{"id":5256,"date":"2026-07-08T23:36:55","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T23:36:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=5256"},"modified":"2026-07-08T23:36:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T23:36:55","slug":"platner-leave-democrats-with-egg-on-their-faces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=5256","title":{"rendered":"Platner leave Democrats with egg on their faces"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Democrats have a number of Graham Platner-related problems as they await his decision on whether to drop out of the Maine Senate race amid a rape allegation he denies.\n <\/p>

Read more Why Trump left NATO summit on a positive note after seething about Iran, Spain and Greenland<\/a><\/p>\n

\n But high on that list is the sheer amount of egg some of them now have on their faces.\n <\/p>\n

\n Amid his drip, drip, drip of controversies, Platner repeatedly put the party in the position of deciding whether to vouch for a guy who was the odds-on favorite to win its nomination \u2014 but who also seemed to have stocked his closet with a remarkable number of skeletons.\n <\/p>\n

\n And some Democrats regularly obliged, despite the revelations. They did so after the tattoo with Nazi imagery, after the ugly Reddit posts, after the sexually explicit texts to women who weren\u2019t his wife, and even in some cases after a New York Times report last month about allegations of unsettling behavior toward women. (The national party, which had initially recruited Gov. Janet Mills, got behind him after she dropped out and he became the presumptive nominee.)\n <\/p>\n

\n Each time, these Democrats seemed to convince themselves they could stand by him one more time, ignoring that it was very unlikely to be just one more time.\n <\/p>\n

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\nFormer Graham Platner girlfriend says his \u2018toxic\u2019 behavior changed the trajectory of her life<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n 10:32\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

\n The result is that the party sunk plenty of credibility into a guy who did not reward it. And all of it appears to be a sunk cost now \u2014 in what\u2019s likely a must-win state for Democrats if they\u2019re to flip the Senate in November.\n <\/p>\n

\n At the top of the list of defenses that have aged poorly is one from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse last month.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Rhode Island Democrat told NOTUS that he was \u201cnot impressed\u201d by the detailed Times account of Platner\u2019s allegedly unsettling behavior toward women. (The report didn\u2019t include allegations of sexual abuse but did include allegations of physical intimidation and other toxic behavior toward the women.)\n <\/p>\n

\n The senator also echoed some on the left in pointing to how the most serious allegations came from a former Platner girlfriend who has worked in conservative politics.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cSeems like a lot of nothing,\u201d Whitehouse said. \u201cI mean, the only one who had anything to say that seemed unsettling was a woman who works for right-wing political operations.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n It turns out that kind of suggestion spurred another former Platner girlfriend, Jenny Racicot, to come forward with her rape allegation. Racicot, who said she largely shared Platner\u2019s politics, told Politico she did so in part because of the political attacks on the woman who spoke to the Times, Lyndsey Fifield.\n <\/p>\n

\n Others at the time echoed the argument that the allegations in the early June Times story were politically motivated.\n <\/p>\n

\n The head of the Maine AFL-CIO said they were \u201cnot surprised that attacks are coming from various corners.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n And Maine state Rep. Valli Geiger said the report \u201cmakes me support him more because it just feels like dirty politics to me.\u201d\n <\/p>

Read more These Maine Democrats could run to replace Graham Platner in the Senate race<\/a><\/p>\n

\n (Geiger starred in an ad with Platner in which she praised his support for, of all things, rape kit legislation.)\n <\/p>\n

\n Other Democrats didn\u2019t go so far in dismissing the Times report or the other controversies swirling around Platner but did suggest they shouldn\u2019t define him.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI see this as: He has taken responsibility. He has described where he was, where he is now,\u201d Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts told WCVB-TV late last month.\n <\/p>\n

\n In a social media post shortly after the Times story, independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont didn\u2019t directly address the report but called Platner the \u201cone candidate\u201d who could address what he said were the key issues in the race.\n <\/p>\n

\n California Rep. Ro Khanna called the behavior described in the Times report \u201cwrong and toxic\u201d but said Platner had \u201csought redemption.\u201d And he pressed forward with a rally with Platner shortly afterward.\n <\/p>\n

\n Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii was set to keep a fundraiser for him even after the Times report.\n <\/p>\n

\n Nearly all of those mentioned above have urged Platner to drop out this week after the rape allegation.\n <\/p>\n

\n But their decision to vouch for him, or at least to downplay the significance of the Times\u2019 June reporting, came even as other Democrats adopted a much more cautious posture.\n <\/p>\n

\n On the night Platner won his primary last month, for example, some top Democratic organizations responded by conspicuously saying little or nothing about him and instead emphasized the importance of defeating GOP Sen. Susan Collins.\n <\/p>\n

\n And some left-wing pundits this week expressed regret for their roles in vouching for Platner. New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg, for example, said she regretted that Platner\u2019s \u201ccharisma\u201d led her to write that he was \u201cnothing like the edgelord caricature I encountered online.\u201d And author Naomi Klein said she \u201cshould have been more cautious\u201d in conducting due diligence.\n <\/p>\n

\n But others seemed to have more foresight.\n <\/p>\n

\n After the Times story broke last month, Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan told MS NOW that she was \u201csick of\u201d spending her time \u201canswering every single week a question about bad behavior by another dude.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n And Rep. Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts appeared on CNN in late May, shortly before the Times story broke, and said even just Platner\u2019s tattoo was bad enough for him.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI find that tattoo and his commentary about it to be personally disqualifying,\u201d Auchincloss said. \u201cI hope Maine voters agree with me.\u201d\n <\/p>

Read more How Trump has misjudged Iran<\/a><\/p>\n

\n A lot of Democrats will be wishing they had taken a similar tack.\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democrats have a number of Graham Platner-related problems as they await his decision on whether to drop out of the Maine Senate race amid a rape allegation he denies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nPlatner leave Democrats with egg on their faces - Relocation Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=5256\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Platner leave Democrats with egg on their faces - Relocation Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Democrats have a number of Graham Platner-related problems as they await his decision on whether to drop out of the Maine Senate race amid a rape allegation he denies.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=5256\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Relocation Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-08T23:36:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/020268fe0dc0e964101e95423f6123c0.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"256\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"144\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=5256#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=5256\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3d25fb966f660ab012820a9e0acc09be\"},\"headline\":\"Platner leave Democrats with egg on their faces\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-08T23:36:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=5256\"},\"wordCount\":965,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=5256#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/86e67defb5f53ba44fa586b4f3a6ed66.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=5256#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=5256\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=5256\",\"name\":\"Platner leave Democrats with egg on their faces - 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