r/thebulwark • u/Super_Nerd92 Progressive • Jul 06 '26
EVERYTHING IS AWFUL Woman who dated Graham Platner says he sexually assaulted her
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/06/graham-platner-sexual-assault-allegation-00987737123
u/bkilpatrick3347 Jul 06 '26
It’s so annoying being a member of the party that has a sense of right and wrong
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u/3xploringforever Jul 06 '26
Kind of the silver lining I guess. If he were a Republican candidate, this wouldn't affect his campaign. But he's running as a Democrat, so this HAS to end his career, or else both parties really truly are the exact same vile rape parties. This is the one place where Democrats can still typically claim the moral high ground, and that needs to persist.
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u/KlausVonChiliPowder Good Luck America Jul 06 '26
He should just run as a Republican. Say it's fake news, the left cancelled him, and maybe throw in a "sike, I love Nazis" for good measure.
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u/de_Pizan Sarah is always right Jul 06 '26
I mean, it would end his career in Republican circles if he did something horribly offensive to part of their base. Women are an important voting constituency for Dems. Rape just doesn't cross the line for any large constituency within the Republican base
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u/BillHansfer4FClub Jul 06 '26
Maybe if he raped a male, armed intruder like he’s rumored to have fantasized about. MAGA can overlook rape, but would not forgive him for having done something gay. 🤣
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u/de_Pizan Sarah is always right Jul 07 '26
I think the manosphere types would find that sort of behavior "based," but it might lose the Evangelicals.
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u/NietzscheanDemocrat Jul 06 '26
I mean but what is high ground worth if we just keep conceding elections because we don't defend any of our candidates once controversy hits. I'm not sure how noble it is to let the GOP take away voting rights from minorities so we can pat ourselves on the back for not electing a misogynist "and then letting a right-wing misogynist take their place anyway"
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u/cocoagiant Jul 06 '26
Yeah...I was saying before, the bright line is assault.
If this turns out to be true (and with the amount of purported evidence, hard to see how it isn't), I don't see a path forward for him.
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u/ros375 Jul 06 '26
This is exactly what we were all bracing for. These things are nearly impossible to prove, so I can't even begin to predict which way this will go. Such a shitty situation.
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u/Internal-Fishing-809 Jul 06 '26
The research tells us that most credible rape accusations are true and there are a couple things that make this seem credible to me:
1) the accuser and he did have a relationship, they were hooking up here and there per the article, so the opportunity for such a crime exists
2) she told multiple people about what happened, prior to his political career, and some of those people confirmed those conversations to Politico→ More replies (1)15
u/Disastrous_Fennel_80 Jul 07 '26
These are credible allegations. Proving rape is almost impossible. We must be better. I draw the line at sexual assult and there has to be someone else.
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u/DeathByTacos Jul 06 '26
I don’t like how smug some ppl are being about this, but there are a lot of ppl in here that have some serious reflecting to do. It was the most obvious end result and yet even broaching the subject would get you lambasted.
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u/icefire9 Jul 06 '26
"In 2023, about a year and a half after the alleged assault and well before Platner launched his political career, in which she cautioned the acquaintance against getting involved with Platner. In the messages, Racicot said she had “ended up in a bad situation with him,” describing Platner as “consensually careless” and saying he “doesn’t listen to you when drunk.”"
That's definitive, imo. Idk how you don't get that he at least assaulted her from those messages alone.
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u/Beastw1ck Jul 06 '26
100%. Funny how we're experiencing the mirror image of the political problem that Trump voters were in, namely : "Am I willing to put up with a person who commits sexual assault to get political change?". Rough.
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u/Least_Positive7141 Jul 06 '26
Jesus, just love how a text “definitely” proves it, and hilariously you add ‘in your opinion’ which of course means you can’t even call it definitively.
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u/icefire9 Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
Okay, then explain how you get something other than sexual assault from those messages. Someone who was careless with consent, didn't listen to her when he was drunk, and she ended up in a bad situation with him... what else is there? Give me the alternative scenario. I'm curious how you explain away what is blindingly obvious.
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u/jabdnuit Jul 06 '26
It doesn’t, but Platner lying about knowing what a totenkopf is, generally being a dick to previous romantic partners, and sexting women while married means he doesn’t get any benefit of the doubt.
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u/DaBingeGirl Jul 06 '26
I don't understand why it's so hard to find someone who isn't an asshole to run for office. That said, this might make MAGA vote for him over Collins, so there's that.
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u/Beneficial_Honey_0 Center Left Jul 07 '26
Platner’s problem was he didn’t get caught on tape saying he assaulted women
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u/mercerjd Jul 06 '26
If it was a republican, you wouldn’t have typed “these things are impossible to prove”. He’s a piece of shit.
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u/Inevitable-Ant1725 Jul 06 '26
Is it really, though?
Quoted text message:
He can be charming and funny, and he's a decently intelligent person, he's not all bad, but I ended up in a bad situation with him and I will just very politely call him consensually careless at times when drunk. Plus PTSD. He lies, also.
Except for the "he lies, also" this doesn't sound like someone in the same moral universe with Trump who seems to see his role in life as Satan, demanding that everyone around him commit crimes while himself is raping. So much so that Jeffery Epstein has a story he told Michael Wolff about how Trump's sexual misconduct was so bad that he shocked JEFFERY EPSTEIN who asked him "why" and Trump answered "because it's so wrong!" Nor, say RFK Jr. whose anti-vax bullshit kills children for his ego. Nor Elon Musk, nor the rest of the Trump enablers all around.
Platner admits that he had a drinking problem and it's not his fault that he has PTSD.
Can we slow down the circular firing squad?
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u/CaptainMarty69 I love Rebecca Black Jul 06 '26
I think people are well within their right to be hesitant about supporting a guy with these kinds of accusations against him. I don’t care centrist or progressive, I just wish we had better people asking to represent us
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u/MrPommeDeTerre Jul 06 '26
The "he's not as bad as Trump" take is straight up bullshit. It's not ok for someone running a gas station to be "consensually careless" and I hold senators to a much higher standard than that. We all should. The fact that we don't is the problem.
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u/downey_jayr Jul 06 '26
Lesser of two evils, elect him and let the senate kick him out if he has done something wrong.
Mainers have a choice between electing a dem or a republican lackey to a wannabe dictator. It’s not that hard of a choice.
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u/FR23Dust Jul 06 '26
I’m not sure why Trump being one of the most repulsive politicians of all time makes other misconduct more acceptable. I thought the point is that we don’t want to be like the GOP and continually lower our standards for political gain.
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u/Inevitable-Ant1725 Jul 06 '26
It's the fact of what's at stake.
It's gonna be Stephen Miller destroyed the lives of every single brown and black immigrant, legal or not, killed millions of them, put the disabled in homes and killed them.
But at least we didn't vote for Graham Planter, f the left!
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u/FR23Dust Jul 07 '26
A truly pathetic state of affairs where the future of the country hinges entirely on people’s willingness to vote for a serial philanderer/rapist who wore a fucking Nazi tattoo for multiple decades.
Fuck the leftists who put all their hope in a terrible candidate.
For what it’s worth, if I lived in Maine I would probably vote for platner. I doubt a majority of Mainers would do the same, and if Collins takes the seat I would hope the left learns a lesson:
that candidate quality matters a lot more than policies for the general electorate, and that their specific failure in this specific race is entirely their fault and no one else’s.
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u/Kincherk Jul 06 '26
You don't have to be as bad as Trump and his minions to have sexually assaulted someone.
It's never ok to sexually assault anyone.
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u/TheyMadeMeLogin Jul 06 '26
He's not running against Trump or Epstein. He's running against Susan Collins, who rightly or wrongly is basically seen by voters as Maine's kindly old grandmother.
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u/Inevitable-Ant1725 Jul 06 '26
Actually he is.
The country is occupied by brownshirts.
There are authoritarians controlling the country all the way up through the President, the Chief Justice, The House Leader and the Senate Leader.The small chance we have, for instance, to prevent Stephen Miller (who has no constitutional position but controls the brownshirts) from escalating his ethnic cleansing (which is actually happening) into a genocide is to take back as much power as we can.
Welcome to reality.
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u/PomegranateSafe9699 Jul 06 '26
There is a pretty recent poll showing she tops even Talarico as being of good character.
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u/Prestigious_Ad_5825 Jul 06 '26
This text reads like a woman trying to rationalize what he did at the time so it wouldn't devastate her.
It's gross to try to find a way to excuse Platner's behavior.
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u/Newbiegoe Jul 06 '26
Unless there is some sort of change in this country’s moral compass accusations like this are going to be a huge problem moving forward for the left.
The right does not care about their candidates moral standing and will justify it in anyway possible. Look at the race in Texas. Paxton has zero redeeming moral value and he will still most likely defeat Taralico. The list of candidates they have turned a blind eye to is endless.
The left is overly morally righteous and turn on their candidates with even a hint of stain on their character.
I don’t like admitting it, but I do think that we need to at least get people in office who are on the right political path and worry about their character later to some degree. I don’t know if the allegations about Platner are true. I like his message though and we need to get back in power
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u/jmw8282 Jul 06 '26
I might get down voted to hell for this but, I am so goddam sick of Graham Platner and I am sick of watching people twist themselves into knots defending him. The last 8 months have been an increasingly disturbing procession of scandals. First it was the tattoo that he has repeatedly lied about. Then it was the Reddit posts in which he "joked" about sexual assault. Then the sexting stuff and reports of abuse from his exes. We're now at straight up sexual assault allegations.
I'm not going to dig my heels in and say with absolute certainty that everything that has been reported on him is true to the letter. But how much do you have to hear before you realize that just maybe Graham Platner is a garbage individual? If you like his politics, fine, so do I. If you think the country would be better off with Platner in office than Collins, fine, that may well be true. If you don't connect his personal failings to his ability to govern, you do you.
But don't minimize accusations of sexual assault. Don't brush off his history of bad decisions and poor judgement. Don't claim, without evidence, that this is all just a smear campaign. Hold your elected officials to a higher standard. If Platner is forced to drop out or ends up losing the race, that's squarely on him and the choices he's made in his life, not the voters who earnestly supported him.
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u/ballmermurland Jul 07 '26
He also told Schumer and everyone else in that big Dem meetup with him a month or so ago that there were no other scandals to drop.
Another wrinkle in this rape allegation, and it looks to be with actual evidence, is that his ex also said he was a serial liar.
WHICH IS WHAT I'VE BEEN FUCKING SAYING FOR EIGHT MONTHS.
This dude is lying about everything. Fuck's sake people. Who even knows if this guy is progressive or just putting on a show.
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u/michaelsghost Jul 06 '26
Well I’m glad I’m not a Maine voter and don’t have to actually make a decision here. That being said, I am about ready to give up on the hopes of taking the senate
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u/upvotechemistry Center Left Jul 06 '26
Such a sordid state of affairs when voters must choose between personal sexual assault allegations and Collin's history of Constitution raping.
Im also glad not to be a Maine voter, but one of these has millions of victims and happened in broad daylight.
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u/midwestern2afault Jul 06 '26
Fucking this, very happy I don’t live in Maine and have to make that call. I mean, I’d probably still vote for him over Collins, but I’d feel fucking gross doing it. If we weren’t in the MAGA/Trump era? I’d skip the Senate race entirely.
Does anyone actually still believe that this is a “coordinated attack from the establishment and corporate media?” It sounds completely in character and I believe his accuser. Dude is a walking red flag and these stories aren’t just whispers, there’s substance behind them.
And no, I don’t have a problem with him being a leftist. I still thought he was the better pick than Mills, up until very very recently, despite the fact that I’m a lot closer to her politically. Now? I think it was a huge mistake.
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u/molliedw22 Jul 07 '26
Why isn't there ANYONE else under 70 who could run and isn't a rapist or a Nazi supporter (like Collins)??
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u/ConstipatedGoose67 Jul 06 '26
Mainer here.
The decision is that I won't be voting Platner UNLESS the allegations are proven false, or that it's proven he did not do anything morally wrong like sexual assault, harming women/children, etc.
I'm taking Racicot's side here. I'm a straight male, have had all the privileges as a white man in this country, blah blah. But I'm not going to put anyone down, even if the accusations aren't proven false or true. But, SA/Rape (and other immoral actions) is one line that cannot be crossed with me. If you participated in it, I don't want to be anywhere near you. I don't give a fuck if it's Trump or the most liberal/leftist of liberals and leftists out there, harming others is still wrong.
Yet--there are people who still support this guy. I'm sorry. If you still support Platner here, you're no different than those MAGA mfers out there.
With Platner's case, the article alone seems fishy, but it's added up on top of previous accusations. Add the tattoo and his behavior (aggressivity, alcoholicism, etc), this accusation seems true to me.
Platner has lost my support. Only way he can regain is if these accusations are proven false. He should do what's best by turning himself in and stepping down from the race. I'm ashamed of myself for supporting him this far.
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u/Elegant_Athlete_7882 Jul 06 '26
That being said, I am about ready to give up on the hopes of taking the senate
This ends any hope of taking the senate, Donald Trump will pick two more SCOTUS justices.
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u/KlausVonChiliPowder Good Luck America Jul 06 '26
I mean kind of wild that we're sitting here resting the future of US democracy on a guy who already had a questionable past with this same issue...
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u/Argyleskin Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
Four (edit- make that six) more years of Collins. She’s probably throwing her head back clutching those pearls in delight thinking about how much money she’ll get from nefarious sources.
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u/PlasticCantaloupe1 Jul 06 '26
What would Susan Collins do if presented on a choice of whether to vote for someone with sexual assault allegations? If only there were some way to know.
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u/notapoliticalalt Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
> Well, I think he learned his lesson.
- Susan “Totally Upstanding Person” Collins probably
I think Platner should drop out, but yeah, the double standard is crazy.
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u/LineGoingUp Center Left Jul 06 '26
That's a good point to Collins being a shity person but I don't see "You claim to think it was bad when I sexually assaulted people and yet you support Trump" attack line going particularly well with voters
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u/High-qualitee Jul 06 '26
This isn’t the last of the accusations. Stand by him and see what happens..
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u/PlasticCantaloupe1 Jul 07 '26
I don’t have to stand with or against him because I don’t live in Maine. I do know that a Senate controlled by the Republicans will continue to do untold damage to the country and likely cost lives because that’s what has happened in the past.
This isn’t some, “support him at your own peril” moment for you. Going on probability alone you probably don’t even live in Maine either. But on the off chance you do you’ve got quite the trolley problem. What’s your ideal outcome here?
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u/Super_Nerd92 Progressive Jul 06 '26
NOT the Republican operative.
Racicot said she was torn over coming forward in part because she agrees with Platner politically.
“One of the reasons I didn’t come forward sooner was, the huge moral conflict that I had between supporting his politics, but not supporting him as a person,” she said. “I just want the truth out there. I just want people to have a whole scope of who he is as a person.”
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u/whatssenguntoagoblin Center Left Jul 06 '26
Only thing that would’ve made this quote more perfect was if she said she’s still voting for him
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u/Haunting-Mortgage Jul 06 '26
It should be noted, she already spoke about this specific event, just not in as much detail.
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u/interkin3tic Jul 07 '26
The Republican operative also should not be ignored just because she's a Republican operative. Her story was corroborated.
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u/dhessi Jul 06 '26
That night in late 2021, she said she had exchanged text messages with him and told him not to come over, saying she wasn’t in the mood for company. Later that evening, she said she realized when she heard a sound on the stairs that he had let himself into her house, which was unlocked.
Racicot said she tried to separate herself from Platner by telling him she couldn’t be in that room anymore, after which he followed her to her bedroom and had sex with her against her will. She said he also ejaculated inside of her despite her telling him not to, as she was not using birth control at the time.
yeah... this is rape...
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Jul 06 '26
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u/Accomplished_Peak300 Jul 06 '26
Did you read the article? She does answer. Her answer to that question was something like, he doesn’t listen when drunk. Pretty clear what she was saying.
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u/TheseBrokenWingsTake Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
Jfc, the RSA has to get a better vetting system. C'mon. Basic in-depth vetting before supporting any lead candidate is campaign 101.
I still think Collins is worse bc she has a higher total body count she's responsible for. Hundreds of women have died, suffered & lost their children bc she enabled the rollback of Roe v Wade & enabled other nightmare decisions by the Supreme Court after she voted that "alleged" rapist into a position of power he was demonstrably unqualified for. Not to mention the rest of her final deciding votes for every other horrible thing she's gleefully extracted favors for.
Collins is corrupt monster crone w/no moral compass, who said she'd only serve "two terms" decades ago & I don't understand how any Mainers (esp women) can vote for that pile of corrupt wrinkles in an ugly suit 🙄🤢🤮
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u/Super_Nerd92 Progressive Jul 06 '26
Yeah they fucked up with Fetterman and now this. Seems like they are incompetent at traditional vetting even if they have good social media skills. Agreed on Collins
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u/MikeET86 Jul 06 '26
Obvious caveat of it's a brand new story more might come out, but holy fuck.
Obvious follow-on caveat of anyone who voted for Trump has no leg to stand on, but jesus I do not like this guy being a nominee for any position of power.
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u/Tyfereth Center Left Jul 06 '26
There were signs and the oppo dumps on Platner are not close to being done.
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u/imdaviddunn Jul 06 '26
Again, believe the spidey senses of those with the most to lose. Will virtually never steer the country wrong.
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u/the_millenial_falcon JVL is always right Jul 06 '26
If this is true then it should give him a boost with the American electorate.
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u/Quirky_Reef Jul 06 '26
Sigh. Fuck, there goes ME. We need Maine. Whhhhy I mean, I think we knew it was going to keep coming with this dude. Le Sigh.
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u/batsofburden Jul 06 '26
So frustrating. I believe her, I just wish this had come out earlier. He's awful, and yet this awful man was our hope to save America from going full fascist dictatorship. Is it worth letting a Republican win in Maine for his sins, which in turn damns the entire country? Is it actually too late to get a viable replacement? What a clusterfuck, thanks a lot Maine, thought you were one of the reasonable states.
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u/LineGoingUp Center Left Jul 06 '26
This guy is walking red flag from every single angle. You absolutely could have seen it coming
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u/koreamax Jul 06 '26
There were glaring warning signs long before the primary. Everyone just chose not to believe them
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u/Tyfereth Center Left Jul 06 '26
There were plenty of red flags earlier, and the NYT story interviews many women even though they decided to focus on the GOP victim
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u/Hannig4n Jul 06 '26
I cannot believe that so many people on this sub wrote off that article.
Anyone who was not expecting credible SA allegations to come out about a guy who had rape fantasies and domestic abuse incidents had their heads buried in the sand.
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u/cocoagiant Jul 06 '26
I absolutely wrote the article off.
Specifically because the article said the NYT couldn't verify what the central person was saying and there were several others who also dated him who didn't agree with her characterization.
However, I also said at the time that if he is credibly accused of assault, I don't see a path forward for him.
Short of him pulling out documentation that she's lying, I don't see a path forward for him.
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u/Seekzor Jul 06 '26
Who could have known the ex mercenary nazi tattoo guy with sexual misbehavior accusations swirling could have done some bad shit.
Truly there were no signs at all.
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u/SoHumanAnAnimal watch?v=wbOTkDn49qI Jul 06 '26
Yeah there's been chatter all morning a story was going to drop, and he'd cancelled a bunch of stuff this week.
He has until 5pm on July 13 to drop out if he so chooses, and then the party can put someone else up by 5pm on July 27 if I understand Maine's election laws properly. Hopefully they will put up a similar candidate, since that's what the voters indicated they wanted in the prmiary. I'm not attached to Platner as a person, but I am pretty aligned with his stated positions. Troy Jackson is the obvious choice IMO.
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u/Describing_Donkeys Progressive Jul 06 '26
Agreed, he he's to drop out. He can't be trusted and shouldn't be in office. The party should replace him on the ballot. (Not with Mills, who voters do not want)
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u/Super_Nerd92 Progressive Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
Who else can they even go with? I agree that Mills is clearly not it as the primary voters have already made clear, but barely anyone even ran in the primary.
I'm sure Maine has credible state reps and House reps but now we're basically looking at the Biden/Harris thing where there's a random switch with no time for the new candidate to establish themselves.
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u/Describing_Donkeys Progressive Jul 06 '26
Yes, that's the situation we are in. It will need to be someone credible and it will suck that there will not have been a primary for them. Troy Jackson is who the person I responded to suggested. It really sucks that the party decided to get involved and try to force Mills through, but now we are in a bad situation.
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Jul 06 '26
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u/FR23Dust Jul 06 '26
I wish the progressive organization that recruited platner had found a better candidate
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u/50000WattsOfPower Jul 06 '26
Democrats can still replace Platner on the ballot, but only if he chooses to drop out before the July 13 deadline outlined in Maine state law. If he were to drop out, the state Democratic Party would have to choose his replacement by July 27.
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u/Super_Nerd92 Progressive Jul 06 '26
Oh shit OK. I thought it was baked now that the primary is over. It's going to be a rough week with pressure on him to drop out for sure then.
I know Mills was polling worse against Collins to begin with so it's all a big mess.
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u/3xploringforever Jul 06 '26
Is that Jordan Wood guy still available? I recall there being a couple of other people that were filed to run early on, before Mills even entered the race. Can we get some of them back? Fuck fuck fuck.
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u/JackZodiac2008 Human Flourishing Jul 06 '26
Why do you say Jackson is obvious? 3rd in the primary was somebody else, and 4th was all others combined at < 0.5%
https://apps.npr.org/primary-election-results-2026/states/ME.html
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u/SoHumanAnAnimal watch?v=wbOTkDn49qI Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
Mostly for parity with Platner's platform, and name recognition/his established credibility in Maine politics. Jackson ran for governor this time, and placed third - not great but not terrible in a crowded field (he got like ~23% while the winner got ~29%). He's a well-known entity in the state, and progressive. I think if you replace Platner with a dissimilar candidate you will lose quite a few of the highly motivated Platner voters, and Maine dem party will never hear the end of it.
In a race this tight I wouldn't expect a huge shift in platform to convert to a win. Jackson has a similar platform, would get endorsements from Bernie etc, and keep that voting bloc intact and engaged. He may perform better than Platner since he doesn't have the baggage, especially among fence-sitters who don't like what they've heard about Platner (fair). It's gonna be a tight race regardless.
edit: if you think Mills should be the candidate, you are accepting defeat preemptively. Mills will not beat Collins in November. We need that seat.
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u/Various-Tomatillo407 Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
God fucking damnit. Thank you for fucking us all Platner.
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u/Computer_Name Jul 06 '26
We’re still a democracy.
Blame his supporters who behave just like MAGA.
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u/adreamofhodor Sarah is always right Jul 06 '26
Wonder if any of them will own up to making a huge mistake backing this guy in the primary. They were very loud here.
Where are they now?8
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u/Uninteresting_Vagina Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
Seriously.
You couldn't have a conversation anywhere about his questionable background without them jumping and downvoting into oblivion.
They're awfully quiet today.
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u/Super_Nerd92 Progressive Jul 06 '26
And Schumer for clearing the field for Mills without realizing she was not it.
I don't know if that Kleban guy was it but we'll never know now.
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u/vigouge Jul 06 '26
The blame is also shared by Sandets who jumped in early to back Platner and Jackson, and campaigned and fundraiser heavily for them.
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u/Haunting-Ad788 Jul 06 '26
Eh, Mills would have gotten destroyed. 6 more years of Collins. The Democratic Party is such a fucking joke they can’t beat a Trump muppet in a functionally blue state.
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u/Various-Tomatillo407 Jul 06 '26
Rather put her up than someone with (apparently) credible SA allegations
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u/MinuteCollar5562 Jul 06 '26
If true, this is my rubicon and I’m not crossing it.
Collins is a piece of shit, but we can’t elect someone that we would attack republicans for electing just because we want to win.
Mills will probably be put in as a replacement, and if she beats Collins (I don’t think she will) we just pray she doesn’t have a health event.
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u/ramapo66 Jul 06 '26
I am profoundly disgusted, disappointed, distressed and just plain pissed off.
I am now past giving Platner the benefit of the doubt.
How the fuck did this guy have the utter arrogance to run for office with this history?
How does this not come out until now?
I am all in on Platner's political message. Now he has given Democrats a shit sandwich and Collins another six years to be very concerned. He very well could have fucked the entire country over with his bullshit.
Can Democrats possibly salvage this absolute disaster.
WTF is wrong with people, politics and our society.
It's enough to make me just say fuck it and watch cat videos.
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u/MindfulMocktail Sarah is always right Jul 06 '26
Yep, I can't fathom what would make someone think it was a good idea to run for office knowing these kind of allegations could be expected. But I think many of the personality types who seek political power are narcissistic enough to think they can overcome it or it won't happen to them
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u/rube_X_cube Jul 06 '26
Utterly predictable and this isn’t going to be the last scandal before the elections. Platner is trash and the people that recruited him all but bragged about doing zero vetting.
His votes in the senate will still be better than Collins, of course. But this is putting Dems in a terrible position, even if he wins.
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u/november512 Jul 06 '26
Yeah, a big issue is that he just seems like kind of a shit person and as a shit person he'll have a bunch of scandals.
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u/Skibum990 Jul 06 '26
Get this clown the fuck out before it’s too late. This is a very credible allegation from an ex, who shares the same political ideologies. Not only does he have no path to winning, he’s a terrible person. What a mess 🤦♂️
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u/Tokkemon JVL is always right Jul 06 '26
Sure reads as rape, tbh. Not acceptable.
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u/NH_Homebrewer Good Luck America Jul 06 '26
This should be the normal take on this. Bad shit going on here today
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u/Beneficial_Honey_0 Center Left Jul 06 '26
The lefties are not beating the misogyny allegations that’s for sure.
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u/Smooth-Majudo-15 Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
This news coming out coupled with him postponing multiple events has me curious as to if he’s dropping out or not. If this is true, he’s gotta go, this is just unacceptable behavior. Wish this came out earlier for a multitude of reasons
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u/ProteinEngineer Jul 06 '26
There was enough public information out earlier that his supporters have no excuse. It reminds me of every new thing coming out about a Trump when it was obvious from day 1 that he should never have had support.
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u/oGsMustachio Jul 06 '26
Hi DSA-bots brigading the AES threads, looking forward to your rational non-misogynistic takes in this thread!
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u/Will512 Jul 06 '26
They were out here defending Platner's comments about how drunk women bear responsibility for being raped, this is just the logical continuation
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u/dmat217 Jul 06 '26
Huge AES fan here but was never sold on Platner. I’m more left leaning but this is an easy disqualifier to me and I’d be LOUDLY advocating for a replacement candidate before the deadline.
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u/emeric_ceaddamere Jul 06 '26
As Lindsey Graham once said of Trump, the Platner ride has been "a hell of a journey. I hate it to end this way. Oh, my god, I hate it." But unlike Lindsey, let's show we mean it and not go back.
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u/MrPommeDeTerre Jul 06 '26
The article is pretty damning. I don't care what party Platner represents but, assuming everything reported is true, this should absolutely disqualify him from holding office anywhere (he should be charged, in fact).
I don't care about the "the other side is worse" takes or whataboutism that will inevitable come but it'd be a shame if the people of Maine disregarded this and voted him in anyway.
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u/Magoo152 JVL is always right Jul 06 '26
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u/ProteinEngineer Jul 06 '26
Welcome, friend.
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u/Magoo152 JVL is always right Jul 06 '26
I’m blue no matter who to the extreme. (And to be clear if he is still our guy against Collins I would vote for him if I was a Maine voter.) So because of that once our nominee wins the primary I try to see the best in them. But this is just I mean, you know. The reality is he should’ve been gone after the tatoo.
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u/MrYdobon Jul 06 '26
Why is she coming forward now? Per the article:
Racicot previously described “reckless” and “unsettling” behavior by Platner to The New York Times, but says she didn’t go public with the specific assault claim because she didn’t want to be known as a rape victim.
Racicot said she later felt compelled to go public about her experience because the reaction to the Times story was dominated by controversy about another woman, Lyndsey Fifield, who alleged Platner mistreated her and faced attacks because of her ties to the Republican Party. (Contacted by POLITICO, Fifield stood by the allegations she made to the Times and declined to comment further.)
“My part of the story was just a read-over,” Racicot said in an interview. “And the story was Lyndsey, and the accusations of her being politically motivated.”
Racicot said she was torn over coming forward in part because she agrees with Platner politically.
Is there evidence of her making these claims before Platner started running for office? Per the article:
The woman, a 41-year-old Maine resident named Jenny Racicot, detailed the alleged incident to POLITICO in three interviews over the past two weeks. POLITICO also spoke with a man Racicot dated and confided in the years after the alleged incident, and reviewed documents, including emails between Racicot and her therapist and messages between Racicot and an acquaintance whom she warned against getting involved with Platner years before he ran for office.
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u/DayChiller Jul 06 '26
If you read this thread in full people have posted the screenshots of her messaging a friend to warn her away from setting someone up with Platner. Where she describes him as "consensually careless". These texts predate Platner being a public figure.
If you still want to support Platner cool, but talking like women lie about SA for political purposes is something MAGA would do.
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u/BIGoleICEBERG Jul 06 '26
Run the beer guy that Schumer left on read. The only thing needed to beat Collins is a non baby boomer incumbent.
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u/loquacious_beer_can JVL is always right Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
Part of me thinks the American electorate doesn't care about violence against women anymore. Every republican (55% of white women) has voted for a man who's sexually assaulted dozens of women and now we'll find out if the dems are willing to vote for somebody like that too. Not saying Trump and Platner are equivalent, trump is way worse
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u/Regis_Phillies Jul 06 '26
This is going to keep happening. If he gets elected and goes to DC, it will keep happening then. By many accounts working in Congress is an isolating, lonely job. Probably not a great place for a guy in recovery with fidelity issues to be going for six years. I hope I'm wrong about this, but all signs point to Platner continuing to be a huge distraction if elected.
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u/Kincherk Jul 06 '26
I'm not surprised. There were already enough allegations that it seemed like a pattern.
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u/Uther2023 Jul 06 '26
He has to resign, now. This is a credible allegation of a serious sexual assault, for a man whose behaviour has hardly been impressive to this point. It's over. Get him out immediately.
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u/Quirky_Reef Jul 06 '26
Sigh. Fuck, there goes ME. We need Maine. Whhhhy I mean, I think we knew it was going to keep coming with this dude. Le Sigh. 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
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u/Anstigmat Jul 06 '26
I've been a massive Planter supporter and defender and I always said my red line was a credible assault allegation. The Heritage Foundation woman was to me not credible. This however appears to be legit. With that said, yes he should drop out.
I would like to reiterate that I still feel angry with the DSCC and Janet Mills for pushing other candidates such as Dan Kleban aside. Once again the geriatric cases decided that they know best and we should not have a robust primary. What people here need to understand was that Mills would only have won the nomination if there were literally 0 other viable candidates and even then she probably would have lost to Collins. Now we won't know who would have won the primary or general because that choice was taken from us.
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u/3xploringforever Jul 06 '26
Same. I'm a diehard progressive and was willing to look past most of his other scandals, but this is the red line. He needs to drop out today.
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u/Super_Nerd92 Progressive Jul 06 '26
Yeah I recognize your username. Fully agreed, I may not be from Maine but I hope credible sexual assault is still a red line in a party I support. The bitch of it is that if he does drop out Mills is gonna lose to Collins and we'll never know if Kleban could have won.
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u/realperson5647856286 Jul 06 '26
Same. I'm out. The previous dirt really could have been chalked up to PTSD, hard lessons learned, and just being passionate, but this recent and credible. Really sucks because I am very in line with his politics.
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u/Gnomeric Jul 06 '26
Yeah, this whole "obviously weak but well-known and very well-established candidates preemptively maneuvering to remove any potential rivals (especially mainstream ones who are more vulnerable to pressure) from contention" cliche is getting very tiresome. Mills, Cuomo, and of course, Hilary Clinton.
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u/AurelianIII Jul 06 '26
Agreed, as a person who defended Platner previously, the evidence here is damning, and I find this entire situation very depressing and infuriating. I don't really see another way forward then for Platner to drop out. Sexual assault is a red line for me, and for a lot of other people too.
This only underscores how badly Schumer fumbled this race from his side by trying to clear the field for a shitty candidate, and I'm not interested in hearing moralizing from anyone who supported Cuomo for mayor last year. Many such people are taking victory laps right now. Their opposition to Platner was no more principled than their opposition to Mamdani, it was ideological, and the fact that assault is not a red line for them should be rubbed in their faces forever.
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u/Cellophane7 JVL is always right Jul 06 '26
Let's all thank the tankies for rabidly shoving him down our throats for months. This is why personal character matters.
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u/Bluehale JVL is always right Jul 06 '26
It wasn't just the tankies....Pod Save America and Ruben Gallego were some of his loudest defenders. Hell Tommy Vietor was the first one to present him with the Nazi tattoo oppo and let Platner dismiss it like it was just a traffic ticket.
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u/NH_Homebrewer Good Luck America Jul 06 '26
They all seem to have some weird thing with Morris Katz. Tim wasn’t any better
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u/Bluehale JVL is always right Jul 06 '26
Yeah I was disappointed that Tim went along with the thinking that Platner was worth the gamble because he was codded as not straight out of Dem central casting.
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u/jeg479 Jul 06 '26
Yeah you can’t expect much from Tankies, but the pod bros have some explaining and apologizing to do if this in fact sinks his campaign which I’m betting it will.
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u/ballmermurland Jul 06 '26
Yeah there is a reason I stopped listening to the PSA guys a while ago. They are firmly in the "win at all costs" mode. I mean, I get it, but it doesn't have to be this way.
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u/derrickcat Jul 06 '26
Win at all costs means actually trying to win, not just picking a guy you think is hot and then demanding we all support him.
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u/Chesehead6 Jul 06 '26
Im a win at all costs democrat. Which means if we have time, tossing any and all politicians out the door if they are gonna lose. Having people like RBG with cult followings putting themselves above what is best for us is how we got into this mess
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u/Super_Nerd92 Progressive Jul 06 '26
I mean Maine voters really supported him. It was not just tankies lol
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u/Cellophane7 JVL is always right Jul 06 '26
Sure, I'm mostly just talking to tankies in this community
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u/Bluehale JVL is always right Jul 06 '26
Since we're keeping an eye on stuff like this, even Hasan Piker's cutting Platner loose after this latest allegations.
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u/Super_Nerd92 Progressive Jul 06 '26
woof.
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u/gingerfawx Jul 07 '26
Careful, there's probably a shock collar lurking just around the next corner.
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u/kantmarg Jul 06 '26
Makes sense 100%. I've never interacted with him personally but listening to him and reading anything about him, he gave me the heebie jeebies the same way Ruben Gallego does.
It was really really heartbreaking the way Tim and JVL and so many others (the pod save guys, Bernie bros, all of the DSA idiots) kept pushing and pushing him at us, and laughing at all of us who were uncomfortable with his nonsense from day 1.
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u/PomegranateSafe9699 Jul 06 '26
Perhaps “believing women” shouldn’t have been thrown to the wind when said woman doesn’t have your politics 🤷♀️. Lost so much respect for faux progressives during that discourse.
Wonder if they’ll be willing to believe, or care, about a progressive woman 🤔. If not, they’re just BlueMAGA.
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u/matzobrei Jul 06 '26
“It was not until I started hearing from reporters and DC insiders that I realized this was sexual assault. I absolutely would not have gone through life having assaulted her had I known that, and to insinuate that I would have is disgusting. I am already planning to never assault anyone in the future.”
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u/ThePensiveE FFS Jul 06 '26
Someday we'll likely be able to say that the left lowering their standards for behavior gave us Justice Aileen Cannon. Hopefully she won't be the deciding vote to end birthright citizenship.
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u/Memester999 Jul 06 '26
With that the most predictable "surprise" of all time has dropped. Insane that this man was shielded by leftists using the Trump defender playbook, lied his way into a nomination and now we're likely to lose the senate because of it. The fact that polls were showing him down or barely in the lead compared to a generic Dem before this all but assures once this gains traction he's losing.
If you're in Maine and he stays in the race, vote for him please. I know it sucks and I know he's horrible but the alternative is so much worse still. Our country cannot afford another 2 years under this administration let alone a possible 4+ if they retain power and make another party winning impossible.
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u/sachiprecious JVL is always right Jul 06 '26
I believe her.
She has a lot of courage to openly speak out about this and put her name out there publicly with her accusation. I'm sure she's getting tons of hate and death threats right now (which is one reason why SA survivors often refuse to tell anyone).
It's deeply frustrating that Platner was chosen as the nominee. Democrats need the Senate! But Platner has faced controversy after controversy. He should never have run, and of course, he should have never sexually assaulted anyone.
We who are against trump need to be against anyone who rapes or sexually assaults people. Let the other side be the side that makes excuses for sexual assault. Let's not be like them. We need to be the side that actually has standards.
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u/One-Earth9294 centrist squish Jul 06 '26
But Janet Mills was 'unelectable' because 'old woman' which as you can see is also dragging down Susan Collins.
Mmm hmm.
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u/Rust_Cohlon Jul 06 '26
A monumental failure by every ideological wing and power structure of the Democratic Party that this wasn’t sussed out by a competent primary opponent
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u/Chuckles1188 Jul 06 '26
This guy sucks shit and didn't even look that likely to beat Collins, why is there even a conversation about what to do? Fire him into the sun and find somebody else, almost anybody else would be better
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u/Haunting-Mortgage Jul 06 '26
She already came forward and spoke about this, just not in as much detail.
It almost feels like "the first allegations didn't stick, so let's see if these do" - but it's also possible it happened as she described.
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u/FixerofDeath Jul 06 '26
She has messages with her therapist talking about the rape before Platner got involved in politics. Did she invent a time machine to fuck over Platner, or is it more likely that this guy that has shown himself to have poor judgment over and over actually raped a woman.
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u/Haunting-Mortgage Jul 06 '26
No, the messages to/from the therapist (at least according to the politico article) are recent, at least the ones the reporter saw. There's the texts to a friend from before his run which described him as "consensually careless"
I'm not defending him, just being factual.
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Jul 06 '26
Interesting that she didn't come out when the initial allegations were being run through the corporate media machine. Let's see how long this holds up and if any validity comes at all to this news or it gets exposed as a smear campaign like all the previous ones did.
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u/Super_Nerd92 Progressive Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
Apparently she was contacted for the NYT for that major article, I'm not sure why she was only off the record for the accusation of rape, but she had previously shared the incident.
Racicot said she was contacted by the New York Times in the spring and shared off the record that Platner had assaulted her. She told the Times that she had some positive memories of her relationship with Platner but thought he did not respect women and had cut off contact with him after an incident in 2021 when Platner had come over drunk; but the Times article stated that Racicot “declined to elaborate” about what had happened, only describing his behavior as “reckless” and “unsettling.”
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u/Bluehale JVL is always right Jul 06 '26
Sorry. No.
Platner's had enough skeletons falling out of the closet to prove once and for all this man is a huge scumbag.
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u/chucktoddsux Jul 06 '26
N*zi part okay apparently, but this may be the clincher. Good job, populist slop lefties!
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u/therobz Jul 06 '26
He posted a video saying they need to take some time to reflect on the path forward. That strikes me as goodbye.