An ex-girlfriend of Maine U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner (D) has claimed he would pull condoms off during sex, otherwise known as “stealthing.”
Speaking to The Washington Post, conservative commentator Lyndsey Fifield, who dated Platner between 2013-2014 and who previously accused him of physical abuse, said that he would pull condoms off during sex, after she specifically told him she was not on birth control.
The Platner campaign denied the allegations, calling them “categorically false and politically motivated” while adding that Fifield supported Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation. Kavanaugh had been accused of sexual assault by Christine Blasey Ford, whose testimony has come under scrutiny in recent years.
“He would pull condoms off,” she said. “He would do it in a sneaky way. He wouldn’t tell me.”
The outlet noted that Fifield initially spoke of the “alleged condom removal during a June 20 interview that was off the record.”
She said she decided to speak publicly about it Tuesday in part because, she said, she wanted to show that Racicot was not alone in experiencing issues with Platner involving sexual consent.
Removing a condom during sex without consent, known as “stealthing,” is classified as a form of sexual assault in several countries, including Britain, Canada and parts of Australia. In the United States, Maine, California and Washington state have laws that address the nonconsensual removal of condoms during sex. The alleged incidents involving Platner took place in D.C., Fifield said..
Fifield claimed that Platner removed condoms an estimated six times during sexual intercourse, and when she confronted him about it, he would often laugh the situation off.
“I confronted him both during and after [sex] because he knew that I was not on birth control and how dangerous that was,” she said one interview.
“He would act like cute about it, like ‘Oh sneaky me,’” she said in another.
Fifield also revealed this information to the New York Times in a previous off-the-record interview, adding that she did not wish to go public at the time for fear of embarrassment about her private life. At least one close friend of Fifield, Emily Zanotti, confirmed that she shared this information with her after the relationship with Platner ended.
Fifield’s allegation comes after Jenny Racicot accused Platner on Monday of sexually assaulting her in 2021, prompting scores of Democrats to call for him to withdraw from the race to unseat Republican Maine Senator Susan Collins, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), his most loyal advocate. While Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has called for him to withdraw, she was confronted on CNBC for having previously referred to him as “my kinda man” despite him having a confirmed Nazi chest tattoo.
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