- cross-posted to:
- news@lemmy.today
- cross-posted to:
- news@lemmy.today
A woman who previously dated Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner said he drunkenly forced her to have sex after she told him to stop, according to a Politico report released Monday, leading prominent supporters to pull their endorsements and throwing a must-win race for the party into turmoil.
Platner denied the allegation, but said he would be considering next steps for his campaign.
“Regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting but mindful of the political reality it will inflict, we’re taking the time to reflect on the best path forward,” he said in a video released on social media.
Jenny Racicot, who lives in Maine, told Politico that Platner entered her home in 2021 while drunk and assaulted her. Racicot said she had been in an on-and-off relationship with Platner, but she cut off contact with him after that night and told him the incident wasn’t consensual. A voicemail left at a number listed for Racicot seeking comment did not receive an immediate response.
Platner’s campaign did not immediately respond to an email and phone message from The Associated Press seeking comment.
“Any accusation of non-consensual behavior is categorically false,” Platner said in his video.
Still, the allegation sparked a flight away from a candidate who has long been controversial. Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat who’d stood by Platner even as the insurgent candidate was hit with prior allegations, said Monday’s was enough. “I’ve been very clear that sexual assault or violence against women is a red line,” Khanna said. “These allegations are very serious and credible. Graham Platner should drop out from the race. I am withdrawing my endorsement.”
Edit: holy shit, these comments are insane.
Regardless of what you believe with this, Platner likely cannot win anymore. He has a week to do the right thing and drop out before he’s fully locked in. If he actually gives any sort of a shit (and doesn’t just want power, like rapists seeking office tend to), he needs to drop out yesterday.
This is the nail in the coffin for his campaign. It’s not time to defend him no matter what, because there’s still a week where a new candidate can be put into place. Instead of being mad at people not wanting to vote for him, you should start vocally supporting another candidate.
Yeah, I generally agree with always believing a victim. But in this case, the person is clearly also a political operative. Waiting until just after the primary makes me immediately question her story. At the very least, it shows she cares much more about electing a Republican than she does about actually receiving justice. If she is a victim, she’s also an opportunist.
No, don’t you see, she deleted every text message, Instagram DM, call record and any other corrobarating proof that could ever backup the story and never filed a police report for these awful crimes and didn’t say a word for the past year because she saw that no one took the first accuser seriously because she was a proud Republican and she actually totally, like, agrees with Platner’s policies and is totally a Democrat [citation needed - allegedly voted Trump last year], so she did the wise thing and waited until the 25th hour of what is arguably the determining election of giving Dems the control of senate to write a hit piece about something that happened 7 years ago and hand the election to the 29-year incumbent demonstrably guilty of much worse. It’s that simple.
She provided a ton of corroborating evidence. Stop using misinformation to create a strawman
She didn’t delete the text messages and emails.
She deleted all the texts with him but not all the ones with other people about him.
She deleted the text messages directly with Platner, not with her friends or therapist.
very convenient excuses.
Her dog ate all the evidence of an allegation that at this time would ruin his political career, but somehow was not important enough to mention since 2021.
JFC, this is MAGA level delusion.
The party can still choose a new candidate if he steps down in the next week
If she were a political operative, she would have waited for the July 13 deadline to pass
This is going to be the legacy of Plantner’s campaign. Not that he was a fake-leftest, but that so many of his supporters turned out to be.
Sorry. I have a bullshit detector. She’s either not a victim, or at the very least, she cares far more about influencing politics than she does about seeking justice. It’s sus as hell. You’re incredibly naive.
We’ve done it, We’ve circled around to fake news.
This women has produced dated text messages discussing the assault prior to Planter’s campaign. That’s pretty solid this time. Plus the connection between these two can be corroborated. Additionally I’ve heard there are dated therapists notes, but I haven’t seen those.
The Epstein class will not be taken down by other rapists
Yes, you are spreading fake news.
Let’s actually be specific.
This is the only contemporary digital record alleged in any of the stories:
So, facebook messages, not text. And she didn’t discuss the assault at all, at least not beyond very general terms. And the people involved are anonymous. It seems she never explicitly said “he assaulted me” to her friends. She made vague allegations that could describe a lot of scenarios, some that would be disqualifying, some not.
Please provide a source, not just “I heard.” Because the Politico and NYTimes articles make zero mention of contemporary therapist notes. You are spreading misinformation. There are therapist notes, but they’re not contemporaneous.
They’re not anonymous to Politico, they would have spoken to them and verified their identities. They’re only anonymous in the story to protect them from harassment from creeps who think they’re part of a conspiracy.
Holy shit dude, those messages are not ambiguous at all. Stop supporting rapists. You sound a lot like a MAGA cultist
They are ambiguous! Holy shit, stop supporting political opportunists, you sound like a corporate Dem.
“ended up in a bad situation with him,”
“consensually careless”
“Doesn’t listen to you when drunk”
This could describe anything from a guy who puts an unwanted hand on someone’s shoulder to full on rape. That’s extremely ambiguous! No where does she allege a rape or assault explicitly. That doesn’t disprove the rape allegation, but it’s also hardly evidence for it.
It’s really not ambiguous at all since she told us what happened.
Even without context it’s not ambiguous at all if you’ve ever spoken with a woman.
You’ve done it, you’ve gone full MAGA. Rape supporting and everything
You’re a proper cunt if you’re calling someone who’s doubting the hyper convenient story of a probable political operative to “supporting rape”. You shouldn’t throw that kind of statement around lightly. EVERY REPUBLICAN SUPPORTS CHILD RAPE since they refuse to prosecute Epstein criminals.
Let’s say we grant you that he raped her.
This man was a blackwater merc and this is the line we draw? Nah fuck that, we were willing to swallow him being a bloodthirsty maniac but now that the victim is white it’s a problem?
With any luck this guy will bring the sheer, unhinged, ultra violence that seems to follow him directly into the capitol and honestly we can’t afford to purity test our way out of victory.
Go back to your office fed boy.