Ro Khanna says he supports Graham Platner’s bid for Senate despite ‘shameful’ actions | Maine
Progressive Democratic congressman Ro Khanna issued a qualified defense of Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner on Sunday, saying: “His actions were misogynistic, they were shameful, they were wrong, but they came as no surprise to a lot of people in Maine.”
The oyster farmer, a former Marine who campaigned to unseat the state’s Republican senator, Susan Collins, in November has faced a wave of accusations over his past actions, including sexually explicit messages he sent to women while he was married and getting a Nazi-themed tattoo.
Progressive and independent Democrats have largely backed Platner in his bid to unseat the moderate Republican incumbent, but two days into the primary, the contest has turned into a referendum on Platner, not Collins, and scrutiny from the Democratic party, weeks after former congressman Eric Swalwell withdrew his bid to become governor of California after sexual misconduct allegations against him emerged.
Khanna said on CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday that he supports the party’s nominee because he “takes responsibility” and runs on a platform of national health insurance, taxes billionaires and opposes the war in Iran.
“People in Maine knew he had served two tours of duty in Iraq. He came back broken in a dark place,” Khanna reasoned. “That doesn’t excuse his behavior, but they knew it. He was in Washington, then he came back to Maine and started an oyster farm. He took responsibility. He said it was a shame, and it was his salvation.”
Khanna said he believed the account of Platner’s ex-girlfriend, Lyndsey Fifield, who told the New York Times that Platner was prone to misogyny and “regularly grabbed her by the shoulders — sometimes hard enough to leave marks — and once pulled her out of a taxi by grabbing her wrist after an argument when she wanted to stay in the car.”
In another incident, Fifield said Platner “twisted her arm behind her back, pushed her into a bedroom and held the door closed from the other side so she couldn’t get out, and told her to stay there until she ‘calmed down.'”
Fifield later slammed the channel, claiming that X’s reporters “methodically delayed and distorted” her account as a “gift to the Platformer campaign” and that she was led to believe other women were sharing similarly explosive accounts.
“Where were the screenshots they said they would use?” Fifield wrote. “Or mentioning that I support local democrats and most of my family (and husband) are liberals?”
In response to Fifield’s accusations, Platners’ campaign said Fifield “is a lifelong GOP incumbent who has devoted his career to electing Republicans.”
The candidate later told Maine News Center that he had been cordial throughout his campaign. “I’ve been open about a very dark period in my life where I struggled with undiagnosed PTSD, self-medicated with alcohol most of the time, and was far from a perfect boyfriend,” Platner said.
“I take responsibility for all of this and wish it had been better. Any characterization beyond that is inaccurate and I believe it is politically motivated,” he added. He also dismissed “anything that purports to be physical” and “anything that claims I know what my tattoo is.”
On Sunday, Khanna called on Platner’s campaign to stop attacking Fifield. “I believe him,” Khanna said, arguing: “I think our side should not have attacked him and I appreciate his courage in coming forward.”
Khanna said Maine voters he met “didn’t like” the statements about Platner. They “knew that he had these divisions” and predicted that they were “willing to offer him grace and salvation and were now focused on what he was running for.”
Asked if he thought Platner could withstand another scandal, Khanna said: “It depends… Frankly, if any evidence of actual domestic violence or assault comes to light, I have zero tolerance for that.”
