Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner rejects new allegations of abusive behavior | US politics

Graham Platner, a Democratic candidate for the US Senate, has rejected an explosive new report about his treatment of women, insisting that allegations of abusive behavior are “politically motivated”.

Platner, a progressive running for election in Maine, was responding to a New York Times article published on Thursday that included an interview with a Republican operative who accused him of womanizing, physical misconduct and making troubling comments about rape.

The claims prompted fresh calls for Platner, 41, who has faced scrutiny over past social media posts and a tattoo recognized as a Nazi symbol, to withdraw from next week’s Democratic primary in Maine, though he gave no hint of doing so.

Platner also addressed the story in an interview on Thursday with MS NOW’s Chris Hayes.

“There are some allegations in this piece that are simply not true. Anything alleging physicality, anything alleging I knew what my tattoo was, these are the statements of somebody politically motivated,” Platner said. “That is not true.”

The New York Times said its report was based on interviews with more than two dozen people including Lyndsey Fifield, 40, whom the paper described as “a Virginia conservative who has worked for right-leaning groups and Republican campaigns”.

According to the newspaper, Fifield dated Platner from about 2013 to 2015 and found him “cavalierly contemptuous” of women, adding that his offensive online posts “reminded me of just how much he hated women”. In a 2016 diary entry, she described him as “the most toxic literally abusive man on earth who destroyed my life”.

In the article, Fifield alleged that Platner frequently grabbed her by the shoulders and once yanked her out of a taxi by her wrist. The article continued: “During one argument, she recalled, he twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a bedroom and held the door closed from the other side so she couldn’t get out, telling her to remain there until she was ‘calm’.”

The Times noted that Platner “strongly disputes” any claims of physical intimidation or altercations, and said it could not independently corroborate Fifield’s account of them.

Fifield further recalled that Platner would sharpen an axe while watching TV, and left an AR-15 lying around in his Washington apartment. She said he described women as “hatchet wounds”, a crude reference to female anatomy, and repeatedly asserted: “If anybody ever broke in here, I would rape them,” adding that this would not be in “a sexual way, not in a gay way”.

Fifield told the paper: “He was like, I would rape them to show them that I’m dominant.”

Fifield also cast doubt on Platner’s claim that he was unaware that his tattoo was a Nazi symbol until it became the center of controversy last year. “After all, she said, he had taught her the word for it years earlier, referring to it as ‘my Totenkopf,’” the Times reported.

During the MS NOW interview, Platner denied this claim. He also suggested Fifield was behind earlier reports he knew what the tattoo meant.

“She’s the person who’s been telling people this from the beginning, and I feel like, you know, we’re kind of rehashing the thing we’ve been through,” he said.

Fifield previously worked for the Heritage Foundation, a rightwing thinktank in Washington that produced Project 2025, a blueprint for the second Donald Trump administration, and spent a brief spell on Republican Nikki Haley’s 2024 presidential election campaign. She is now a visiting fellow at a conservative group called Independent Women.

Platner’s campaign said in a statement: “Let’s be very clear: This is a lifelong GOP operative who’s dedicated her career to electing Republicans.”

The New York Times cited critical comments from two other women. Jenny Racicot, 41, a Democrat from Maine, who said she dated Platner from 2019 to 2021, told the paper: “When I saw the old comments that he made online, I recognized a version of him that I had experiences with.”

A third woman, also a Democrat from Maine, who wished to remain anonymous, echoed the accounts of heavy drinking and being unfaithful and said she felt like “collateral damage to the world that is his”.

Three other women who dated Platner gave more positive accounts to the Times, praising him as a caring and charming partner.

Platner, a combat veteran, has previously apologized for social media posts and covered up the tattoo. He has spoken about dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that he linked to his time in the military.

In a statement on Thursday, he said: “Throughout this campaign, I’ve been open about what was a very dark period of my life where I struggled with undiagnosed PTSD, too often self-medicated with alcohol, and was a far from perfect boyfriend. I take responsibility for all of that, and wish I had been better.

“Any characterization beyond that is false, and I believe, politically motivated. I’m not proud of who I was then, but I am proud of the work I’ve done since, and the movement we are building in Maine.”

Most Democrats remained silent. But John Fetterman, a senator for Pennsylvania who has frequently bucked the party leadership and emerged as a Platner critic, said: “No surprise. The interesting part will be how those who endorsed him will respond to this.”

Manu Raju, CNN’s chief congressional correspondent, added on X that Fetterman had told him Maine voters should switch to state governor Janet Mills, who suspended her campaign against Platner but remains on the ballot.

Michael Trujillo, a Democratic strategist based in Los Angeles, posted on X: “I don’t know how Platner continues. He’s lied to the country about his Nazi tattoo, physically harms women, doesn’t respect them, there is nothing about this man that says ‘yes represent me in the United States Senate’ drop out, for the good of the country and most importantly yourself.”

Republicans seized on the latest report. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas wrote on X: “Women who dated Graham Platner say he was demeaning, volatile, physically threatening, ‘cavalierly contemptuous’ of women, and casually joked about his ‘Totenkopf’ Nazi tattoo. This is not one bad Reddit post. It is a pattern. And Democrats own every bit of it.”

Delanie Bomar, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, said: “Every day brings another deeply disturbing revelation about Graham Platner. If he’s willing to do this to his own girlfriend, imagine what he’s willing to do in a position of political power.”

Earlier this week, Platner traveled to Washington to meet several Democratic senators, days after a disclosure that he and his wife have had marital difficulties and sought counseling after he reportedly sent sexually explicit text messages to other women.

Platner also addressed those allegations during his interview with Hayes.

“At the beginning of our marriage, I made mistakes, and Amy helped me be accountable for them, and we worked through them, and the work that we did made our marriage significantly stronger, and who we are today is an incredibly faithful and happy married couple,” he said.

If nominated, he would face the senator Susan Collins, a Republican running for a sixth six-year term, in November. Defeating Collins is crucial to Democrats’ attempts to regain control of the Senate.