Former DNC Chairwoman Donna Brazile refused to address mounting questions about Maine Democratic Senate nominee Troy Jackson's personal life and a resurfaced police report, waving it all off as gossip not worth her time.
Brazile, a veteran Democratic operative who served as interim DNC chair in both 2011 and 2016, spoke with Fox News Digital as Jackson's campaign contends with two separate controversies that have landed in rapid succession: a genealogical report claiming Jackson fathered two children with his second cousin, and a 1988 police report accusing him of assault. Rather than confront either matter directly, Brazile offered a string of deflections that amounted to a carefully worded non-answer.
Asked about the cousin relationship report, Brazile told Fox News Digital:
"There's a lot of people who are doing a lot of gossip as news, and I don't want to break news that might not be true, especially on something so personal, that's not what I do."
She added: "There are so many lies. I don't really want to comment on salacious gossip, innuendos." Pressed further, she said simply, "I don't know anything about Mr. Jackson."
That last line is worth pausing on. A former national party chair, someone whose job was to know the party's candidates, vet them, and defend them on camera, claimed total ignorance of the man Democrats chose to challenge five-term Republican incumbent Susan Collins in one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country.
Jackson's path to the nomination was itself unusual. Graham Platner, a far-left candidate, won the Maine Democratic Senate primary on June 9. But Platner's campaign unraveled after a series of controversies that included a rape allegation, and he formally dropped out on July 10. The Democratic Party then selected Jackson as the replacement nominee for the November general election ballot.
Jackson, a former Maine Senate president and fifth-generation logger, secured the nomination at a last-minute convention in Bangor, AP News reported. He entered the race with less than four months to campaign and roughly $1 million raised, a fraction of the more than $16 million Collins had already amassed for her reelection bid. On top of that financial gap, the Republican super PAC Senate Leadership Fund committed to spending over $42 million against him.
Weeks after his nomination, the problems started. Steven Robinson, editor of The Maine Wire, published a report claiming Jackson shares two children with his longtime partner, Lana Pelletier, and that Pelletier is his second cousin by blood. Robinson's findings alleged that Pelletier's father is a cousin of Jackson's mother. Genealogical records reportedly show the two share great-grandparents.
Jackson has never directly denied that Pelletier is his cousin in any public statement to Fox News Digital. His campaign instead accused Collins' team of orchestrating the report as a political attack.
His campaign issued a statement: "Susan Collins will do anything to distract from the fact that she votes with Trump 96% of the time and has sold out working people in Maine. Personal attacks on Troy's family are shameful and desperate."
Shortly after Brazile and other Democrats declined to distance themselves from Jackson over the cousin report, a second controversy surfaced: a 1988 police report accusing Jackson of assault.
The report, dated March 12, 1988, described Jackson, then 19 years old, kicking in a door and punching a man in the face during a late-night confrontation over Pelletier, the New York Post reported. The victim sustained injuries. Jackson was charged with assault and paid a $50 fine to resolve the case.
More damaging for Jackson was a detail buried in the same report: Pelletier told the responding officer at the time that Jackson had "pushed her around."
Jackson acknowledged the fight in a statement obtained by Fox News Digital:
"I took responsibility for [the fight] then, and I take responsibility for it now."
Breitbart reported that Jackson added a flat denial of any violence toward Pelletier or any other woman. Pelletier herself pushed back on the police report's account in a statement to Fox News Digital:
"I do not remember making the statements attributed to me and they are not accurate. This is the first time I have seen this report from 40 years ago. Troy and I have built a life and family together and I know the person he has been through the decades since, both as a caring partner and father."
The cousin relationship and the 1988 assault are not the only issues dogging Jackson. He also faced accusations of throwing a water bottle at a female state Senate colleague during an argument, an incident that speaks to questions about his temperament. Separately, reports surfaced that Jackson allegedly ran an anonymous alias account called "Canadians for LePage" to troll former Republican Gov. Paul LePage and state Republicans while serving in the state Senate. He has also faced scrutiny over late state income tax payments and an ethics complaint about residency misrepresentation.
A Pine Tree Results PAC advertisement tied Jackson to Platner directly: "Troy Jackson bragged about being one of Graham Platner's earliest supporters. When the news of Platner's Nazi tattoo came out, Jackson stood with Platner."
Collins, who has held her Senate seat since 1997, described Jackson in blunt terms. "He's a Bernie Bro," she told reporters.
Brazile's refusal to engage with any of this followed a careful pattern. She called for facts, "I think it's important to get the facts", while declining to acknowledge any of the facts already reported. She wished Jackson "the best of luck" while insisting she didn't know him. She called the race "one of the most competitive" while treating the controversies engulfing the Democratic nominee as beneath comment.
Fox News Digital noted that Jackson's campaign did not respond to its most recent requests for comment. That silence, paired with Brazile's studied evasion, left the growing list of questions about Jackson's record and personal history unanswered by anyone in the Democratic establishment willing to speak on the record.
A Fox News poll showed the Maine Senate race deadlocked, specific figures were not available, which makes the Democratic reluctance to address Jackson's baggage all the more notable. This is a seat the party badly wants to flip, and the nominee they rushed onto the ballot after their first choice imploded is now generating headlines that have nothing to do with policy.
Democrats replaced a candidate who collapsed under scandal with a candidate now facing his own cascading controversies, and their most prominent party voices cannot muster anything more than "I don't know anything about Mr. Jackson." Voters in Maine deserve better than studied ignorance from the people who put his name on the ballot.
