The 361st Vote

[The 361st Vote @bksacks]

@KCSocWiz @MaxBretosSports He easily got the ball. On what planet is that ever a red?

[Adam Johnson @adamjohnsonCHI]

The % of Dems who have a positive view of Israel is at 13%—less than the % of Dems who support full abortion bans & prayer in schools. Here I ask why US media keeps insisting support for Israel is “dividing democrats” when—in reality—it’s a fringe position https://t.co/61BRqAQQwo

[Jason Toney @jasontoney_]

I screen-capped it. Brown wasn’t just being “needlessly speculative,” he was being Islamophobic. It is dangerous rhetoric that shouldn’t be scrubbed from the record without accountability.

[The 361st Vote @bksacks]

@davidsirota @LeverNews @zeteo_news @jonfavs Some OG reporting on this: https://t.co/rAyyuxojvl

[austerity is theft @wideofthepost]

It's so effing crazy that this lady was the founder of LADIES FOR BRETT KAVANAUGH, a right wing op to run interference against his accusers, and the @nytimes never once felt the need to mention this in its story.

[The 361st Vote @bksacks]

@barbarismcrit @chaosersong @ArcadeValentine As pro abortion as can be, but i would never say abortion doesn't imply moral questions.

The fight is for 100% legality, not the fiction that abortion is of no moral consequence.

[The 361st Vote @bksacks]

@LukeRodriguez75 "Center Left"
https://t.co/zpxA6bNfVK

[Monjula Ray 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🥥 @queerBengali]

Susan Collins is the reason multiple women are dying in red states because doctors won’t perform abortions on ectopic pregnancies or miscarriages.

Voting or supporting her is far more immoral.

[The 361st Vote @bksacks]

@neeratanden You are talking about yourself though, not Platner. You are a terrible person. Exhibit 43:
https://t.co/rCzP6zrkdT.

[Dr. Nifkin // cap net worth at $100M @drnifkin_OB]

I wonder why people say that

[The 361st Vote @bksacks]

@MarcoFoster_ @JamesCarville First thing he said that makes some sense in a long time.

[Marcus Stanley @MarcusMStanley]

The most shocking part of this story is that the NYT had a former AIPAC Activist of the Year (Katie Glueck) write a piece devoted to detailing unsubstantiated claims from a professional Republican activist (Lyndsey Fifield) on how a left Democratic Senate candidate who has promised to take on Israel (Platner) was a lousy boyfriend and sold it as a legit journalistic scoop.

[Krystal Ball @krystalball]

Very clear double standard at play with Platner reporting because he is anti-zionist and anti-oligarch. For example, Newsom dated a 19 year old when he was 39 and slept with his best friend’s wife but for some reason this isn’t the subject of breathless exposes. Reporters aren’t banging down the door of all Newsom’s ex’s to dig for more dirt. It’s not considered potentially disqualifying or really considered at all.

[carl beijer @_carlbeijer]

Instantly rejects Tara Reade's accusations on zero grounds, writes multiple paragraphs tone policing Swalwell's critics on the day of the accusation. Yeah man people really care what you think about this

[The 361st Vote @bksacks]

@fishontherun02 @barbarismcrit You are correct.

[Ryan Grim @ryangrim]

The NYT said that @lyndseyfifield has been out of politics and isn’t doing anything with the conservative dark money group Independent Women’s Forum anymore but here she is getting quoted at a Republican congressional event in mid-April of 2026, a few weeks ago, with IWF as her ID

[The 361st Vote @bksacks]

@extra_beef_ Still just a dumb thing for a 19 year old to believe, and an older male dipshit to say. Won't disqualify him.

[The 361st Vote @bksacks]

@asymmetricinfo You are an operative. Platner isnt accused of rape.

[22 U.S.C. § 2304 @RefrmDemocracy]

Graham Platner should have instead said "Not nuking these fucking animals is the only restraint I expect and that's only because the cloud would hurt Israelis" and then the media class would deem him acceptable.

[The 361st Vote @bksacks]

@ContraPoints We don't want it avoided. And he absolutely will appeal to them.

He is worth the risk to sideline the democratic blob, which will happen if he wins the 2028 primary.

[The 361st Vote @bksacks]

@SozeJay @ryangrim @AIPAC Individuals join front groups by accident all the time. That's part of the point of being a front.

You are a right wing turd playing at being an idiot, which comes easy to you no doubt.

[Ryan Grim @ryangrim]

It's kind of wild to find out that the Republican in the NYT story that says she had a toxic relationship with Graham Platner is Lyndsey Fifield. Having been in DC for too long, I know a decent number of people who know her quite well. For a long time she was the co-host of a podcast with her best friend Bethany Mandel, called Ladybrains, though she has also worked for multiple super PACs, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Heritage Foundation.

Some background, presented without judgment: In 2014, Fifield began work as digital director for American Action Network, a Republican Super PAC that oversees House races. The next year she became social media manager for the Heritage Foundation, where she stayed for the next seven years.

In 2022, she joined the Super PAC backing Nikki Haley for president, switching to the official campaign side the next year, and staying until the campaign flamed out. She now lists herself as a visiting fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum, a prominent dark money group that is best known for helping usher Brett Kavanaugh on to the Supreme Court and giving Susan Collins the talking points she needed to make her decisive speech in his favor.

The NYT breezed past all this, saying she was "a Virginia conservative who has worked for right-leaning groups and Republican campaigns."

In an interview for a news outlet called Red Alert Politics that named her to a “30 under 30” list back in 2016, she said that she wanted to “emulate the late conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart’s approach to online activism.” Breitbart, known for pushing the boundaries when it came to political combat, is perhaps best remembered for having exposed Anthony Weiner’s penchant for sending nudes to young girls, and for his work elevating James O’Keefe.

That she worked for Independent Women's Forum recently is even wilder since IWF played a critical role in Kavanaugh's confirmation and in persuading Collins to support it.

Heather Higgins, chair of IWF, laid out the group’s role in a talk several years ago. “We wrote a memo. It was used by a lot of members of the Senate and the House, Fox News, and elsewhere. Most important, Susan Collins told me that without that memo, she would not see how to support him,” Higgins said. “And if you look at the speech she gave on the Senate floor, it’s entirely the playing out and architecture of how we said to structure the argument — what to say and how to say it, which is just so gratifying. We’re watching TV and we’re like, ‘That’s ours! That’s ours!’”

Meanwhile, the timeline Fifield gives of their relationship is confusing, because during at least some of that time she was actually dating a different person, her longterm boyfriend who became her fiancee before she called off the wedding in 2018. We all know this because she and Mandel did a podcast episode on it that went mega-viral in Republican circles back then. Apparently this is the kind of thing the NYT thinks is important now, so I guess it requires more reporting. I'll report back.

Here is Heather Higgins celebrating IWF's role in getting Susan Collins to confirm Kavanaugh: