When Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner accused his GOP incumbent rival of potential criminality she pulled out the “d” word.
But Sen. Susan Collins would have a high hill to climb proving – as she suggested – that Platner defamed her during a Thursday press conference.
Making a legal case for defamation is virtually impossible for a public figure such as a United States senator.
The law sets a much higher, virtually impossible, burden of proof for a public figure to win a defamation lawsuit.
A politician or celebrity, think Susan Collins, must first prove that allegedly false, damaging statements were in fact false and damaging.
Then, even if she met that legal test, Collins would have to prove the allegations were made with “actual malice.”
Proving malice as a byproduct of a political campaign is impossible.
Politicians say stuff all the time that is simply untrue but they aren’t held legally accountable.
If they were the civil court system would need its own zip code.
So Collins couldn’t have been serious accusing Platner of defamation.
The next question is why she took so to heart his allegations of funneling taxpayer money to her lobbyist husband.
If there’s no there, there, the better approach, perhaps, would have been to either ignore Platner or, barring that, just laugh off his claims as immature, born of inexperience and not worthy of a response.
In other words, treat Platner as if he were a joke, just a nuisance with no real political heft or substance or ideas of his own.
The problem with the over-the-top, knee-jerk reaction from Collins is she raises the importance of Platner’s accusations when in reality they may just be hot air.
But defamation? Not a chance, which Collins having gone there committed an unforced error – and that raises a question: did she do what he claims?
Collins in five successful Senate campaigns has consistently proved the naysayers wrong.
She most recently won by nine points a race pollsters claimed she could very well lose.
The latest Polymarket odds, however, indicate why Collins could actually be nervous.
Polymarket going into the weekend is giving Platner a 62-39 chance of dethroning the veteran senior Maine senator.
Polymarket bets have been consistently favoring Platner. His odds have slimmed only marginally, from 67-35 ten days ago.
Kalshi bettors on Friday were giving Platner an edge virtually the same as Polymarket – 61-39, actually an increase of two points for his winning odds from those measured ten days ago.
