According to Comedy Central’s The Daily Show host-of-the-week Ronny Chieng, Graham Platner had to end his Senate campaign after being credibly accused of rape and sexual assault because nobody would vote for him except the woman who would have been his opponent: Sen. Susan Collins. In order to make such a claim, Chieng simply assumed the evidence against Planter is as strong as the evidence against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was, but that is simply not true.
After playing a part of Platner’s announcement video where he insisted that withdrawing from the race does not mean he is admitting the allegations against him are true, Chieng retorted, “Okay, I mean, it is a little suspicious. It’s like being at a party where the toilet’s overflowing and all of a sudden, I’m like, ‘Okay, everyone, I have to leave immediately. No one read into this, please!’”
Ronny Chieng claims Graham Platner had to drop out because “the only person in Maine who might still vote for him is Susan Collins” as he put up a picture of Collins next to Brett Kavanaugh pic.twitter.com/s0GMqW1Y1w
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) July 10, 2026
Moving on to Collins, Chieng added, “Obviously, Platner had to drop out once there was credible sexual assault allegations. I mean, at that point, the only person in Maine who might still vote for him is Susan Collins.”
As Chieng was talking, The Daily Show’s graphics team put a picture of Collins side-by-side with a picture of Kavanaugh, but Chieng never elaborated. Instead, he moved on to mocking those who recruited Platner, “The question is, how could this happen? How could the people in Maine have picked this guy to run in the first place?”
Chieng probably chose not to elaborate because the evidence against Platner is overwhelming, but the evidence against Kavanaugh was much weaker. Platner had multiple accusers with multiple people verifying their version of events from something that happened relatively recently. Christine Blasey Ford, on the other hand, could not even get her friends to verify her story from the 80s. Kavanaugh does not have the history of fetishizing rape that Platner does that points to a wide personal problem.
For a long time, Democratic Party hacks tried to defend their support for Platner by claiming the GOP’s defense of people like Kavanaugh means morality does not matter in politics anymore, only power does, but the difference between Platner and Kavanaugh is night and day, and The Daily Show cannot rewrite history.
Here is a transcript for the July 9 show:
Comedy Central The Daily Show
7/9/2026
11:03 PM ET
RONNY CHIENG: Okay, I mean, it is a little suspicious. It’s like being at a party where the toilet’s overflowing and all of a sudden, I’m like, “Okay, everyone, I have to leave immediately. No one read into this, please!” Obviously, Platner had to drop out once there was credible sexual assault allegations. I mean, at that point, the only person in Maine who might still vote for him is Susan Collins. The question is, how could this happen? How could the people in Maine have picked this guy to run in the first place?