Over the Labor Day weekend, Graham Platner, the Democratic candidate running for the seat held by Maine’s incumbent Senator Susan Collins (R) addressed a crowd at a “Fight Oligarchy” rally with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (I).
Platner opened his remarks by saying: “Susan Collins’s charade is wearing thin,” which triggered the crowd to boo in agreement. When Platner added, “It’s the easiest applause line in these speeches,” the crowd burst out in loud laughter.
Platner: No one cares that you pretend to be remorseful as you sell out to lobbyists. Symbolic opposition does not reopen hospitals. Weak condemnations do not bring back Roe V Wade. Maine deserves better than Susan Collins. pic.twitter.com/yMGXiS7xrH
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 1, 2025
Platner, an oyster farmer and a Marine and U.S. Army veteran who served four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, addressed Collins in his speech: “No one cares that you pretend to be remorseful as you sell out to lobbyists. No one cares why you sell out to corporations, and no one cares why you sell out to the President, who are all engineering the greatest redistribution wealth from the working class to the ruling class in American history.”
Platner added: “Symbolic opposition does not reopen hospitals. Weak condemnations do not bring back Roe v Wade. Selling out the same working-class voters who delivered mandate for change after mandate for change, is not forgivable.”
Note: The “symbolic opposition” is a reference to Collins voting against Trump’s domestic policy mega bill, which has led dozens of rural hospitals “to face the prospect of closure or reduced services because of the bill’s cuts to Medicaid.”
Also, Collins, who claimed to be in favor of abortion rights, had the opportunity to vote against the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a first-term Trump nominee who voted with the conservative majority in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case that led to Roe being overturned in 2022.
The line in Platner’s speech that got the crowd on their feet at the rally was “a performative politics that enables the destruction of our way of life is disqualifying for the role of United States Senator.”
