Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, who is running against Graham Platner in the Maine Senate primary, laughed when she was asked why voters should trust her after she expressed public confidence in former President Joe Biden after his June 2024 debate, but expressed concern in private.
MS NOW's Elise Jordan said Mills had defended Biden after the debate, but revealed in a recent interview in The Atlantic that she had privately advocated for the president to exit the race.
Jordan asked, "So why should voters trust your judgment now when you had one opinion privately that was very impactful on the fate of our country in the grand scheme of things, and then now, when you're vouching for your own health, tell us why we should trust you."
Mills laughed as Jordan asked and described what she did to dissuade Biden.
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"Listen, I wasn't going to kick the guy when he was down, honestly. But we had a meeting with the president just a few weeks or so after the horrible debate. And I was one of the people who spoke up and said, you know – we, all the governors, Democratic governors – called for this meeting in order to try to – to try to dissuade him from running. That didn't work at that time. Eventually he did make the right decision," Mills responded.
Mills issued a defense of her own age. The governor, if elected, would become the oldest freshman senator at the age of 79 years old. She's currently 78, but would be 79 if she is elected to the position.
"We all tried in our own way to convince him that he wasn't up for it," she said. "I am up for this Senate race in every way possible. And I'm determined to help change the course of our country because the times are way too urgent, too dangerous for me not to do this thing. I can't not do this," Mills said.
"And I have the physical and mental ability to do it, of course, and I have the experience and the day-to-day goings-on governing this State of Maine, dealing with the legislature, being in the public eye, walking the streets of downtowns across the state of Maine and talking to people every day," she continued. "I'm not hiding, I am out there demonstrating my capacity and no one's questioning it."
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MS NOW's Catherine Rampell pressed Mills about her age earlier in the interview, calling it a political liability for her, as Democrats are "scarred" by Biden. Rampell noted that Mills would only agree to release her medical records if Platner and Republican Maine Sen. Susan Collins would do the same.
"I've been governor for seven, almost seven and a half years. I think people know that I'm fit to serve. And I'm aggressively doing two jobs right now. Serving as governor and running a very aggressive campaign for the United States Senate because it is time we defeated Susan Collins," Mills responded.
She said age would always be an issue and should be a consideration, but that she was fit to serve.
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"I would share my lipid profile with anybody who wants to say what their cholesterol is. But honestly, why would I put my lipid profile up on the internet if the other two candidates don't do it as well? Fair's fair. Nobody asked Angus King to do that last year. Nobody's asking Bernie Sanders to do that. So listen, age is a consideration. It's one reason that I'm running for one term and one term only. I want to hit the ground running as I said," she said.
Platner has faced multiple controversies related to past social media posts, as well as backlash over a tattoo that has been widely interpreted as a Nazi symbol, which he has since gotten covered up.
