Democratic senators are still backing Maine Senate nominee Troy Jackson, who replaced former candidate Graham Platner on the ballot, after the latest allegations threaten to yet again shake up the race for U.S. Senate in the Pine Tree State.

Platner, following a series of scandals culminating in sexual misconduct claims, was forced to drop out ahead of the Democratic primary to take on Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, earlier this summer. But now, a bombshell report claims Platner’s replacement fathered two children with his second cousin.

The recent report wasn’t enough to turn lawmakers against Jackson, with most stressing the necessity for Democrats to win swing state races in order to win back a majority in the upper chamber — not an easy feat in Maine where Collins, a moderate, has represented the state in the Senate since 1997.

Maine’s other senator, independent Angus King, said: “I have no idea what you’re talking about and I’m not going to comment on it anyway.”

Every senator that Fox News Digital spoke with on the issue this week denied having knowledge of the report.

“I don’t know anything about that, but what I do know is that we have got to elect Democrats up and down the ballot,” Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., told Fox News Digital.

“I haven’t heard of these reports,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., echoed. “Troy Jackson is somebody who’s obviously in this fight for working people.”

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., ignored the crux of the question. “I think it’s super important that we win that seat so that we can put an end to the wild cost increases and rampant corruption that the Senate right now is indulging,” he said.

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The Maine Wire editor Steven Robinson first reported last week that Jackson shares two children with his second cousin, Lana Pelletier. In posting the genealogical findings, the independent journalist claimed Pelletier’s father is a cousin of Jackson’s mother.

The report made waves after Jackson received 94% of the 601 delegate votes in the process this summer to replace Platner, who dropped out of the race after a rape allegation finally forced his Democrat allies to turn against him. Platner denied the claim, among others made against him, but ultimately it was the nail in the coffin that resulted in him ending his bid for U.S. Senate before the deadline for Democrats to get a new candidate on the Maine primary ballot.

Without directly denying the report, Jackson’s campaign said in a previous statement to Fox News Digital that it was an attack comping from the Collins camp.

“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,” the statement read.

Jackson’s campaign did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for additional comment on the reporting.

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“Haven’t seen it,” Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., said when asked on Capitol Hill about the reports.

Ossoff initially avoided saying whether he’d back Jackson. Instead, he pointed to Michigan’s Democratic race, which the far-left progressive Abdul El-Sayed won on Wednesday, before addressing his support for Jackson.

“I’m supporting our nominee in Michigan,” Ossoff replied when asked if he will be endorsing Jackson. “In Maine, we’ll see who wins.”

Many senators credited their support for Jackson and other Democrat candidates running for office as a broader effort to target Republicans and their agendas — both within the Donald Trump administration and in Congress.

“We have a president who today, again, has no strategic plan about getting us out of that war in Iran, where our children are dying on the battlefield while his are getting rich,” Alsobrooks said.

A recent Fox News Poll found that 56% of voters oppose U.S. military action against Iran, with 40% strongly opposing the war, indicating the ongoing conflict might play a role in how voters show up at in November.

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Alsobrooks said she is supporting the Democratic nominee “in every single state,” again indirectly backing Jackson, to ensure her party takes back the majority in Congress.

“I’m supporting whoever the nominee, in every single state, the Democratic nominee,” Alsobrooks said. “We are going to have to take back the House and take back the Senate as well so that we can bring down the cost of living, get people healthcare again.”

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“That is what is important right now to the American people, and that’s what we’re looking for.”

Warner Bros. Discovery stumbled in the second quarter, demonstrating the hazard of depending heavily on blockbuster returns from its Burbank film studio.

Disappointing performances by “Supergirl” and “The Bride!” drove down quarterly theatrical revenue by 46%. The tepid showing illustrated how the Warner Bros. studio has fallen since last year when it was riding high at the box office with “Sinners” and “A Minecraft Movie.”

Warner’s lackluster earnings, released Thursday, comes as tech scion David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance remains eager to complete its $111-billion deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery to combine the two companies’ streaming operations and the storied film studio with Melrose Avenue’s Paramount Pictures.

Overall, profit for Warner Bros. Discovery, which also is the parent of HBO, CNN, TLC and HGTV, plummeted 91% to $149 million, or 6 cents per share, compared to $1.6 billion in the second quarter of 2025 amid the film studio’s blazing run.

The company also fell short of Wall Street expectations for revenue, which sank 11% to $8.7 billion, despite noteworthy gains in its HBO Max streaming business.

Warner missed having NBA games on its TNT channel, which contributed to a 27% drop in advertising to $1.4 billion. The NBA’s departure, and the absence of the NHL Stanley Cup finals, contributed to a 17% ratings decline at Warner’s cable networks.

Chief Executive David Zaslav opted not to renew the pricey basketball contract as Warner has been straining to pay down debt brought on by its last merger in 2022. Instead, NBCUniversal picked up the NBA arrangement. (Expenses were down 27% because the company no longer had to pay NBA rights fees.)

Warner executives disclosed the company still is carrying about $30 billion in debt.

The company’s earnings revealed continued weakness in the cable television division amid consumer cord-cutting, which has slowed down in recent quarters.

Still, the channels remain a significant part of Warner’s overall revenue and profit picture.

Revenue to the global linear networks, which includes TNT, Discovery and international channels, declined 17% to $4 billion. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in that division fell 4% to $1.4 billion.

Despite the gloomy results, Warner’s stock climbed 1.7% Thursday to $26.40. Investors seemed heartened by news that British authorities have cleared Ellison’s proposed takeover.

Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority found the Paramount-Warner combination would not restrict media competition in Britain.

Warner investors are expecting more than $31 a share should Paramount succeed in its proposed Warner Bros. purchase. The blockbuster acquisition has stalled amid an antitrust challenge filed last month by California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and 11 other state attorneys.

Bonta’s coalition, including prosecutors from New York, Colorado, Minnesota and Nevada, contends the deal violates U.S. antitrust law. The Writers Guild of America has also sued to block the deal.

“We’re confident this transaction will close,” Zaslav told analysts on an early morning conference call.

Earlier this week, a federal judge scheduled a March 2, 2027 trial — months later than Paramount had hoped — to determine whether the deal should move forward.

Paramount faces a June 4 deadline to wrap up the purchase — or pay a $7-billion breakup fee to Warner.

Warner’s earnings bright spot came from its streaming segment, which includes HBO.

Streaming revenue grew 10% to $3 billion as the company continued its international rollout of HBO Max. The service benefits from Warner films, cartoons and HBO’s critically acclaimed original content including “Euphoria,” “Hacks,” “The Gilded Age” and “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” which debuted earlier this year.

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in the streaming division soared 75% to $512 million.

Streaming chief JB Perrette said his division was bullish about next year when HBO will introduce new seasons of “The White Lotus,” “The Last of Us” and “The Pitt.”

Warner executives acknowledged their film studio’s struggles. The company does not break out theatrical revenue figures, but said total revenue for the film and television studios declined 39% to $2.3 billion.

The studios’ adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization dropped 89% to $96 million.

Zaslav conceded Warner Bros. would release fewer films this year than initially anticipated because some weren’t ready for audiences. The studio should release 14 movies this year but plans to boost its output to 19 next year.

“We’re very confident that we’re going to be able to maintain that larger number,” Chief Financial Officer Gunnar Wiedenfels said on the call.

The studio will rebound, Zaslav said.

“Next year, we’re going to have ‘Lord of the Rings,’ ‘Batman,’ ‘Superman,’ [and] ‘Minecraft’ too,” Zaslav said. “Our overall philosophy [is] making sure that we bring the motion picture to the market when the film is ready.”

Ellison, in his bid for Warner Bros., has promised regulators that a combined Warner-Paramount studio would release 30 films a year — an amount that some experts believe is overly ambitious.

Late Wednesday, Regal Global Entertainment Chief Executive Eduardo Acuna cited Ellison’s commitment to a strong pipeline in announcing his theater chain’s support for the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger.

“We need a thriving studio system to ensure that the industry has a platform from which to grow,” Acuna said in a statement. “I believe David is sincere in making these commitments, and he has offered to execute a consent decree to the State AGs. These are tangible and important commitments that will benefit the industry.”

Times staff writer Samantha Masunaga contributed to this report.

Nine Republican candidates vying to permanently fill late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s Senate seat spoke directly to voters Saturday at an event in Florence County, South Carolina, where they addressed the war with Iran, the rising tide of socialism in the Democratic Party and potential privacy concerns around Flock cameras.

The event was hosted by Alan Wilson, South Carolina’s Republican gubernatorial nominee, who pitched the gathering a kind of “speed dating,” since each candidate was given six minutes to address the crowd.

The special Republican Senate primary is coming up on Aug. 11, which made Saturday’s event one of the last chances for the candidates to make their closing arguments to voters.

Here’s what they chose to focus on in their elevator pitches.

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Darline Graham

Sen. Darline Graham — who was chosen to finish out her brother’s term after his death in July — was the last to speak but was quick to tell attendees that she intended to earn their votes.

“I’m not a politician. I never wanted to be a politician. But like Lindsey, I have a servant’s heart. I am a hard worker. And yes, I have President Trump’s endorsement, but I know I have to earn your votes,” she said at the beginning of her speech.

She emphasized that she was not a “DEI” candidate, hyping her experience running the South Carolina Commission for the Blind, a state agency with a $90 million budget and dozens of employees.

“We help blind people and people with disabilities get jobs so that they don’t have to rely on the government. How is that DEI?” she said.

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She also made sure to highlight issues she and President Donald Trump agree on, including keeping transgender girls out of female sports, standing with Israel, supporting implementing voter ID through the SAVE Act and ending blanket birthright citizenship.

Graham briefly touched on socialism within the Democratic Party, calling it a problem that has to be stopped. She also described Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., as crazy.

Her speech concluded by answering a question about Flock cameras, which can automatically read license plates and are being installed all over the country.

“I need to look into that one, because there’s two sides to that story. I know that some people are concerned about privacy and protecting their privacy, and I’m all for protecting the privacy of U.S. citizens. The other side of it is, if there’s an emergency situation that an ambulance can be called quicker, and it can save lives,” Graham said. “I’m going to be honest. That’s a hard one for me. So I want to look into it a little bit more.”

Ralph Norman

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., focused on his frustration with the Senate, calling it the place where “good bills go to die.”

He proposed overhauling the Senate’s rules to get measures like the SAVE Act passed.

“I will use my, whatever expertise I have to go to the Senate and force the vote, whether it’s blowing up the filibuster or having a walking filibuster or getting with the parliamentarian and changing some of these stupid, arcane rules that the Senate has,” Norman said.

The Senate filibuster allows a minority of senators to delay or block most legislation, effectively requiring 60 votes to advance a bill and making it harder for a narrow majority to enact its agenda.

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Following his remarks, Norman was asked a question about the extent to which AI data centers should be regulated.

He said the federal government should not have a role but appeared to disagree with Trump’s recent full-throated support of bringing data centers to communities around the country.

“Do I think it’s bad for the community? Yes. Do I think it hurts the environment? Yes. And I will do whatever I can,” Norman said.

Mark McBride

The key takeaway from former Myrtle Beach Mayor Mark McBride’s speech is that he broke away from Trump’s position on the war with Iran.

“Y’all, there is something we have to address if we’re going to win in November,” McBride said. “We need to end the war. We need to end the war now.”

“We just have to admit we’ve lost the war. We’ve lost this battle,” he continued. “Come home and regroup for another day.”

He then addressed the crowd, saying: “There’s not one of y’all in here who voted for President Trump a year and a half ago because this is where you thought we would be.”

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Sam Shepherd

Sam Shepherd, an engineer, inventor and entrepreneur, took the opposite approach to McBride, claiming he is “more conservative than Trump.”

Shepherd cast himself as someone who has the skills to fix complex issues within the bureaucracy and the military.

He also took a moment to one-up Elon Musk, the former head of the Department of Government Efficiency, arguing he had more patents than the Tesla billionaire.

“I’ve actually authored more patents than Elon Musk. I have 44. I’m asking for you to bring common sense back to the government,” Shepherd said.

Russell Fry

Rep. Russell Fry, R-S.C., spent much of his speech tying the affordability issues Americans are facing to “onerous regulations.”

“We see this on farms. We see this in every manner of our government — regulations strangle us,” he said. “You’ve got to get government out of the way if we’re going to solve this affordability crisis.”

In response to a question about how he would secure the border if elected, Fry started off by attacking former President Joe Biden’s work ethic and praising Trump’s.

“You actually have to have a president who’s awake for more than four hours a day, right? We went from a president who slept for 20 and was awake for four, to a president who is awake for 20 and sleeps for four,” Fry said.

Fry said he would work to close “loopholes Biden used” to grant thousands of Haitians and Nicaraguans asylum in the U.S.

Mark Sanford

Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford zeroed in on the ballooning national debt, which is about to reach a staggering $40 trillion.

Sanford, who also twice served as South Carolina congressman, said the debt is incomprehensible and unsustainable.

“We’ve got a federal government that goes out and spends money it doesn’t have, and then it turns around, and it prints money that’s not there,” Sanford said.

He argued that the growing national debt is inextricably linked to Americans reaching financial and life milestones later in life.

“The average age to buy a house, not that long ago, was 39 years of age, just 15 years ago. Today, that number is 59. In 15 years, it slid back 20 years, which is to say the American dream is becoming that much more difficult — whether it’s my four boys or y’all’s kids or grandkids out there,” Sanford said.

Mark Lynch

Mark Lynch, a businessman, was another candidate who favored getting rid of the filibuster.

He also said he wouldn’t “take a penny from AIPAC,” making him one of the few candidates, along with McBride, to stake out a position at odds with the field’s staunch support for Israel.

Lynch’s “number one” issue was his strong opposition to abortion. He talked at length about how he has spent time convincing women not to go through with terminating their pregnancies and how he has lobbied state legislators to toughen abortion restrictions.

Danny Ford II

Danny Ford II, the son of the championship-winning former head football coach at Clemson University, was the first to address Flock cameras and the potential privacy issues they raise.

He also talked about rapid data center development getting “out of control.”

“It’s getting pushed straight down our citizens’ throats without any say so,” he said.

On the issue of data centers, Ford said they need to be sustainable, produce their own power and not “leave a stain on South Carolina.”

Glenda Gail Parker

Glenda Gail Parker, a retired budget analyst with the U.S. Air Force, described herself as a conservative independent who leans Republican, but broke with Trump on energy policy, saying the country needs to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels.

In response to a question about how she would ensure South Carolina farmers get the assistance they need after natural disasters, Parker said she would work to mitigate “the climate extremes that we are experiencing now.”

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“And I do that by reducing our consumption of fossil fuels, and lower[ing] the demand for fossil fuels. In fact, today I want to challenge the oil and gas companies,” Parker said. “Those companies that are interested in longevity must realize that they are in the energy business, not the oil and gas business. And so I would like to challenge the oil and gas businesses to clean up their image.”

She concluded by saying the U.S. needs to pursue solar, wind, geothermal energy and hydropower.