Bernie Sanders calls on Graham Platner to withdraw from Senate race amid sexual assault claims | US news

Progressive senator Bernie Sanders called on Graham Platner to withdraw from the U.S. Senate race in Maine, citing “very serious allegations” of sexual assault, hours before the embattled candidate faces another round of sexual harassment allegations.

Although Platner denied the new allegations, reported by Politico and later by the Washington Post, the initial report led a wave of prominent Democrats to urge him to step aside as the party’s nominee in the resulting Senate contest.

Platner said he was “taking time to reflect on the best path forward” following the stories.

Sanders, one of Sanders’ early and most influential supporters, was among the last to call on him to stand down on Tuesday.

“I spoke with Graham Platner about the best path forward for Maine,” Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont, said in a statement Tuesday. “In light of these very serious allegations, I suggested he step aside.”

Zohran Mamdani, the mayor of New York and another high-profile figure in the progressive wing of the Democratic party, also encouraged Platner to suspend his campaign, calling it “the only appropriate response.” “I believe it is now time for him to withdraw from the race,” Mamdani told reporters.

In the Politico report published Monday, Jenny Racicot, 41, who was previously with Platner, said he forced her to have sex despite her repeated objections. Racicot He told about his experience Described as rape to CNNThe incident occurred five years ago when Platner was extremely drunk. Platner denied the allegations.

Institutional support quickly collapsed. U.S. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, who heads the party’s Senate campaign arm, called for Platner to step down and said the committee would not fund his campaign if he remained on the ballot.

Maine state party leadership also called on him to resign. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a previously vocal supporter, asked him to withdraw, while senators and representatives Ruben Gallego and Ro Khanna, who campaigned with Platner, also rescinded their endorsements.

Later Tuesday, The Washington Post reported He said an ex-girlfriend claimed Platner removed condoms without consent during sex at least six times.

Lyndsey Fifield told the Post that she repeatedly warned Platner that she should use a condom because she had no birth control, but the scandal-plagued candidate claimed she would “take the condom off.” “He would do it in a sneaky way,” he said in an interview. “He didn’t tell me.”

Platner’s campaign denied the latest allegations to the Post and called the allegations “categorically false and politically motivated,” noting Fifield’s work to discredit him in Republican politics. The campaign did not immediately respond when contacted by the Guardian for comment.

The Post reported that Fifield first disclosed the allegation that the condom was removed during an off-the-record interview on June 20. He said he chose to speak publicly Tuesday because he wanted to show that Racicot was not the only person voicing concerns about Platner and sexual consent.

Fifield had previously accused Platner in an interview with the New York Times of multiple physical altercations, including grabbing her shoulders, pulling her out of a taxi by her wrist, and twisting her arm behind her back during an argument. Platner denied the accusations made by the Times.

Platner, 41, entered the race last August virtually unknown: an oyster farmer from Maine who was a Marine Corps combat veteran whose viral, anti-establishment campaign outpaced the state’s governor, Janet Mills (the party establishment’s preferred candidate), and she withdrew.

Despite all the scandals, he won the primary by the largest margin in state history. Democrats’ hope of turning things around US Senate seat, It is currently held by five-term Republican Susan Collins.

Under state law, Platner must end his campaign by 5 p.m. on Monday, July 13, for Democrats to nominate an alternative Senate candidate in Maine. This will give Democrats a two-week period, until 5 p.m. on Monday, July 27, to choose the new person to be on the ballot for the November general election.