CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

Democrats, Eating Their Own

Photograph Source: Office of Public Affairs from Washington DC – Public Domain

Democratic politicians, as they regularly do, have displayed an inverted double standard regarding the Graham Platner affair and serial sexual abuser Donald Trump. Usually, a political party covers up its own misbehavior even as it accuses its political opponents of similar misdeeds. Instead, the Democrats drive out their own accused – e.g., New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, Senator Al Franken (D-MN), Representative John Conyers (D-MI), and others, while giving Donald Trump, the all-time giant, recidivist, boastful, sexual predator, a free pass.

Notice the unusual silence of Donald Trump on the high-profile controversy involving Platner. For good reason, he has constrained his frothy mouth. Why provoke the self-immolating Democrats or the media to turn their laser beam focus on Trump’s assaults of women?  After all, he has gotten away with physical and verbal misogynistic behavior for years.

Back in 2016–2017, Democrats and their allies tried to nail Trump on his many sexual exploits with public condemnations.  They did far too little. After Democrats won the House of Representatives in 2018, they conducted no public hearings. (Remember, President Bill Clinton was impeached on December 19, 1998, for “lying about sex.”) Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s impeachment resolution in 2019 contained no mention of the allegations of Trump’s pre-presidential crimes and misdeeds.

It was not until 2024 (or 2025) that one intrepid Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) teamed up with Republican Thomas Massie (R-KY) to get legislation through........

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