You think Schumer is clever enough to spread this kind of narrative? I think he thinks that giving Mills a ringing endorsement and a few million dollars is pretty much all he needs to do, job done, on to the next wild success in Washington!

Yeah. He picked Mills, she announced, and a day later this dropped. Reliance on tearing down opponents is perfectly on brand for Schumer. Its exactly how they've put weight on races for decades. Its pretty obvious.

I don’t think singling out the Democrats as the source of this is particularly accurate

It is and it is.

In general, I see no particular reason to think it is Democrats who are spreading this narrative.

Its AIPAC funded corporate Dems. This is AIPAC's sticking their oar in.

I don’t think the people who are actually capable at this kind of fake news are foolish enough to get tangled up in partisanship in that way.

Well, that's not really relevant because this kind of stuff happens literally ALL the time. Its Politics 101.

I mean look, Mamdani survived this, a photo he took with an 9-11 unindicted co-conspirator:

As a brown, Muslim man, in a the city which suffered the attack. Oppo is real. It usually comes from the establishment to try and pick winner and losers. And sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. We need more polling in Maine to know what impact this is really happening.

Losing the terminally online contingent doesn't really hurt Platner. What matters if Mainers care.