The Arithmetic of Allegiance: What the Graham Platner Story Reveals

Glenn Beck opens with a detailed account of the allegations against Graham Platner, the Democratic Senate nominee in Maine, who was accused by an ex-girlfriend of breaking into her home and raping her. The woman had previously brought her story to the New York Times, which downplayed it. She came forward again to Politico, and this time the response was different: endorsements peeled off by the hour, and the people who built Platner began quietly setting him down and walking away.

But Beck's argument is not about whether the allegation is true—Platner denies it, and Beck acknowledges that. The story, Beck insists, is the year that came before the denial. Because everything else about Platner was already known: the SS deathhead tattoo he once showed off with pride, the messages he sent to women who were not his wife, the three former girlfriends describing volatile behavior, one saying he physically held her down. The file was sitting open on the table the whole time. Everyone could read it. They chose not to.

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