Category: Senate
Jeffries opposes Senate moves to end shutdown
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Sunday vowed to oppose a new Senate deal in the works to end the nearly six-week government shutdown. In a statement, the Democratic leader dug his heels in on his party’s position that any legislation to reopen the government must include an extension of the enhanced Affordable Care…
Senate has enough Democratic votes to reopen government after 40-day shutdown
Senate Democrats emerged from a two-and-a-half-hour caucus meeting Sunday night announcing there will be enough votes in the Senate to reopen the federal government after a grueling 40-day shutdown. A group of centrist Democrats led by Sens. Angus King (Maine), an independent who caucuses with Democrats, and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.). and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), negotiated…
Georgia Democrats see momentum after special elections wins
Democrats are feeling bullish about their chances of clinching both the Senate and governor’s races in Georgia next year after the party won a pair of special elections this week that were seen as potential bellwether races ahead of 2026. Democrats flipped two seats on the Georgia Public Service Commission on Tuesday, marking the first…
Sunday shows preview: Government shutdown lingers as Dems, GOP fight for way out
The government shutdown has spanned 38 days, making it the longest federal shuttering in United States history, surpassing the standoff during President Trump’s first term. Lawmakers in Washington have remained deadlocked over the House-authored continuing resolution (CR), which Senate Democrats have voted against 14 times. But Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said Saturday that the…
Vote To Block Trump From Striking Narco Boats In Venezuela Fails, As Shutdown Continues
The Senate on Thursday voted down an effort to block President Donald Trump from conducting strikes against alleged drug smugglers off the coast of Venezuela without congressional approval. The War Powers Resolution, introduced by Democratic Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, failed to pass the upper chamber 51 to 49, just a day after Secretary of State […]
Rosen accuses Moreno of snooping on staff’s cars
What started as a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on transportation nominees turned into a verbal confrontation between Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) and Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), with the former accusing the latter of spying on her and her staff. While questioning Ryan McCormack, President Trump’s nominee for under secretary of transportation for policy, Moreno said he…
2 more staffers ditch Graham Platner’s troubled Senate campaign amid Nazi, communism scandals
Graham Platner, a 41-year-old oyster farmer and Marine veteran, announced on Aug. 19 that he was running as a Democrat for the U.S. Senate in Maine. His stated objective was to challenge the “oligarchy,” meaning both the Democrat establishment and the Republican incumbent, Sen. Susan Collins.
At the outset, Platner’s campaign appeared to have incredible momentum. The leftist candidate raised several million dollars in a matter of weeks, managed to land endorsements from current lawmakers including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M), and struck a chord with locals, as reflected in early polls indicating that he had a sizeable lead over Democrat Gov. Janet Mills.
Platner’s campaign has, however, encountered a massive and potentially insurmountable obstacle: his radical past.
‘Platner is not a victim of opposition research. … Accountability does not exist in playing the victim of your own behavior.’
In the wake of damning revelations about the leftist candidate’s social media posts and his newly concealed tattoo of a skull image similar to that popularized by Adolf Hitler’s SS elite Nazi guard, at least four key staffers have jumped ship.
The latest individuals to call it quits are the campaign’s national finance director, Ronald Holmes, and its treasurer, Victoria Perrone.
Holmes, a Democrat operative who previously served as finance director on New York Democrat Rep. Josh Riley’s congressional campaign, resigned on Friday, suggesting that Platner’s campaign no longer met his “standards.”
RELATED: Here are the 4 Republicans who betrayed Trump AGAIN, joining Democrats to undermine the MAGA agenda
Graham Platner. Photo by Sophie Park/Getty Images
“I joined this campaign because I believed in building something different — a campaign of fresh energy, integrity, and reform-minded thinking in a political system that often resists exactly those things,” Holmes wrote in a post on LinkedIn. “Somewhere along the way, I began to feel that my professional standards as a campaign professional no longer fully aligned with those of the campaign.”
A campaign spokesperson told Politico, “Ron helped the campaign reach out to big-dollar donors, and we appreciated his efforts. But the reality is our campaign’s fundraising success has come largely from small-dollar donors.”
“Nearly 90% of what we’ve raised has come from small-dollar donations and online donors, which has been and [continues] to be run by our digital fundraising director,” added the spokesperson.
Timothy Facciola of the Judge Street Journal on Substack revealed on Sunday that Holmes wasn’t the only Platner staffer to pack it in last week.
Citing a Federal Election Commission form that was filed on Friday as well as an unnamed source said to be familiar with the matter, Facciola reported that Perrone, the president and founder of the consulting firm Spruce Street Compliance, resigned as treasurer on Tuesday.
Ben Martello — a political strategist who served as an adviser to former Rep. Niki Tsongas (D-Mass.) — appears to have stepped into the role.
Blaze News has reached out to Perrone and the Platner campaign for comment.
Perrone, who has been closely involved with Zohran Mamdani’s New York City mayoral campaign, was apparently hired last month to help Platner’s campaign deal with its various scandals.
According to Politico, Perrone was the individual who pressed members of Platner’s campaign team to sign non-disclosure agreements after his Reddit posts came to light — including posts in which he apparently identified as a communist, branded rural white Americans as racists, suggested service members worried about being raped should buy “Kevlar underwear,” and smeared all police officers as “bastards.”
Former state Rep. Genevieve McDonald (D) resigned as political director of Platner’s campaign last month 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.”
Within days of McDonald’s resignation, footage went viral revealing that Platner had an apparent “totenkopf” tattoo on his chest — the symbol of the SS-Totenkopfverbande, the branch that guarded the Nazi concentration camps.
Amid the fallout over the apparent Nazi tattoo, the Democrat candidate’s longtime friend Kevin Brown similarly jumped ship.
Brown, who took over as Platner’s campaign manager on Oct. 21, announced days later that he was leaving, suggesting that the move was the result of new familial demands on his time.
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.
Platner reportedly suggested during a town hall last week that the Democratic Party was the cause of his recent run of bad luck, stating, “I’m running as a Democrat still, despite the fact my party is destroying my life.”
“Platner is not a victim of opposition research. This is what happens when you run for federal office,” Genevieve McDonald said in a recent statement. “People scrutinize everything you’ve ever done. Every word and every action. Accountability does not exist in playing the victim of your own behavior.”
McDonald added, “We should not be having a debate about Nazi symbolism tattooed on the potentially top-ticket Democrat in Maine. The fact we are even willing to entertain it shows desperation within the party, not dedication, and how far we have fallen from rational thought.”
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Fetterman: Both Republicans and Democrats ‘get hungry’ without SNAP during shutdown
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) on Saturday called the effects of the government shutdown, including Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits not being issued for at least November, “wrong.” Speaking with Lara Trump on Fox News’s “My View,” Fetterman said he did not care “who’s behind” the shutdown, “it’s always wrong, and here we are.” “I…
Wicker, Reed demand Hegseth share Caribbean strike orders
Sens. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) on Friday called on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to give them copies of the orders issued to strike boats in the Caribbean that the Trump administration says were trafficking drugs. They released two letters addressed to Hegseth. The first was sent on Sept. 23, establishing the legal…
Trump calls on Republicans to use ‘nuclear option’ and get rid of Senate filibuster
President Trump on Thursday called on Senate Republicans to initiate the “nuclear option” and get rid of the filibuster, allowing them to end the government shutdown and pass legislation with a simple majority. “It is now time for the Republicans to play their ‘TRUMP CARD,’ and go for what is called the Nuclear Option —…
