If you listen to a lot of interviews with Hasan re:Platner I don't think he ever outright defended him. I do think he softballed his actual thoughts and pivoted to instead say praising Abdul ElSayed in order to not shit talk him overly much publicly because at the end of the day, he was still better than Mills/Collins. I get it and honestly I agree with the strategy, but it definitely chaffed.

This is correct. Tbh most of his commentary was similar to ettingermnentum where Platner is a symptom of the Dems being unable to run credible candidates so any person who is anti establishment, anti-zionist, left-coded destroys establishment candidates.

Most of the time he's also pointed to Abdul in Michigan as a far better example of a left candidate. And furthermore, before the accusations there was an argument that if the options are mills, Platner, and collins, well, that's pretty easy math. Obviously DSA/PSL dropped the ball not running someone, but I don't know how organized the orgs are in Maine.

Of course even AES isn't a DSA member like DAC, so obviously more work can be done, but I think Hasan, AOC, etc. Actually get the W here, they never endorsed and treated this shit with the skepticism it deserved.

He did worse than endorse him. He called everyone calling out his Platner promotion and excuses wreckers, ultras and feds, and explicitly said he "doesn't care" what the guy did in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He and the other Platner libs made this their hill to die on. Anyone who cares about imperial war crimes and their victims is their enemy, to be relentlessly smeared and mocked. And thus they have chosen a side, the empire's side.