From TPM Reader BP …

As a Mainer, I have been waiting (and waiting and waiting:-) for you to weigh in on Platner, since I respect your opinion so much and this whole thing has been crazy. I have been amazed at the over the top reactions and use of new info to verify black and white priors from so many in the media and on socials.  Most of that is from people outside Maine. In my little corner here:

1. Mainers REALLY respect the hard work Platner is putting in. Quiet hard work is highly valued here.  It’s not just 80 town halls. He goes anywhere and everywhere to talk with any group that invites him, walks any picket line he’s invited to. It’s probably hundreds of meetings, town halls, and just showing up for a cause at this point in the campaign. He appears with other candidates to boost their visibility, and has helped the three best candidates (in my opinion) form a ranked choice coalition in the tight governor’s race.

From TPM Reader JO …

There are a few local data points your Platner piece doesn’t mention that may become important.

1. Mills is still on the ballot, and she’s been making a point of saying so since the first article about the sexts came out. Her lawn signs, which had largely disappeared, are springing back up all over town with reminders about that. She sees an opening, she’s trying to exploit it, and she has a receptive audience.

Kate and I discussed the ongoing Graham Platner controversies on last week’s episode of the podcast. As I explained, having never fallen hard for Platner as so many did, I come at the matter from a different perspective. I was basically a soft skeptic. Not against him, but also not wowed. Because of that, I wasn’t really let down by any of the scandals because I wasn’t up in the first place. As I half-jokingly put it, as long as he agrees not to be a Nazi going forward and stays off any dating apps until November, I’m basically fine with this candidacy.

In a hearing today about the president’s bulldozing of the East Wing of the White House and plans to build a vast ballroom, a judge asked if the president could also bulldoze the Statue of Liberty and be subject to no legal challenge. The DOJ lawyer, Yaakov Roth, said that yes, President Trump could decide tomorrow to bulldoze the Statue of Liberty and no one could stop him.