“Um, if anybody knows me and Graham personally, you know that we got married in 2023. Um, we live in Sullivan. We’ve got two dogs and we love each other deeply. So it makes me really angry, um, disappointed, and I find it really shameful that there’s a group of media outlets and people who are willing to spread gossip instead of talking about real issues that Graham is running on—like healthcare and education and childcare. Um, I’m walking up and down my road right now and this is like my 20th take. This is very hard to do, but um, I just really wanted to make sure that everyone knows that Graham and I have a great marriage. Um, being married is hard.  Being newly married is hard. Being newly married and going through infertility is hard. Being newly married, going through infertility, and a Senate campaign is hard. Um, I don’t even know if I have the right words to describe what we’ve been going through, but um, our marriage counselor helps. Uh, my personal counselor helps. Graham’s personal counselor helps. Um, and we work on our mental health every day. Um, no marriage is perfect and I—I don’t want a perfect marriage. I want my marriage and I want to be married to Graham. Sorry, blackflies. Um, I knew the man that I married is wonderful and dynamic and probably a genius. Um, I knew the man that I married had been through an immense amount of violent active combat and um, he’s been in therapy for years. I just—I admire the fuck out of him.Um, so when there are news articles about our marriage, it’s just extra shitty. Can I say that online? I hope I can. Um, it’s extra shitty because people in Maine want affordable gas. They want to be able to see their doctor when they’re sick. Um, they want to be able to send like their kids to a nice school, uh, a nice daycare facility, um, and raise families the way that they want to. So I think I’m feeling angry today. Um, and I don’t normally make public statements, but it’s really important for me to tell all of you out there—especially people who are voting in Maine—that I think it’s shameful behavior to spend time and energy and resources on negative ads and negative stories on Graham when all he’s trying to do is improve the lives of people who work for a living. Um, and that’s it. He doesn’t have any other agenda, which is what I think people are trying to dig up. Um, and this is a long video, so uh, I hope my editing team isn’t too frustrated with me. Um, I hope that everyone’s having a good Saturday. Graham and I really care about the state of Maine. We really love it. We were born and raised here and I think we deserve better. I think Mainers deserve better. And I don’t know what else to say. So if you’re editing this video, I’m really sorry. Thanks for watching.”

Signature significance. That’s the Ethics Alarms term for a single statement or episode that all by itself is sufficient to prove a proposition regarding the ethical character of an organization, individual or system beyond a shadow of a doubt. It’s everywhere in this debacle:

• A competent and ethical political party never puts a candidate as unqualified as Platner on a ballot to be a U.S. Senator, not even once.
• A person with an IQ above freezing never makes a statement like that in private, never mind in public. Not even once.
• A man who is qualified for any job more complex than an oyster-shucker doesn’t choose a life partner as, well, you pick the adjective, as Platner’s wife, not even once.
• A campaign organization that is run by higher primates would never allow a candidate’s wife to post a video like that, not even once.
• No public figure with integrity would endorse a mega-creep like Platner, not even once.
• No American with the minimal civic literacy defined by the Founders as critical for their grand experiment to succeed would vote for such a creep, or trust a party that is capable of nominating one.

Not even once.