he is chairperson and co-founder of Primetime Partners, Alan Patricof turns 91… Retired EVP of the Orthodox Union, he was previously chairman of NYC-based law firm Proskauer Rose, Allen Fagin… Professor of education at American Jewish University, Ron Wolfson, Ph.D…. Actor who starred in many high-grossing films such as “Jurassic Park,” “Independence Day” and sequels to both, Jeff Goldblum turns 73… Agent for artists, sculptors and photographers, he is a son of Lillian Vernon, David Hochberg… Retired vice-chair of SKDK, she was the longtime CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, Hilary Rosen turns 67… Composer and lyricist, he has won two Grammys, two Emmys and a Tony, Marc Shaiman turns 66… Author of two novels and three other books, Susan Jane Gilman… Former NYC commissioner for international affairs, Edward Alexander Mermelstein turns 58… Bethesda, Md., resident, Eric Matthew Fingerhut… President of Argentina since December 2023, Javier Milei turns 55… Chief of staff of The Associated Jewish Federation of Baltimore, Michelle Gordon… Director of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum, Albert Stankowski turns 54… Screenwriter and executive producer, Eric Guggenheim turns 52… Actor best known for playing D.J. Conner on the long-running series “Roseanne” and its spin-off show, “The Conners,” Michael Fishman turns 44… Partner at West End Strategy Team, Samantha Friedman Kupferman… Dana Max Tarley Sicherman… Sports radio talk show host and podcaster, Danny Parkins turns 39… Psychotherapist with a private practice in White Plains, Maayan Tregerman, LCSW-R… Journalist and author, Ross Barkan turns 36… One of Israel’s most popular singers, his YouTube channel has over 2.4 billion views, Omer Adam turns 32… Freelance reporter, Ryan Torok…
A former acquaintance of the Maine Senate candidate said he called the tattoo ‘my Totenkopf,’ referring to a symbol adopted by a Nazi SS unit
Daryn Slover/Portland Press Herald via AP
Senate candidate Graham Platner acknowledges the large crowd that attended Platner's town hall, Sept. 25, 2025, at Bunker Brewing in Portland, Maine.
Graham Platner, a far-left Democratic candidate running for Senate in Maine who has captured the enthusiasm of the party’s grassroots base, sought to preempt rumors circulating in recent weeks that a black skull-and-cross bones tattoo on his chest is a Nazi symbol.
Speaking with Tommy Vietor on the “Pod Save America” political podcast, released on Monday night, Platner, 41, confirmed the existence of the tattoo, seen in video he shared displaying his bare chest, but suggested that his opponents in the race have been spreading claims that the symbol is affiliated with Nazism, which he forcefully denied.
“I am not a secret Nazi. Actually, if you read through my Reddit comments, I think you can pretty much figure out where I stand on Nazism and antisemitism and racism in general,” said Platner, a Marine veteran and oyster farmer in Maine who has faced scrutiny over past online posts. “I would say a lifelong opponent.”
But according to a person who socialized with Platner when he was living in Washington, D.C., more than a decade ago, Platner had specifically acknowledged that the tattoo was a Totenkopf, the “death’s head” symbol adopted by an infamous Nazi SS unit that guarded concentration camps in World War II.
“He said, ‘Oh, this is my Totenkopf,’” the former acquaintance told Jewish Insider recently, speaking on the condition of anonymity to address a sensitive issue. “He said it in a cutesy little way.”
The exchange occurred in 2012 at Tune Inn, a popular dive on Capitol Hill where Platner later worked as a bartender and was a frequent patron while he attended The George Washington University on the G.I. bill, according to the former acquaintance. He would often take his shirt off drinking with friends late at night at the bar, and on at least one occasion had stated he knew what the tattoo represented, the former acquaintance recalled.
Platner gave varying accounts of the image during this time, saying at one point he was aware it was a Totenkopf when he had first gotten the tattoo several years prior and at another time claiming he had not known, according to the former acquaintance.
The mixed accounts indicate that Platner has at least long been aware of the symbols’s connection to Nazism, even as he said in the podcast interview he was not familiar with any such association when he chose to get the tattoo.
Platner, who is running to unseat Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said he had gotten the tattoo in Split, Croatia, in 2007, when he and a group of “very inebriated” fellow Marines had time off while on deployment and decided to step into a parlor. “We chose a terrifying-looking skull and crossbones off the wall, because we were Marines, and skulls and crossbones are a pretty standard military thing,” he explained on the podcast.
“We got those tattoos, and then we all moved on with our lives,” he added, emphasizing he had later served in the Army and received a security clearance to work as a contractor for the State Department in Afghanistan. “I can honestly say that if I was trying to hide it,” he continued, “I’ve not been doing a very good job for the past 18 years.”
In a statement shared with JI on Tuesday, Platner said he did not know about the tattoo’s connection to Nazi imagery until recently. “It was not until I started hearing from reporters and DC insiders that I realized this tattoo resembled a Nazi symbol,” he said. “I absolutely would not have gone through life having this on my chest if I knew that — and to insinuate that I did is disgusting. I am already planning to get this removed.”
Platner’s former political director, Genevieve McDonald, who resigned from his campaign last week over her objection to his recently unearthed incendiary Reddit comments, said in a Facebook post on Tuesday that “Graham has an antisemitic tattoo on his chest.”
“He’s not an idiot, he’s a military history buff,” McDonald wrote in the post, which was reviewed by JI. “Maybe he didn’t know it when he got it, but he got it years ago and he should have had it covered up because he knows damn well what it means.”
McDonald said that Platner’s campaign “released it themselves to some podcast bros, along with a video of him shirtless and drunk at a wedding to try to get ahead of it.”
A spokesperson for the Anti-Defamation League said in a statement to JI that Platner’s tattoo “appears to be a Nazi Totenkopf tattoo, and if true, it is troubling that a candidate for high office would have one.”
“We do understand that sometimes people get tattoos without understanding their hateful association,” the ADL spokesperson added. “In those cases, the bearer should be asked whether they repudiate its hateful meaning.”
Platner, a political newcomer who is facing Gov. Janet Mills and other candidates in the Democratic primary, launched his campaign in August and has raised more than $4 million while promoting a left-wing populist message — including staunch criticism of Israel and opposition to “fascists” — that garnered a high-profile endorsement from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
The Senate race is widely viewed by Democratic leadership as a major pickup opportunity in the midterm elections, as the party works to regain a majority in the upper chamber.
But Platner’s campaign has lost momentum in recent days amid the revelations that he had made several controversial comments while posting in Reddit forums. In a range of comments published anonymously, Platner, who has acknowledged that he wrote the posts and apologized for some of them, described himself as a “communist,” called all cops “bastards” and dismissed sexual assault in the military, among other remarks facing backlash.
In previously unreported posts reviewed by JI, Platner defended a man with a Nazi SS lightning bolt tattoo who later admitted to impersonating a federal officer at a Black Lives Matter protest in Las Vegas in 2020. “I will be sure to inform the black guys I know with bolts that they’re Nazis now and not USMC Scout/Snipers,” Platner said in a deleted Reddit post, referring to the Marines.
“Bolts were a STA icon since the ’80s at least, if not longer,” he wrote in another, using military jargon. “It was never official, but it sure as shit was tattooed on almost every HOG I knew between 2004-2012.”
Platner has also drawn scrutiny for appearing in a photo this summer with a white supremacist agitator in Maine, Richard Ward, who is running for a Bangor City Council seat.
Ward, a far-right activist who frequently spreads neo-Nazi rhetoric and imagery, wrote on Facebook in late August that he met and shook hands with Platner during an encounter at a Maine fair, posting a photo in which they are both seen standing side by side.
“Shaking hands with Graham Platner today at Blue Hill Fair,” Ward said. “Check out Graham Platner for U.S. Senate. We have a lot in common.”
In the photo, Ward is pictured wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the number “88,” an apparent reference to a widely recognized neo-Nazi code for “Heil Hitler.” The post, a screenshot of which was obtained by JI, has since been deleted from Ward’s Facebook page.
A spokesperson for Platner’s campaign confirmed the encounter had taken place but said that he had quickly ended the conversation. “Graham promptly told Richard to f*** off and get the f*** away, like he would tell any Nazi,” the spokesperson told JI last month.
Every one of the ads the Maine Democratic Senate candidate is running on Facebook and Instagram states his opposition to AIPAC, and several accuse Israel of genocide
Graham Platner for Senate
Graham Platner
Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner is putting anti-AIPAC and anti-Israel messaging front-and-center in fundraising appeals he’s circulating on social media.
Platner is currently running a series of Facebook and Instagram advertisements soliciting donations for his campaign that highlight his opposition to AIPAC and accuse Israel of committing genocide. The pitches indicate that Platner is treating the issue as central to rallying support for his campaign.
“My opponent has already been endorsed by AIPAC — an endorsement I will never get. Because what is happening right now in Gaza is a genocide,” Platner says in one direct-to-camera video ad focused specifically on his opposition to AIPAC. “I need your help because we refuse to take money from AIPAC, and we refuse to take money from the billionaires who support it.”
Every one of the eight active ads that Platner is running on Facebook and Instagram, according to Meta’s political advertising library tool, includes a repudiation of AIPAC, and around half accuse Israel of genocide. In most of Platner’s other ads, that language comes alongside comments on a range of other issues.
Some of the written advertisements being circulated by Platner’s campaign on Facebook and Instagram include language such as “there is a genocide happening in Palestine,” “why are we funding Netanyau’s genocide in Palestine?” and “I won’t kowtow to AIPAC or billionaires.”
Platner’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Platner, in the days since launching his campaign, has been repeatedly and vocally critical of Israel and of AIPAC, including calling the group “weird.”
Platner’s potential general election opponent, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) has been a vocal supporter of Israel in the Senate, as chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. It’s not clear yet how Platner’s stance on Israel will play in the election, but Collins is already attacking him for his views.
The candidate’s advocacy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict appears to date back to his high school days — a page from his yearbook that Platner’s campaign shared on X shows him holding a sign that appears to read “Free Kosovo Chechnya Kashmir Palestine Kurdistan Tibet.”
Vermont’s democratic socialist senator is on a campaign swing as part of his ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ tour
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Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks to guests during the first stop on his "Fighting Oligarchy" tour, Midwest swing, at the RiverCenter on August 22, 2025 in Davenport, Iowa.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is slated to appear with Graham Platner, a Democrat running to unseat Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), at a rally in Portland, Maine, on Labor Day, as the progressive leader from Vermont steps up his efforts to boost left-wing candidates who have been outspoken in their criticism of Israel and its ongoing war in Gaza.
Platner, a first-time candidate and Marine veteran who launched his campaign last week, has accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza and backed Sanders’ recent resolutions to block arms sales to Israel. Platner’s rhetoric has faced criticism from Collins, a moderate Republican seeking her sixth term.
Sanders, who announced the rally on Monday, has not officially endorsed Platner, a 40-year-old oyster farmer whose past social media activity indicates he is a longtime admirer of Vermont’s democratic socialist senator.
The Portland event on Sept. 1, the next stop on Sanders’ nationwide “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, follows a rally in Michigan on Saturday at which the senator sought to boost Abdul El-Sayed, a staunch critic of Israel who is vying to replace retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) in a crowded primary next year.
In remarks over the weekend, Sanders, an early backer of El-Sayed’s campaign for the Democratic nomination, highlighted his efforts to restrict U.S. military aid to Israel and spoke out against the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, claiming that Washington is “way out of touch with where the American people are” on what he called “clearly a moral issue.”
“We are paying for the starvation of children in Gaza,” Sanders said to the crowd gathered at the Miller Auditorium at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.
El-Sayed, for his part, echoed those remarks, saying that party leadership “is still pulling its punch on the fact that we are subsidizing a genocide in Gaza.”
“Maybe we should be using our taxpayer dollars, I don’t know, to build schools for our kids, rather than sending blank checks to foreign militaries who drop bombs on other kids,” El-Sayed said in his speech last weekend.
El-Sayed, a former health director in Michigan, is facing progressive state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), a leading pro-Israel voice in the House who is favored by party leaders.
Democrat Graham Platner entered the race accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza
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Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) addresses the press on Nov. 6, 2022.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) is criticizing Graham Platner, a Democrat running against her in next year’s election, for singling out AIPAC as a “weird” interest group in new remarks to a local newspaper published on Tuesday, where he pledged to decline support from the pro-Israel lobbying organization.
“Sen. Collins is a strong supporter of AIPAC, a bipartisan organization that promotes stronger ties between the United States and Israel,” Shawn Roderick, a spokesperson for Collins’ campaign, told Jewish Insider on Wednesday. “Nothing about their work is ‘weird’ — in fact, it has never been more important given the aggressive antisemitism that we have seen around the world since the appalling Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack.”
In his comment to the Midcoast Villager, Platner, a 40-year-old oyster farmer and Marine veteran who announced his bid to challenge Collins on Tuesday, noted that his campaign would reject backing from corporate super PACs and donations from interest groups such as AIPAC that he dismissed as “weird.”
“My view here is very simple,” Platner told JI on Wednesday when asked to elaborate on his initial comment, which had not been quoted in full. “What is happening in Gaza is a genocide, I refuse to take money from AIPAC or any group that supports the genocide in Gaza.”
In other interviews this week, Platner, a political newcomer, has similarly accused Israel of genocide in Gaza and also endorsed efforts to block U.S. arms sales to Israel.
AIPAC’s political action committee is backing Collins, in keeping with its commitment to defend friendly incumbents who are up for reelection. Collins, who is now seeking her sixth term, has been among her party’s leading moderate voices, pushing to maintain a bipartisan consensus on support for Israel.
Marshall Wittmann, a spokesperson for AIPAC, questioned Platner’s recent comment about the group in a statement to JI on Wednesday. “More than 12,000 Maine voters are members of AIPAC and advocates for a strong U.S.-Israel relationship who don’t think it’s ‘weird’ for Americans to engage in the democratic process,” he said. “We are proud to support Sen. Collins who is a stalwart champion of an alliance that benefits Maine and America.”
Still, Platner’s seemingly off-handed remark more broadly underscores a growing disconnect between AIPAC and the Democratic Party, where even some of the staunchest supporters of Israel have been put on the defensive amid an international uproar over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
In recent weeks, two Democratic House members who have received financial backing from AIPAC’s super PAC in their primaries, Reps. Maxine Dexter (D-OR) and Valerie Foushee (D-NC), both said they would support efforts to block transfers of offensive weapons to Israel. Foushee, for her part, also said earlier this month that she would not accept further support from AIPAC in her reelection campaign next year.
Meanwhile, Mallory McMorrow, a top Democratic candidate running for Senate in Michigan, revealed on Wednesday that she is urging AIPAC to refrain from engaging in the primary, where she is facing a strong pro-Israel advocate, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), and a prominent left-wing critic of Israel, Abdul El-Sayed, who is backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
The group declined to comment on McMorrow’s request.
Even as AIPAC has been under attack, it has continued to maintain friendly relationships with Democrats and Republicans, hosting a number of freshman lawmakers from both sides of the aisle on trips to Israel this month.
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