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AMY GOODMAN : This is Democracy Now! , democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.
Voters in Maine are heading to the polls Tuesday for a closely watched primary that could help determine whether Democrats retake control of the U.S. Senate. On the Republican side, Susan Collins is running unopposed as she seeks her sixth term in the Senate. On the Democratic side, 41-year-old oysterman and Marine vet Graham Platner has led the polls for months, running as a progressive populist, backed by Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, Congressman Ro Khanna and others. On the campaign trail, Platner has repeatedly targeted the billionaire class and called for a wealth tax, Medicare for All and other progressive policies. In late April, Maine’s Democratic Governor Janet Mills suspended her Senate campaign after polls showed Platner easily beating her in the primary, but Governor Mills never officially withdrew, and her name remains on the ballot.
Since launching his campaign, Platner has faced numerous controversies, many stemming from his actions in the years after returning from fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, a time when he says he was suffering from PTSD , post-traumatic stress disorder, and was self-medicating with alcohol. The initial controversies focused on old posts Platner made on Reddit, and on a tattoo on his chest that resembled a Nazi symbol. Platner says he got the tattoo while on military leave in Croatia 20 years ago, and has denied knowing about the design’s association with Nazis. He’s apologized for the social media posts, saying they were written at, quote, “a time in my life where I was struggling deeply,” unquote.
In recent weeks, two more scandals emerged. First, it was revealed he had sent sexually explicit text messages to at least six women after getting married in 2023. Then The New York Times published an article headlined “Several Women Who Dated Graham Platner Recall 'Unsettling' Behavior,” unquote. On Thursday, Platner, interviewed by Chris Hayes on MS NOW , said this.
GRAHAM PLATNER : There are some allegations in this piece that, I just want to be kind of unequivocal about, are simply not true. Anything alleging physicality, anything alleging that I knew what my tattoo was, these are the statements of someone who is politically motivated. In this piece, there’s a lot about my struggling, not being a good boyfriend, certainly self-medicating with alcohol, and I’ve been very upfront since the beginning of this campaign that that was a pretty dark period of my life after I came back from my combat service. And that’s what that combat service — that’s what that kind of life looks like. And so, there are things in this that I absolutely will take responsibility for and have been speaking about openly for months now. But those serious allegations are just not true.
CHRIS HAYES : You did not grab her by the wrist. You did not put your hands on her shoulders. You did not push her into a room that you closed the door on. She’s — she’s lying about that —
GRAHAM PLATNER : No.
CHRIS HAYES : — is what you’re saying.
GRAHAM PLATNER : Yes, that is not true.
AMY GOODMAN : On Friday, Graham Platner campaigned in Bar Harbor, Maine, where he took aim at the nation’s billionaires.
GRAHAM PLATNER : In the time in my life where that hard work ceased being enough, we have also watched the largest transfer of wealth from the working class to the ruling class in the history of this nation. In 1990, there were fewer than 80 billionaires in the United States. Today, there are over 900.
CROWD : Boo!
GRAHAM PLATNER : I ask you: When you look around, do you see a state of Maine that is 10 times wealthier than 1990?
CROWD : No!
GRAHAM PLATNER : Do we have 10 times the schools?
CROWD : No!
GRAHAM PLATNER : Ten times the hospitals?
CROWD : No!
GRAHAM PLATNER : Do our paychecks go 10 times as far?
CROWD : No!
GRAHAM PLATNER : Do we have 10 times the free time?
CROWD : No!
GRAHAM PLATNER : No. In fact, we have less, fewer schools, fewer hospitals. Our paychecks run out earlier in the month. And we have less time, because everybody’s working harder.
AMY GOODMAN : Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna also spoke at the Graham Platner Bar Harbor rally on Friday. On Sunday, he appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation and was questioned about Platner by host Margaret Brennan.
MARGARET BRENNAN : Can he survive another scandal? You have five months here.
REP . RO KHANNA : Well, it depends what. I’m not — you know, I mean, obviously, if there was any evidence that comes out that there is actual domestic violence or assault, I have zero tolerance for that. I led the fight against the Epstein class, which has been a cover-up —
MARGARET BRENNAN : Yes.
REP . RO KHANNA : — for sexual abuse, with Thomas Massie. I’ve been at the forefront of championing women’s rights and rights of survivors. But here you have a case of someone who had a dark chapter in his…
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