politics

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/62882

[Jennifer Taylor Skinner (@jennifertaylorskinner) on Threads

If you’re looking for someone to blame, start with the consultants who handpicked Platner, and admitted that they knew their vetting process was flawed. This interview is from early June, from the WSJ.](https://www.threads.com/@jennifertaylorskinner/post/Dad8a13Ab5m?xmt=AQG0SlTTq0vu5dRZRYNlXrmPk4djK-9IUYdZ-8QCCf1FNoneTMIBYKuZZftgkkNlxiUhCngs&slof=1)

In the news about Graham Platner, one name keeps coming up that is familiar to those of us in Pittsburgh: Daniel Moraff. The Wall Street Journal labeled Moraff “The ‘Mad Scientist’ Behind Graham Platner’s Scandal-Plagued Rise.”

Moraff recruited Platner after seeing a video of him advocating for Frenchman Bay. Moraff told The Wall Street Journal that he spent only a few days vetting Platner, but was convinced that he was the guy they needed after seeing only a video of him.

​I first got to know Moraff when he worked on Summer Lee’s first campaign for state representative. Later, he was dismissed from Summer’s campaign for reasons that were never entirely clear to me, and it remains a subject of debate here.

​I didn’t know Moraff well, but would occasionally see him around town. We weren’t close friends, but when we ran into each other, we would often talk politics and share a few laughs. As a journalist, I saw him as a source, not a friend.

​In September of 2022, I was down in Rio de Janeiro when I received a message from Moraff saying he needed to speak to me urgently. I tried to blow him off because I was deep into covering the election of President Lula and didn’t have time. In November, after Lula’s election, he contacted me again, and I agreed to talk to him.

​What happened next shocked me and raised questions about what may have happened in his work for Platner.

​Moraff told me he was recruiting Brian Pietrzak, a General Electric locomotive factory worker and UE member, to run for Congress in Erie. He said he wanted Pietrzak to run as an independent. While researching Pietrzak, Moraff found anti-Trump quotes he had given Payday and asked me to delete them.

​In October of 2020, Pietzrak spoke at a Biden rally at Carrie Furnaces in Rankin, PA, where he blasted Trump at length.

​“No union member should vote for Trump,” Pietrzak told Payday Report in October of 2020.

​Moraff explained at length that Pietrzak’s quote against Trump could hurt his chances of appealing to Trump voters in Erie. I told him deleting a quote as a political favor would violate journalistic ethics. He insisted I do it even after I said no.

​Cajoling me, Moraff told me that, “No one would know that I deleted the quote.” I told him that wasn’t the issue, and that it was unethical, so I refused. He told me to forget the conversation and never mention it to anyone. It's important to know Moraff asked me to lie for a candidate he was recruiting.

​Given what happened with Platner, I think the incident with Moraff asking me to lie is important. If Moraff felt comfortable asking me, someone that he didn’t know that well, to lie, it means that he possibly got influencers and journalists in the past to lie on his behalf.

When I heard that Moraff was involved in vetting and recruiting Platner, I recalled this experience. It showed me that Moraff was willing to lie to get someone elected and to ask journalists to do unethical things to help sell those lies.

​Sadly, in the age of influencers and content creators, many former journalists would be willing to engage in the kind of lying that someone like Moraff requested. I would not.

​As we examine what went wrong with Platner, we should question the political consultants and influencers, such as Moraff, who shape public opinion. When reporters like me raised questions about Platner’s character, we were repeatedly dismissed by left influencers who said we were applying “purity tests” to folks like Platner.

​While none of us knew that he was aremoved, it was very clear that he was an abuser. As an oddball, autistic kid who was bullied and beaten up by folks like Platner, I knew the type: domineering, dismissive, and dishonest—classic traits of a narcissist.

​Platner  even mocked a soldier in a viral video, who was crying for help while wounded in Afghanistan. Ted Daniels, the soldier, who Platner mocked, had struggled with PTSD himself and rejected the idea that PTSD was an excuse for abusive behavior.

“PTSD is a real thing. I've dealt with it myself, and I've had to learn to live with it. It is not an excuse for dirtbag behavior,” said Daniels. “It's insulting to every veteran, every first responder, every sexual assault survivor who suffers from PTSD. There are good people out there suffering and getting the help they need and functioning every day in society.”

When we raised these concerns about clearly narcissistic and abusive behavior, we were dismissed as applying “purity tests,” but those of us who have suffered abuse from those like Platner knew the warning signs all along.

I think there are deeper lessons here about how people invested in political programs can engage in “hero worship” and dismiss clear signs of troubling narcissism. The most important lesson is that we need independent journalism on the left that does not take orders and tell lies.

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