MS NOW host Eugene Daniels revealed Sunday that Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner (D) cancelled an appearance on The Weekend after news broke of a new scandal involving sexually explicit texts.

“Graham Platner was supposed to come on the show…His team pulled out,” Daniels said on Sunday’s show. “They came to us and wanted to come on. They pulled out. I think we saw why yesterday as these stories came out.”

Daniels referred to the new controversy around Platner sending sexually suggestive texts to multiple women after he married wife, Amy Gertner. The New York Times reported Saturday that Gertner disclosed the situation to Platner’s campaign, which brushed it off as a personal matter.

In a video statement Saturday, Gertner said she was “Deeply hurt by the invasion of our privacy.”

“The former aide, who disclosed the information defended coming forward, saying, quote, ‘The United States Senate is not a training ground for redemption. It is a place for proven leaders with moral clarity and integrity,'” Daniels said, adding, “The story comes after Platner said in an interview with The New York Times earlier this year that he had none — no more personal scandals he wanted to get ahead of.”

Platner has already come under fire for his now-covered Nazi-coded tattoo and problematic Reddit posts.

“One of the questions I have for him is, like, do people know who you are?” Daniels said. “Does Maine really know what they’re getting with you? Because there’s always things that come out over and over again. It’s like, where is the oppo file?”

Political analyst Anthony Coley said, “I don’t know that they care anymore,” adding, “I think…what Donald Trump has taught us is that what people inside the beltway view as disqualifying is not always disqualifying for voters.

“And I will just say this one thing,” Coley said. “I think that this race is developing as a referendum on Susan Collins. It is not about Platner’s bio. And I think that’s why we see him continuing to gain ground in Maine.”

“We will see, because Sen. Susan Collins is not one to be trifled with,” said MS NOW host Jonathan Capehart. “She is a formidable campaigner, and I’ll be curious to see what the next poll shows, and whether this nine-point lead Platner has now, whether it stays the same or it’s diminished.”

“She’s also in Donald Trump’s pocket, and that’s what I think voters are reacting to,” Coley said.

“I spoke to a lot of Democrats in Maine who are a little concerned about him being the man at the top of the ticket,” Daniels added.

Watch the clip above via The Weekend on MS NOW.

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