Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy tried to take a swing at Democrats over Graham Platner’s latest controversy, only to whiff so hard that he ended up calling out Republicans in the process.
A damning new rape allegation emerged against Platner Monday evening, marring the Maine oyster farmer’s candidacy and prompting a slew of progressive lawmakers to revoke their endorsements of the Democratic firebrand.
It was a swing and a miss on Fox News shortly after the news broke, when McCarthy attempted to use the dark moment to back-pat the Republican Party by claiming that conservatives always turn away from a “very bad candidate.” But the attempted roast only highlighted just how ignorant the GOP is, considering the orange-toned sexual abuser currently sitting in the White House.
“The one thing I know about Republicans: When we had a very bad candidate and found out, we didn’t vote for that person. We walked away,” McCarthy told the network.
Kevin McCarthy on Platner Allegations: That one thing I know about Republicans is when we had a very bad candidate, we didn't vote for that person. We walked away. pic.twitter.com/wkm65CCGHb
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 7, 2026
But that’s not what Republicans did in 2016 (or 2020, or 2024). By the time the presidential election rolled around that year, more than a dozen women had accused Trump of sexual misconduct, and a viral Access Hollywood tape had publicized Trump’s gross beliefs about consent in his own words. Nonetheless, conservatives across the country voted for him for president.
Years later, in 2023, Trump was found liable by a jury for sexually abusing columnist E. Jean Carroll. At the time, the judge in the case went out of his way to explain that Trump could be considered a rapist based on the common definition of the word.
Online commenters were quick to point out McCarthy’s blatant hypocrisy, flaming the former politico for his thoughtless comparison.
“You can grab ’em by the pussy,” wrote one X user, quoting Trump’s Access Hollywood hot mic moment.
“What the f***, man?” commented a self-identified Republican turned Democrat. “You literally voted for a pedo grapist and Jeffrey Epstein’s best friend!”
But even disregarding Trump, the Republican Party has a long history of fervently backing highly controversial candidates. In recent years, the party has put its weight behind Herschel Walker, the 2022 Georgia Senate candidate who faced alarming domestic violence allegations; and George Santos, the New York lawmaker who fabricated practically everything he shared about himself and was later ousted from Congress and sentenced to 87 months in prison for fraud. Trump prematurely commuted his sentence via an unprecedented presidential pardon.
The GOP also remained behind Montana Governor Greg Gianforte, who pleaded guilty to physically assaulting a journalist; Rick Scott, who was tied to a massive Medicaid and Medicare fraud scandal in the late 1990s; and former Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, despite a House Ethics investigation that found “substantial evidence” that Gaetz had violated House rules prohibiting “prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, acceptance of impermissible gifts, the provision of special favors and privileges, and obstruction of Congress.”