Category: Conservative Review
‘Baby on the Way’: Platner’s New Campaign Manager Quits 3 Days Into Job, Citing Pregnant Wife
Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner’s campaign manager resigned after just three days on the job, citing his wife’s pregnancy and his desire to “lean into this new experience as a family.”
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Cuomo narrows gap in new poll
Socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has maintained a double-digit lead in a new poll — but Andrew Cuomo has narrowed the gap significantly.
The mayoral race has gained national prominence as more Democratic leaders have tossed their fortunes behind the socialist and extremist candidate, while Cuomo has tried to shore up the centrist vote.
‘You don’t know how to run a government, you don’t know how to handle an emergency, and you’ve literally never proposed a bill on anything that you’re now talking about.’
A Suffolk poll released Monday showed that Mamdani’s lead of 20 percentage points from September had shrunk to 10 points.
Mamdani had support from 44% of the respondents, while Cuomo had 34%. Outsider Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa also increased his support slightly from 9% to 11%.
Suffolk’s political research center director David Paleologos said that Cuomo had made the biggest gains with Hispanics and independents.
Cuomo went on the attack against Mamdani’s extremism and inexperience in their recent debate, which will be the last of the election. Mamdani fired back to paint Cuomo as the face of failed policies of the establishment party.
“You have never had a job. You’ve never accomplished anything!” said Cuomo at the debate.
“There is no reason to believe you have any merit or qualification for eight and a half million lives!” he added. “You don’t know how to run a government, you don’t know how to handle an emergency, and you’ve literally never proposed a bill on anything that you’re now talking about in your campaign!”
RELATED: Rolling Stone is getting crushed online for trying to whitewash controversies around Zohran Mamdani
Many have been calling on Sliwa to drop out in hopes that his supporters would mostly go to Cuomo, and the Suffolk poll appeared to support that thesis. It showed that far more Sliwa voters supported Cuomo as a second choice than those who supported Mamdani.
Mamdani would become the first Muslim mayor of the Big Apple if he is able to win the election. He was born in Kampala, Uganda.
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Democrat Firm Sues To Take Out Blue City’s Latina GOP Rep, Crying Racial Discrimination
‘A naked attempt to disenfranchise voters’
Second key staffer leaves campaign of Democratic Senate candidate embroiled in Nazi, communism controversies
Graham Platner, the Maine-based oyster farmer running as a Democrat to challenge Republican Sen. Susan Collins, has lost a great deal more in recent days than his sizeable lead over Gov. Janet Mills in the polls.
Just days after former state Rep. Genevieve McDonald resigned as political director of Platner’s campaign, the Democratic candidate’s longtime friend Kevin Brown indicated he too was jumping ship, leaving the role of campaign manager open.
‘Graham deserves someone who is 100% in on his race.’
Earlier this month, numerous damning posts previously made by Platner on Reddit came to light — including posts where he apparently identified as a communist, branded rural white Americans as racists, suggested service members worried about being raped should buy “Kevlar underwear,” joked about homosexuals, promoted political violence, and smeared all police officers as “bastards.”
McDonald promptly resigned as the political director of Platner’s campaign over the posts, noting, “These statements were not known to me when I agreed to join the campaign, and they are not words or values I can stand behind in a candidate for the United States Senate.”
Shortly after Platner apologized for his past remarks on Reddit, footage went viral revealing that he had an apparent “totenkopf” tattoo on his chest — a skull image popularized by Adolf Hitler’s SS elite guard and adopted as the symbol of the SS-Totenkopfverbande, the branch that guarded the concentration camps.
While Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and — according to a recent poll — the majority of young Democrats recently indicated that they will stick with Platner despite his incendiary posts and apparent Nazi tattoo, Brown, a Democratic operative who worked on Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s failed presidential campaign, has revealed he is jumping ship.
Brown indicated that the move, first reported by Axios, was the result of new familial demands on his time.
RELATED: The Democrats’ convenient case of political amnesia
Photo by Sophie Park/Getty Images
Brown said in a statement obtained by WGME-TV, “Graham is a dear friend. I started this campaign Tuesday but found out Friday we have a baby on the way.”
“Graham deserves someone who is 100% in on his race, and we want to lean into this new experience as a family, so it was best we step back sooner than later so Graham can get the manager he deserves,” Brown added.
Brown’s departure comes just after the Platner campaign reportedly began sending nondisclosure agreements to staffers.
McDonald told Politico that the campaign offered her $15,000 to sign an NDA, but the campaign suggested this amount was a severance payment.
A spokesperson for the campaign indicated that the consulting firm Spruce Street was recently hired to “take over campaign compliance to institute standard practices that had yet to be put into place. Some of those standards had to be instituted retroactively, but as a matter of course we do not require anyone previously involved in the campaign to do so,” apparently referring to signing an NDA.
Blaze News has reached out to Platner’s campaign for comment.
A SoCal Strategies Maine poll of 500 likely Democratic primary voters conducted October 21-25 found that Mills, who officially jumped into the race on Oct. 14, holds a 5-point lead over Platner, 41%-36%.
Prior to the news of Platner’s alleged Nazi tattoo — which the Mainer recently had inked over with supposed Celtic imagery — a University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll indicated that among those who plan to vote in the 2026 state Democratic primary, 58% of respondents said they would support him, and only 24% said they would support Mills.
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Mamdani: The Real Victim Of 9/11 Was My Muslim Aunt
Ugandan-born socialist candidate for New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani suggested Friday that the real victim of the September 11, 2001 Islamic terrorist attacks was his Muslim aunt. Speaking to voters outside the Islamic Cultural Center of the Bronx, Mamdani said “The dream of every Muslim is simply to be treated as any other New […]
Democratic Maine Senate Candidate Graham Platner’s New Campaign Manager Lasts Less Than A Week
‘I did used to love America’
The Left Would Rather Leave White House Lawn Buried In Rubble Than Allow Trump A Tangible Victory
It didn’t take long for someone to go to court and attempt to seize control of the president’s White House renovation project.
NYC News Nonprofit Hailed Savior of Local Journalism Hired Pro-Hamas Organizer Who Raised Money for Terrorists and Defended Assassination of Israeli Diplomats
A journalist for THE CITY, New York City news nonprofit hailed as a beacon of hope for local journalism, served as an organizer for the Bronx Anti-War Coalition, a virulently anti-Israel group that held vigils for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, raised money for the terrorist group Samidoun, and defended Elias Rodriguez’s alleged assassination of two Israeli diplomats in Washington, D.C., earlier this year as “morally justified.”
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Inside Jasmine Crockett’s Secret Stock Portfolio and Failed Attempts To Become a Marijuana Magnate
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D., Texas) owned stocks in at least 25 companies that she did not disclose to the public during her first congressional run in 2022, even though she’d quietly admitted to the holdings the previous year as a Texas state legislator. Crockett also didn’t reveal the stock holdings once she got to Washington in 2023.
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‘Last Days’ brings empathy to doomed Sentinel Island missionary’s story
It would be easy to demonize John Allen Chau, the Christian missionary who died while trying to bring the Bible to a remote tribe. The 26-year-old could have introduced new diseases to the North Sentinel Island community, causing serious harm. He also vowed to invade a community that craves isolation above all.
Now imagine a Hollywood film capturing Chau’s short, dramatic life. The industry isn’t known for sympathetic close-ups on faith, to be generous.
‘Whenever we go into places where we’re not comfortable, the first thing is, “I have to impose my point of view. Here’s my worldview.”‘
Yet veteran director Justin Lin (“Star Trek Beyond,” the “Fast & Furious” franchise) took a less expected path in bringing the young man’s life to theaters.
Justin Lin. Photo: Giles Keyte
Quick to judge
“Last Days” stars Sky Yang as John, a determined Christian who vowed to do something remarkable with his life. He risked everything to travel to the North Sentinel Island, hoping to share Jesus Christ’s message.
The story ended tragically, but Lin’s film portrays Chau as a kind-hearted lad whose complicated life led him to his fate. Lin isn’t a Christian, but he treated the material with care and empathy. That wasn’t his first reaction.
“It’s very easy to judge and dismiss. That’s what I did when the story broke,” Lin told Align of the initial news reports, the kind of “hot take” that swiftly decried Chau’s fateful decision. “It didn’t sit well with me that I was so quick to judge and dismiss him.”
A father’s story
An Outside Magazine feature on Chau’s life had a powerful effect on the filmmaker. The story shared Chau’s father’s perspective on his late son, among other details.
That rocked Lin.
“I have a teenage son. As a parent, I know exactly what he was going through, how you’re trying to impart your wisdom, make sure they’re not going through any hardships,” he said. “What I learned from that article was that if you do it on your timeline, and your son is not ready, you just miss each other.”
The project didn’t involve fast cars or intergalactic travel, but the change of pace spoke to the veteran filmmaker.
“I really wanted to try something different,” added Lin, even if he wouldn’t have the kind of blockbuster budget at his back.
“It’s going to be a run-and-gun, small crew,” he imagined before reading more from the real Chau’s diary. “In John’s writing, he was clearly inspired by adventure novels and Hollywood films. … I’m going to honor that and be the signpost for our film. … It’s an intimate story, but it has to feel like a big Hollywood film.”
He called in some professional favors to give the film a Tinsel Town sheen that otherwise might not have been feasible.
RELATED: Pistol-packing rabbi targets anti-Semitism in action flick ‘Guns & Moses’
Still courtesy Pictures from the Fringe
Fresh perspectives
Lin approached Chau’s faith delicately, while acknowledging the dubious decisions he made along the way. A mid-film romance ends unexpectedly, for example, allowing for fresh perspectives on Chau’s quest.
That balance came via an extensive effort on the director’s part.
“Whenever we go into places where we’re not comfortable, the first thing is, ‘I have to impose my point of view. Here’s my worldview.’ I made that commitment early on to say, ‘No,’” he said. “Taking three years of my life [for this film] … was to connect with his humanity.”
More with less
“Last Days” looks as lush as a $100+ million film, the kind that Lin routinely delivers. He didn’t have those resources nor an A-list cast to bring John Chau’s life to the big screen. Yang is a minor revelation, while Ken Leung’s turn as the young man’s father is heartbreaking.
Lin has a knack for doing more with less.
“I made a credit card movie for $250,000, and that movie opened the door and gave me all these opportunities,” said Lin of “Better Luck Tomorrow,” his 2002 breakthrough made by maxing out his personal credit limit. The film earned $3.8 million theatrically, a tidy sum given the budget. Hollywood swiftly came calling.
“Last Days” may have an indie sensibility, but Lin still felt the pressure to “nudge” the film in certain directions. The real Chau refused to be “boxed in” by society, yet the film industry tried to do just that with the film.
“Can you make this a Christian movie?” he recalled of the behind-the-scenes chatter about “Last Days.” … I didn’t understand or even appreciate that kind of nudge. … ‘If you really wanna be marketable, you should do more of this.’ Those conversations for me ended very quickly.”
“That is a challenge with independent films … the temptation. … ‘If I give you all this money, can you cast my son?’ Those are all choices you encounter,” he said.
Lin will find himself on more familiar ground with the upcoming “BRZRKR,” based on the Boom! Studios comic book co-created by Keanu Reeves. The “John Wick” star served as an angel investor in “Last Days.”
“I didn’t grow up wanting to make action movies, but I ended up enjoying the process,” he admitted.
The public got a sneak peek at “Last Days” during the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, months before its Oct. 24 theatrical rollout. The post-screening Q and A left him hopeful he had accomplished what he had set out to do with the film.
“Five minutes in, they could find a common bridge in [the film],” Lin recalled. “We need that now more than ever.”