On Saturday’s broadcast of MS NOW’s “The Weekend,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) said that he supported Graham Platner despite the Nazi tattoo and other issues because his “platform was one that I was excited about. He was standing for Medicare for all. He was standing against foreign wars. He was standing for workers over the billionaire class. He was a charismatic figure. And, like many, I gave him the benefit of the doubt because I wanted his platform.”
Co-host Jacqueline Alemany said, “I’d love to just have the conversation about what you think went wrong with Graham Platner, why he kind of strung you and other high-profile figures in the Democratic Party along, how he was able to sort of toe that line, even despite having all of the baggage, between the Nazi tattoo and the Reddit posts that we already knew about, and how you kind of made the assessment when taking those factors into consideration and why it is so hard for politicians and for prominent figures who did back him to just say, I’m sorry, I made a mistake, like you did.”
Khanna responded, “Well, I was wrong. I also said I should have listened to my wife. But the reason it’s hard is because the headline comes, you made a mistake, and most people…want to just move on. They want to say, oh, I didn’t have bad judgment. And what I said — I was actually honest, look, his platform was one that I was excited about. He was standing for Medicare for all. He was standing against foreign wars. He was standing for workers over the billionaire class. He was a charismatic figure. And, like many, I gave him the benefit of the doubt because I wanted his platform. And, in retrospect, we should have listened more to the signs that were there. And, as a party, if you don’t say you’re wrong, then how are you going to do better? How are you going to do better in listening to voices like Cheyenne and others who were sounding the alarm bells and saying, look, I’m telling you, this is going to lead to possible allegations of domestic violence. So, for me, it was a lesson of humility, and I’m going to try to do better.”
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