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Todd's Take
My friends, they finally did it — they pushed Graham Platner out of the Senate race in Maine. And let me be clear: I don't think this is a bad outcome. I just don't want you walking away thinking the Democrat Party suddenly discovered virtue, because they didn't.
This was politically expedient, not principled. Platner had a Nazi tattoo on his chest for seventeen years. He faced multiple allegations, including rape — allegations even one woman wrestled with revealing because she agreed with his politics. None of that mattered to party leadership until he became unelectable. Sound familiar? It's almost identical to how they shoved Joe Biden out in 2024 — behind closed doors, no primary, no input from the base, all while claiming they were "protecting democracy." Explain to me how deciding your candidate's replacement without a single vote is democratic.
This really isn’t about Platner. It's about what happens when a party stops caring whether someone is fit to serve and only cares the optics — and whether they can win. That should bother you regardless of which side does it.
Now, switching gears — President Trump did something exceedingly rare this week. He asked the Supreme Court to rehear a case it just decided: the birthright citizenship ruling in Trump v. Barbara. The Court ruled 6-3 that children born in the US to parents who are here illegally or temporarily are automatically citizens. Trump's calling it an "absolutely insane decision," and he's not wrong to be alarmed — there are now reports of businesses advertising birth tourism packages for $4,000 along the southern border.
I went back and read what the actual author of the 14th Amendment's citizenship clause, Senator Jacob Howard, said on the Senate floor in 1866: the citizenship clause was written to exclude the children of foreigners and ambassadors, and include "every other class of persons" — language crafted in the specific context of freeing former slaves, not creating an open invitation. Congress has always had the authority to control our borders. It makes zero sense that breaking that law could then reward you with automatic citizenship for your child.
Two different stories this week. Same underlying lesson: our institutions only work when the people running them actually believe in the principles they claim to defend.
Conservative, not bitter.
Todd
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Quote of the Day
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Follow-Up: The Hostage Negotiation Ends
Yesterday I told you Graham Platner was holding his own party hostage — refusing to leave the Maine Senate race unless he got to name his own successor. Well, today he's out. But notice how it happened: not because Platner backed down, but because the money and political infrastructure behind him got pulled. His campaign manager even accused the party establishment of working behind his back to force him out without consulting the grassroots — which, ironically, is exactly what Platner himself was trying to do to them.
Nobody in this story is playing it straight. The Maine Democratic Party will now hold a convention to pick a replacement, with names like State Senate President Troy Jackson and Secretary of State Shenna Bellows already floated — chosen the same way Kamala Harris was in 2024, by insiders, not primary voters. I said it yesterday and I'll say it again: whatever process produces that pick, don't let anyone call it democratic.
Stack of Stuff
Washington Post: Graham Platner Ends U.S. Senate Campaign in Maine — the official announcement and what happens next.
RedState: Trump to Supreme Court — Reconsider the "Absolutely Insane Decision" — Trump's full Truth Social statement and the legal odds of a rehearing.
RedState: Clarence Thomas Goes Nuclear on SCOTUS Majority Over Birthright Citizenship — worth reading his dissent in full.
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