(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) Rules for thee, not for me.
Such is the apparent mantra of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., who last week flouted his former demand to believe all women — even when they were implausibly recounting decades-old rape allegations to advance a political narrative.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) says he still doesn’t believe Graham Platner’s first accuser who was a Republican
Whitehouse: “When looking at allegations you have to evaluate things like if there is corroboration, she was involved in a Koch-brothers operation”
Source: CNN pic.twitter.com/w5rzYAkR8z
— Politics & Poll Tracker 📡 (@PollTracker2024) July 16, 2026
Even after the implosion of Maine senatorial candidate Graham Platner’s campaign, following a graphic account in Politico involving forcible rape, Whitehouse doubled down on his past insistence that an earlier Platner accuser was lying, because she wasn’t a Democrat.
“I think it’s important when you’re looking at allegations to — and I’ve done this as a prosecutor for years — to evaluate things like whether there is corroboration, and with respect to the first allegation, there was none,” Whitehouse falsely claimed in an interview Wednesday with CNN’s Jake Tapper.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse thinks that domestic abuse victims should not be believed if they're Republican:
Q: Why did you dismiss Fifield?
A: When looking at allegations you have to evaluate things like if there is corroboration, she was involved in a Koch-brothers operation. pic.twitter.com/62Hhpbz7nx
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 15, 2026
Tapper, who wrote an entire book about the media’s failure to scrutinize false claims concerning former President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline, once again rediscovered his journalistic objectivity after plummeting poll numbers led Democrat party elites to force Platner’s resignation, just in time to replace him on the ballot.
But while Tapper’s contrition was dubious at best, Whitehouse’s continued attacks on Platner victim Lyndsey Fifield were downright callous and utterly lacking in self-awareness.
“Whether there’s motive to mislead or fabricate, there was plenty,” Whitehouse claimed.
“The woman was involved in basically a Koch brothers funded political operation and had been specifically involved in main political activities against Platner,” he added. “So, yes, there came a point when the straw broke the camel’s back. But if we don’t look with some professional skepticism at allegations, then I think we have not done our duties.”
The claim was a far cry from the rhetoric Whitehouse used as one of the shrillest supporters for Christine Blasey Ford, the discredited accuser who sought to derail Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s 2018 confirmation hearing.
In that case, Whitehouse framed his professional duty as the obligation to ruthlessly grill Kavanaugh over what Democrats claimed were “credible” allegations.
Moreover, Whitehouse insisted that his political opponents do the same by bending over backward to accommodate the curiously timed 11th-hour claims of a decades-old drunken encounter at a high school party.
“Republicans should respect Dr. Blasey Ford’s wishes, as they should respect the wishes of all victims of sexual assault,” Whitehouse said at the time.
An FBI investigation into the matter ultimately found no one willing to corroborate Blasey Ford’s claim.
Whitehouse’s flip-flopping notion of duty regarding rape victims is not the only example of his shameless hypocrisy, however.
He used a contrived scandal surrounding a patriotic flag in the yard of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito to push a demand for Senate oversight of the judicial branch — in direct violation of the separation of powers outlined under the U.S. Constitution.
All the while, Whitehouse brushed off the need for similar ethical guardrails in the Senate, turning a blind eye to the dark-money politics of leftist advocacy and lobbying groups.
Whitehouse also faced particularly sharp criticism for his membership in Bailey’s Beach Club — an elite, whites-only establishment — even as he routinely deployed race-baiting rhetoric against his Republican opponents.
“I think it would be nice if they changed a little bit, but it’s not my position,” he said of his segregated retreat, while arguing that club membership had been a long-running family tradition.
Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.
