Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) responded to a recent report in the New York Times revealing that several ex-girlfriends of Maine Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner described his behavior as “unsettling.” Collins called the allegations against Platner “troubling.”
In a video shared on X by Connor Clement, a reporter with WMTWTV News, Collins was asked for her reaction to the New York Times report. Collins stated that Platner “has a lot of questions to answer.”
“Your presumptive challenger in November’s election, Graham Platner, another scandal — I guess you would say, coming out in the New York Times yesterday. What’s your reaction to it?” the reporter asked. “Have you had a chance to read the story? What’s the takeaway from you?”
“The allegations in the latest story are troubling, and I believe that Graham Platner has a lot of questions to answer,” Collins responded.
When Collins was asked if the allegations in the New York Times report would “cost him votes,” she admitted that it was “up to the people of Maine.”
Three women, who had been involved in “romantic relationships” with Platner for several years, told the outlet about instances in which they saw alleged “patterns of heavy drinking and womanizing”:
Lyndsey Fifield, 40, a Virginia conservative who has worked for right-leaning groups and Republican campaigns, recalled him as “cavalierly contemptuous of women’s emotions, of our ‘weakness.’” Ms. Fifield, who dated Mr. Platner from roughly 2013 t0 2015, said that his offensive posts “reminded me of just how much he hated women.”
Jenny Racicot, 41, a Maine Democrat, who said she dated him casually off and on between 2019 and 2021, said the posts deepened her belief that he did not respect women. “When I saw the old comments that he made online,” she said, “I recognized a version of him that I had experiences with.”
One woman, Lyndsey Fifield, a conservative who “met Mr. Platner in 2013,” while he was attending George Washington University, shared with the outlet how, while Platner “could be rough with her,” he “never” hit her or punched her. Fifield reportedly shared how Platner allegedly “regularly grabbed her by the shoulders — sometimes hard enough to leave marks.”
Fifield also shared with the outlet how, in one instance in which they had been arguing, Platner allegedly “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.”
Another woman, Jenny Racicot, a Democrat who dated Platner “casually off and on between 2019 and 2021,” shared with the outlet that in one instance, Platner “arrived at her house drunk, after she asked him not to come over.”
The report by the New York Times comes after another by the Wall Street Journal found that Platner’s wife had admitted to his campaign that he had sent sexually explicit texts to other women early on in their marriage. The Wall Street Journal‘s report also shared that Platner had an “active account on Kik, a popular, private messaging app,” with a profile picture showing him “shirtless with a towel wrapped around his waist.”
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