 Repeatedly, throughout the course of the 2020 Democratic Party primary, we were told that we can't go with someone as extreme as Bernie Sanders because he would hurt down-ballot Democrats. For example, if there's a really tight race between, you know, a Republican and a more conservative Democrat who doesn't necessarily feel as if they can be as progressive as someone like AOC or Bernie Sanders, Bernie is going to hurt that individual in that race. But we all knew that that was a lie. Bernie was the better candidate for down-ticket Democrats because if you excite the base and bring out a lot of young people, then in all of these districts, if Bernie increases turnout, that's going to be conducive to more Democrat victories because when turnout is high, Democrats win. When it's low, they lose. That's a really easy way to look at whether or not a candidate is viable. Will they be able to turn out the base? Now, what's interesting is that the opposite is now happening, right? When pundits and, you know, Democratic Party establishment figures told us that Joe Biden was the more safer bet, well, now what's happening is that Joe Biden quite literally is hurting down-ballot races, one in particular that's winnable, one that Democrats need to win back. So we all remember Susan Collins, how in 2018, after pretending to be on the fence, she voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh in alleged rapists. So there was a lot of momentum to unseat her. There was a GoFundMe where they raised more than a million dollars, I think, to go to her eventual opponent. Well, fast forward to 2020, and Democrats view Sarah Gideon, who is, I believe, the speaker of the House for Maine as the frontrunner. And Nathan Bernard, a journalist, reported on this story about how basically she's being harmed by Joe Biden because she based her entire campaign off of defeating Susan Collins because she voted for an alleged rapist. Meanwhile, look at Joe Biden. Tareid came out with these allegations, and Sarah Gideon hasn't said anything about Joe Biden. Now, the primary isn't over yet, but a lot of people view Sarah Gideon as the frontrunner since, you know, she already has power. She has the state and national party support. So in the event, she becomes the Democratic Party's nominee in Maine for the Senate Seed. Her association with Joe Biden could tank her. Yeah. So Nathan Bernard explains, Maine House Speaker Sarah Gideon says she's running against Susan Collins in part because the Republican Senator voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court despite a sexual assault allegation made against him. But Gideon has been mum about Tareid's claim that Joe Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993 when Reid worked as an aide in his Senate office. Now, Republicans are trying to use Gideon's silence on Reid's allegations to blunt what had been one of the Democratic frontrunner's sharpest attacks against Collins. Meanwhile, the two more progressive candidates vying with Gideon for their party's nomination are warning that Democratic leader's hypocrisy on this issue will cost the party votes and damage its credibility. Gideon endorsed Biden's bid for the White House on March 3rd and doubled down on her support for the former Vice President last week as Reid's story snowballed into a major political issue. In response to Maine's inquiry about Gideon's position on Reid's allegations, her team pointed to a statement the candidate released last week. Sexual assault and sexual harassment are incredibly serious issues and for too long people have been too afraid to come forward, the statement read. Every person should be able to come forward and tell their story and have it thoroughly looked into. Same talking points as we heard from other Biden surrogates. The other Democrat on the ballot in the party's July 14th primary is Betsy Sweet, a former executive director of the Maine Women's Lobby whose resume also includes work as a sexual harassment prevention trainer and advocate for victims of sexual assault. To Grant Reid's claim, any less respect than we granted Ford's is to abandon our credibility as a party, our integrity as leaders, and our responsibility as human beings to listen to all survivors of sexual violence, Sweet told Maynard. We must take every claim seriously, even if it is politically inconvenient. The Maine GOP wasted no time attacking Gideon on this issue. Last week they sent out a press release, headlined full of shit, Sarah is still silent on Biden allegations. It states, Joe Biden was accused of sexual assault and Gideon has yet to say a single word about Tara Reid, not even to offer Reid praise for coming forward, just as she did for Christine Blasey Ford. According to Brian Schwartz of CNBC, numerous national political groups aligned with the GOP are preparing to spend big money to spread the message that Gideon's position on Reid is hypocritical. So you're seeing how Joe Biden in a concrete way is hurting who Democrats believe will be the nominee. They believe she's the front runner and I haven't seen polls but maybe she is. Now this is just one race and I want to remind you that this is a microcosm of what we're going to see happen throughout the country because anyone who is going up against a Republican, they're going to, the GOP is going to find whatever that individual said about Christine Blasey Ford and compare what that person said about Tara Reid and if there's hypocrisy right there, the GOP will weaponize it. So this isn't just about, you know, Susan Collins in Maine and Joe Biden and Sarah Gideon. This is going to be a huge issue that impacts Democrats across the country. And you know, the sad part is that this might not just hurt corporate Democrats, conservative Democrats. This could hurt more progressive Democrats as well who haven't really said that much about Tara Reid but were very vocal rightfully so I think about Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. This could be one of the worst disasters ever. Everything that they told us about Joe Biden being the safer, more electable candidate was completely wrong. Everything that they told us about Joe Biden being the better choice for down-ticket Democrats and competitive races is now demonstrably false if GOP really does what they're planning to do and spend big to prove Democrats are hypocrites. This could be bad. Now, with regard to that Senate race, it's not over. Sarah Gideon, if she truly cared about having Susan Collins be defeated, she should step down because there are actually really good options currently running. You don't have to vote for Sarah Gideon if you live in the state of Maine. And Sarah Gideon's hypocrisy, believe it or not, isn't the only issue that she has. I mean, just go to her website and you know, she's talking about access to affordable healthcare for manors and who's going to be excited by this? Who is going to be excited by this? So people aren't going to vote for someone who is a hypocrite, who doesn't also have policy prescriptions that she's offering to constituents. I mean, I could see, all right, she's a hypocrite, but she supports Medicare for all. So maybe I'll vote for her. No, there's nothing there. So you're hurting the Democratic Party's chances of ousting Susan Collins, which is really important. Now other choices who you should vote for if you live in Maine include Green Party candidate Lisa Savage, who is running on a highly progressive platform. And since Maine has ranked choice voting, this is a competitive race. Lisa Savage can actually win. And when it comes to Democrats, you have Betsy Sweet, who is a justice Democrat running on an incredibly progressive platform. She's kind of the underdog, but she is the Democratic alternative to Sarah Gideon. Why would you vote for someone who's a hypocrite who's going to lose that seat when you have better options? Either of those candidates, Lisa Savage or Betsy Sweet, they have a better chance at beating Susan Collins because they haven't endorsed Joe Biden. They haven't been silent on Tara Reid's allegations. So they're not hypocrites. Their reputations aren't tarnished, right? So GOP can't use that strategy against them. But when it comes to Sarah Gideon, this is a disaster. You're going to ruin the one chance that we have to replace a very vulnerable Republican. What are you doing? What are you doing? And again, this isn't just about Maine. This is going to be an issue that we see come up time and again in races throughout the country. Look, I know that it's out of the question. It probably will never happen. But if Joe Biden was serious about Democrats taking back the White House, he'd resign. He would resign because as Democrats repeatedly pointed out when Bernie was the front-runner, this isn't just about the White House. This is about taking back the Senate, keeping the House. And now their guy, who they propped up, is now jeopardizing the Democratic Party's chances of stopping right-wing extremism. It's just, it's awful. It's awful. And I'm not going to say I told you so because it's not like I get to take any glory in this defeat because we all have to bear the brunt of their failures. Their failures aren't going to impact them. The Democratic Party is comprised largely of very wealthy, comfortable people. It is the working class who's going to deal with increasing right-wing extremism and fascism. And they just, they don't seem to care. To them, the goal isn't necessarily to defeat Republicans, even though they say, you know, beating Donald Trump, taking back the Senate is their number one priority. It's about beating the left. And I think that this election should definitely confirm that to you if you weren't necessarily sure that that was in fact their intentions. They don't care about beating Republicans. They just care about beating the left. And once they beat the left, they've won. Nothing else for them to do. Whatever happens happens. As long as they maintain power in the Democratic Party apparatus, then they've won, period.