President Donald Trump spent two minutes trash-talking a Democrat, but the jabs didn't land.
Instead, the 79-year-old president drew laughter from a Democratic strategist who was unimpressed by his remarks disparaging Graham Platner, a Senate candidate in Maine who coasted to victory in Tuesday's primary despite a string of scandals.
Trump branded Platner a “thug†in a meandering, two-minute rant in the Oval Office on Wednesday.
“I watched that thug that's up in Maine. He's a thug,†he said. “And they're trying to make excuses for him. I mean, he's worse than any human being that's ever run for office, probably.â€
But Julie Roginsky simply laughed off the comments in an MS NOW panel.
“I'm laughing because I will take that from a lot of people. I'm not going to take that from Donald Trump. I mean, the man who's got a list—mile-high—of allegations of sexual misconduct, who's in the Epstein files, who's been found in a court of law to be a sexual assailant,†she said with a dry chuckle.
“I mean, let's be very clear here about the fact that Donald Trump has zero standing to be talking about any of this,†she went on. “I mean, the reality is that Donald Trump can say whatever he wants. But, my God, the messenger is really not right on this.â€
The White House doubled down when reached for comment about Roginsky's remarks.
“Graham Platner proudly referred to himself as a ‘communist,' called all police ‘bastards,' and said rural White Americans ‘actually are' racist and stupid,†White House spokesperson Kush Desai said. “President Trump is absolutely correct that Platner is both a thug and a pig.â€
In October last year, Platner issued an apology for resurfaced social media posts where he wrote that he “got older and became a communist,†raged that “cops are bastards. All of them, in fact,†and said white people in rural America “actually are†as racist or stupid as Trump thinks they are.
“I was in different places that I'm not in now, I had different feelings that I don't have now, I had different thoughts and opinions that I certainly don't have now, but I am very proud of the person I am today, and it was that whole journey that got me here,†Platner said at the time.
Just days later, he was hit with a fresh controversy surrounding a tattoo that resembles a Nazi symbol. Platner explained that he got inked while he was out drinking with fellow Marines in 2007 and did not know that it looked like a Nazi symbol.
This May and June, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times dealt more blows to Platner with stories about sexually explicit texts he sent to women after he got married and allegations of volatile behavior in relationships.
But he managed to overcome those controversies to win against Maine Governor Janet Mills in the heated race to unseat five-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins, 73, in November.
“The national pundits, the political establishment, they keep looking for that one story, that one headline, that one moment in my life that they can define the campaign by,†Platner said in his victory speech. “But in trying so hard to understand me, they failed to understand that this is not about me at all. This is a movement about us.â€


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