Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) told Fox News that Graham Platner “disqualified himself” from the U.S. Senate race after a rape allegation broke his campaign apart and he dropped out of the race, adding it was not a difficult decision to refuse to endorse him in the beginning.
Dean was one of only a few Democrats who did not support him and who also publicly warned against Platner as the controversies around him intensified, the outlet reported Saturday.
“I’m relieved. I’m sure Mainers are relieved. He disqualified himself,” Dean said.
Platner suspended his campaign on Wednesday and later formally withdrew from the Senate primary, exiting with the words “F*ck ICE. Free Palestine. Up the Hearts,” Breitbart News reported on Friday.
Dean added that “Suspending his campaign, he took no accounting for himself” in reference to Platner denying allegations against him and blaming the Democrat establishment for ousting him from the race.
Platner had been accused of breaking into Jenny Racicot’s home and sexually assaulting her in 2021 when the pair were in an “on-and-off relationship,” according to Breitbart News. The outlet noted other women claimed he had also targeted them.
Dean also warned about Platner in June when he was the favorite for the Democrat nomination.
The Fox article said, “Few Democrats had publicly broken with him despite a growing list of scandals, including a Nazi-linked tattoo, offensive Reddit posts, infidelity, and allegations of misconduct in prior relationships, including an account of physical abuse from Lyndsey Fifield, who dated Platner between 2013 and 2015.”
Now, Democrats are scrambling to find a candidate to replace him as voters prepare for the midterm elections in November.
Dean also told Fox, “I said in my mind he had disqualified himself in at least two ways. One was the choice to have a Nazi emblem tattooed to his body. And the other was, of course, the credible allegations of his abuse of women. So, to me, it was a very easy call. I wasn’t trying to weigh in. I was asked by a CNN reporter and I just said he has disqualified himself. Not a tough call.”
On Friday, CNN’s “Inside Politics,” chief national correspondent John King said Maine voters wanted Platner to “shut up” and “go away,” Breitbart News reported.
“They didn’t like his exit video where he portrayed himself as the victim. They think he’s the problem, and they think the people around him — again, the Bernie Sanders supporters, the consultants, and the unions that recruited Graham Platner — are still trying to play an active role in that race,” he stated.
Click here to read more Breitbart News articles on the issues surrounding Platner.
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