A former ESPN anchor claimed President Donald Trump hates black people as she made the head-scratching assertion that voters can’t disqualify Graham Platner over his Nazi tattoo as long as Trump is in the White House.
Former SportsCenter anchor Cari Champion argued that allowing Trump to be president is enough to prove that Platner’s “baggage” can be overlooked as the Maine Democratic candidate bids for the Senate. She insisted that she was not excusing the behavior of the scandal-ridden Platner, who has asserted ignorance about the Nazi symbol tattooed on his chest.
Champion’s baffling claim came during an exchange with paneist Arthur Aidala on CNN’s “Table for Five” as they discussed the scandals surrounding Platner, whose former girlfriends came out in a New York Times report alleging disturbing behavior in the past, and the controversies continued to pile up for the Democrat.
(Video Credit: CNN)
“The bar is in hell. We have allowed this president to come in, and this blatant corruption, and we see it,” Champion argued.
“By the way, I am not excusing this man’s behavior in any form or fashion,” she insisted. “This just happens to be a candidate that has baggage.”
“Cari, he has an anti-Semitic tattoo on his chest. That should be automatic disqualification, period,” Aidala interjected.
“I’m not excusing this man’s behavior, but what I am telling you is you cannot say that with this president in office,” Champion argued.
Dem double standard on GLARING display with sick puppy Graham Platner https://t.co/b4ZdMJR5qN via @BIZPACReview
— BPR (@BIZPACReview) June 5, 2026
“You can. You can. A guy who is wearing a tattoo saying I hate people of this religion, that’s it, you’re done,” Aidala pointed out.
“OK, ‘And I hate black people.’ I feel like this president is saying, ‘I hate black people,’ and we’re done.” Champion exclaimed, clapping her hands together to emphasize her point.
“But he doesn’t have a tattoo that says it,” Aidala said in a reality check.
“He just has all the power of the government. He’s rolling back — he’s rolling back civil rights,” she shot back as host Abby Philip jumped in.
“You keep saying you’re not excusing him, but what’s happening is that he is being excused,” she contended, going on to recount the rolling out of scandals surrounding Platner.
“But Abby, but are we excusing it?” Champion asked. “Are we excusing it? Or are we saying, look, if this is this, if this guy is in the lead — are we excusing it? No, we’re not. But if the people in Maine are saying, ‘This is our guy, this is who we want,’ it’s because of the situation we live in right now.”
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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