By Ted Cohen

Vermont’s senior U.S. senator is refusing to apologize for supporting a U.S. Senate candidate from Maine who dropped out of the race after he was accused of rape.

Bernie Sanders appeared Sunday on CBS-TV’S Face the Nation defending his backing fellow Democrat socialist Graham Platner.

“You were an early supporter and man of Graham Platner,” program host Margaret Brennan said to Sanders. “You helped him rise. Do you regret not acting earlier to call on him to drop out, given the warning signs?”

“No I don’t think so,” Sanders, appearing on a video feed, replied. “When we heard the serious allegations made against him I wanted to get on the phone, I wanted to talk to him.

“I asked, with virtually all of his supporters, that he get out of the race and he did,” Sanders added. 

A day after Bernie went on national TV trying to explain supporting Platner, The Maine Wire unearthed embarrassing video showing Sanders and Platner laughing it up at a variety store in northern Maine.

“Here is Bernie palling around with Platner in his hometown of Sullivan after the Lyndsey Fifield allegations were out,” the Maine news outlet reported Monday as it posted the video on its website.

The footage showed Sanders holding up a bottle of Moxie, a famous Maine cola, exclaiming “Make America healthy again.”

The well-known elixir’s ability to cure whatever ales failed to work its magic healing powers on Platner’s failing Senate dream.

Within weeks of campaigning alongside his Vermont booster, Platner withdrew from the Senate campaign amid a slew of accusations highlighting alleged inappropriate behavior with women.

Fifield had been among several women claiming Platner’s abusive treatment of them.

Platner denied all the accusations but nonetheless resigned from the race -without ever explaining why he was doing so.

Maine Democrats replaced Platner on the ballot in a statewide caucus Saturday, selecting former state senate President Troy Jackson to go up against five-term GOP Sen. Susan Collins this November.