Progressive Democratic congressman Ro Khanna issued a qualified defense of Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner on Sunday, saying “his actions were misogynistic, they were shameful, they were wrong, but they didn’t come as a surprise to a lot of the folks in Maine.”
The former Marine-turned-oyster farmer, who is campaigning to unseat the state’s Republican senator Susan Collins in November, has been hit with successive waves of accusation about his past actions, including sending sexually explicit messages he sent to women while married and being stenciled with a Nazi-themed tattoo.
Progressive and independent Democrats have largely supported Platner in his bid to unseat the moderate Republican incumbent, but with two days to go before primary voting, the contest has turned into a referendum on Platner, not Collins, and of Democratic party vetting weeks after former congressman Eric Swalwell dropped a bid to become California governor after sexual abuse allegations against him surfaced.
Khanna told CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday he was still supporting the party’s candidate because “he took accountability” and is running on a platform of national health insurance, taxing billionaires and opposing the war in Iran.
“People in Maine knew that he had had two tours of duty in Iraq. He came back broken in a dark place,” Khanna reasoned. “That doesn’t excuse his behavior, but they knew this. He was in Washington, and then he went back to Maine, and he started an oyster farm. He took accountability. He himself has said it was shameful, and he had redemption.”
Khanna said he believed the account of Platner’s former girlfriend, Lyndsey Fifield, who told the New York Times that Platner was prone to misogyny and “regularly grabbed her by the shoulders – sometimes hard enough to leave marks – and, on one occasion, yanked her out of a cab by her wrist after an argument when she wanted to stay in the car.”
In another incident, Fifield said, Platner “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.’”
Fifield subsequently slammed the outlet, claiming on X that its reporters had “methodically delayed and twisted” her account into “a gift to the Platner campaign” and claimed she had been led to believe that other women were sharing similarly explosive accounts.
“Where were the screenshots they’d said they would use?” Fifield wrote. “Or the mention that I’d supported local democrats and that most of my family (and husband) are liberal?”
In response to Fifield’s accusations, Platners’ campaign said Fifield “is a lifelong GOP operative who’s dedicated her career to electing Republicans”.
The candidate later told Maine’s News Center that he had been candid throughout his 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,” Platner said.
“I take responsibility for all of that, and wish I had been better. Any characterization beyond that is false, and I believe, politically motivated,” he added. He has also denied “anything alleging physicality” and “anything alleging that I knew what my tattoo was”.
On Sunday, Khanna urged Platner’s campaign to stop attacking Fifield. “I believe her,” Khanna said, and argued that “I don’t think our side should be attacking her, and I appreciate her courage from coming forward.”
Khanna said the Maine voters he had met “didn’t like” revelations about Platner. “They knew that he had these chapters” and predicted they “are willing to extend him grace and redemption, and they’re focused now on what he’s running for”.
Asked if he thought Platner could survive another round of scandal, Khanna said “Well, it depends what … Obviously, if there was any evidence that comes out that there is actual domestic violence or assault, I have zero tolerance for that.”
