Checkpoint: The Double Standards Of This Year’s Scandals
Westend61
The American political ecosystem is no stranger to scandal. In fact, a case could be made that American politics has never existed without scandal. Watergate, Whitewater, Iran-Contra, Teapot Dome— these are the big ones that come to mind, but there have been countless others. It is yet to be seen how the next presidential administrations or iterations of Congress will address the myriad criminal, corruption, and bribery scandals of the first and second Trump Administrations, of which there have been many, but precious few have yielded any consequences for their perpetrators.
While the scandals of the Trump Administration have tended to dominate the headlines of the last few months, there have also been two major scandals in races for the Senate and House of Representatives. Maine’s Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner was key to Democrats’ hopes of retaking the Senate. However, amid a series of damaging allegations, Platner has suspended his campaign and the Democratic path for Maine’s Senate seat is far narrower. On the Republican front, Max Miller, the representative from Ohio’s 7th congressional district, is running for re-election. His seat is not one Democrats originally anticipated taking as President Trump carried the district by more than 10 points in 2024. Now that Miller is embroiled in scandal, Republicans fear his district may be more competitive, a dangerous proposition in what is already expected to be a beneficial midterm cycle for Democrats in the House of Representatives. The scandals surrounding the races highlight the high stakes of the 2026 midterm elections.
Platner was plagued by scandal from early in his senate bid. Problematic and bigoted social media posts surfaced from years before his career in politics, a tattoo of his that resembled a Nazi symbol brought deserved scrutiny, and credible rape and sexual abuse allegations were made by his former romantic partners. Despite his significance to the Democrats’ hopes of flipping Maine’s senate seat, the party united in calling for Platner to resign after the rape allegations were made public. Conversely, Max Miller, whose reelection campaign has been rocked by accusations of assault, domestic violence, and child abuse by his former spouse, will be the Republican candidate on Ohio’s 7th district’s ballot in November and was called a “great member of congress’ by Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson.
Platner’s fall from grace began in October 2025, two months after he announced his candidacy, when a video of him dancing shirtless at a wedding circulated the internet. Viewers noticed a tattoo on his chest that resembled the Nazi symbol the totenkopf. As criticism for the tattoo rose, Platner posted a video on his Instagram account showing that he’d had the tattoo covered and apologizing for any harm his actions had caused. Platner was emphatic that he had drunkenly gotten the tattoo while in the Marine Corps and that he had had no idea of its Nazi association. At the same time, old posts from Platner’s Reddit account surfaced where he made racist remarks, used ableist slurs, blamed rape victims for wearing provocative clothing, and made comments with homophobic language.
Supporters gritted their teeth and moved past the Nazi tattoo and the Reddit posts, reasoning that the party must put aside purity politics if Democrats want to retake the Senate. Platner issued seemingly genuine apologies, and he assured the public that past actions and remarks weren’t indicative of his present sympathies. Platner was gaining momentum, and Democrats decided he was too important to dismiss, despite the drama. Platner, an insurgent far-left candidate, met with centrist establishment Democrat Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on June 2, 2026, to discuss the future of Platner’s campaign after his many damaging scandals. Two days later, though, the first of two stories published within weeks of each other spelled the end of Platner’s Senate ambitions. The New York Times interviewed several of Platner’s former partners who accused him of aggressive and volatile behavior and of violent behavior. Then, Politico put the nail in his political coffin, issuing a report by another former partner accusing Platner of rape and listing multiple pieces of corroborating evidence.
Despite him having already won the primary, still having ardent supporters and potentially still being able to flip the Senate seat, Democrats then decided that Platner was not the candidate. He put up some initial resistance to calls to step down but the party, however, forced him to do so, and an alternative candidate is now running on the Democratic ticket. Through Platner’s campaign, Democrats proved that they would tolerate some scandal, that there was room in their tent for flawed candidates, for imperfect people who grew and learned from mistakes. The line, ultimately, though, was when a crime was committed. When evidence of Platner’s physical and sexual violence broke, the party forced his resignation, and if their adherence to the law cost them the Maine Senate seat, so be it.
The Republican Party’s response to Miller, on the other hand, tells a very different story. Allegations of harm have been mounting against him for months, leveled by his former spouse Emily Moreno, daughter of Congressman Bernie Moreno, and other former partners of Miller’s, dating back to his high school years. Moreno has accused Miller of burning her with hot water, holding a gun to her head, pushing her against a wall and hitting her, and breaking their 2-year-old daughter’s collarbone. Miller also faced abuse allegations in 2021 from former partner Stephanie Grisham, who later filed a restraining order against Miller in 2026. Amid all these horrific allegations, very few Republicans have called for Miller’s resignation. Those who have are Senators Tim Sheehy (R-MT) and Katie Britt (R-Al), as well as, of course, Bernie Moreno.
The House Ethics Committee launched an investigation into Miller in early August, but there are no signs yet of any meaningful conclusion or consequences for Miller. Miller himself said that he welcomes the investigation to clear his name. He ardently denies allegations of wrongdoing and refuses to step down. Why would he, when just this week, Senator Mike Johnson lent Miller his support. When asked by reporters, Johnson reduced Miller’s long history of domestic violence and child abuse allegations to "some issues in his [Miller’s] personal life he's working through." Prominent Republicans are standing by Miller, no matter what shocking and concerning allegations surface. They’re showing candidates and constituents that, as long as you show party loyalty, the Republicans will stick by you. Miller has been an ardent Trump supporter since 2016, and Trump’s morally bankrupt administration will stick by him no matter what.
As demonstrated by the Platner and Miller cases, Democrats can clearly enforce swift institutional exile when necessary, such as when abusers are outed within the party. Republicans, however, are granted never-ending grace and structural protection. While Democrats understand violence as a character flaw incompatible with holding public office, Republicans treat domestic abuse as a private family matter. This asymmetry creates a dangerous political ecosystem where the right operates entirely unbothered by personal scandal and credible allegations, turning party loyalty into a “get out of jail free card,” while liberals face asymmetrical vulnerability, purity-testing, and virtue signaling, all while victims on both sides suffer.
Max Miller is one example of Republican’s laissez-faire attitude toward candidates’ moral failures and criminal acts, but the more salient example is that of our president. As exemplified by their staunch loyalty to President Trump despite his two impeachments, election interference, incitement of the January 6th 2021 insurrection, felony conviction over hush money payments to Stormy Daniels, and never-ending nepotism and self-enrichment, Republicans don’t seem to take much issue with scandal, crime, and corruption in their politics. They allow crimes to go unpunished and perpetrators to continue without critique. The Democrats have their flaws, but at least the party can occasionally unite to show that abusers have no place in our politics.
