A woman who previously dated Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner said he drunkenly forced her to have sex after she told him to stop, according to a Politico report released Monday, leading prominent supporters to pull their endorsements and throwing a must-win race for the party into turmoil.
Platner denied the allegation, but said he would be considering next steps for his campaign.
“Regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting but mindful of the political reality it will inflict, we’re taking the time to reflect on the best path forward,” he said in a video released on social media.
Jenny Racicot, who lives in Maine, told Politico that Platner entered her home in 2021 while drunk and assaulted her. Racicot said she had been in an on-and-off relationship with Platner, but she cut off contact with him after that night and told him the incident wasn’t consensual. A voicemail left at a number listed for Racicot seeking comment did not receive an immediate response.
Platner’s campaign did not immediately respond to an email and phone message from The Associated Press seeking comment.
“Any accusation of non-consensual behavior is categorically false,” Platner said in his video.
Still, the allegation sparked a flight away from a candidate who has long been controversial. Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat who’d stood by Platner even as the insurgent candidate was hit with prior allegations, said Monday’s was enough. “I’ve been very clear that sexual assault or violence against women is a red line,” Khanna said. “These allegations are very serious and credible. Graham Platner should drop out from the race. I am withdrawing my endorsement.”
Edit: holy shit, these comments are insane.
Regardless of what you believe with this, Platner likely cannot win anymore. He has a week to do the right thing and drop out before he’s fully locked in. If he actually gives any sort of a shit (and doesn’t just want power, like rapists seeking office tend to), he needs to drop out yesterday.
This is the nail in the coffin for his campaign. It’s not time to defend him no matter what, because there’s still a week where a new candidate can be put into place. Instead of being mad at people not wanting to vote for him, you should start vocally supporting another candidate.
DAMMIT! After the FIRST Republican hit piece I said I don’t care PLATNER is my Guy but now that there’s a SECOND Republican hit piece with the EXACT same Allegation I guess I have NO CHOICE but to Vote for the People who will CONTINUE Protecting the Epstein Class!
Rape isn’t the same accusation nor the same suspect accuser
Go ahead and vote for the Nazi murderer rapist.
Lmao. Fucking’ punk.
My very first thought was “Again? Is this a recycled article?”
Nice false dichotomy.
I’d like neither, because that is an option. Still plenty of time for a different Democratic candidate
hopefully this will be a good lesson for the leftists that will vote for anyone that is
anti-jewanti-israelanti-epstein-classhorseshoe much?
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The old allegations weren’t credible. The new ones are. Simple as that.
So why hasn’t he been criminally charged?
Come on in. The shit is steaming and our eyes are burning and we got every kind of emotional take in the book.
once more into the breach
The woman came forward to the NYT earlier to get on record but held back the story until another accuser came forward. She has contemporaneous emails with her therapist dealing with the fallout and people in her life she told the story to around the time it happened who can confirm it, as well as woman she warned after cutting contact with Platner. These allegations are as credible as they get and some of the reactions to this story are frankly disgusting.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/06/graham-platner-sexual-assault-allegation-00987737
Fyi Politico is openly Zionist and told their staff to leave if they’re not. Why do people treat them as legit. I certainly don’t.
Politico, or any other outlet for that matter, can have a shitty editorial line on some things, and do quality reporting on other things.
You should be paying attention to the substance of the accusation here, which is about as credible as it gets. Not blowing it off because it’s from an outlet you dislike for a different reason.
And just like… Occam’s Razor, the guy with the SS tattoo being a bad guy isn’t exactly a wild leap of logic.
There’s even a famous skit about the exact symbol Platner had a tattoo of.
Yep. The Tapper interview, as disgusting as Tapper was during it, I mean this is as credible as they come. She also said she was prepared to vote for him, and that his kind of politics is what the country needs. Graham said there would be no more coming out. Its unclear where things go from here.
The double standards for each party is absolutely stunning.
Anyone even know off the top their head how many allegations, some even confirmed in FBI testimony, Don chomo has?
Not to mention the rape scrotus said he had to pay out.
Exactly. If our esteemed representatives in DC gave even a fraction of this same shit about an actual habitual pedophile and rapist – of his wife Ivanka, other children, and quite possibly his own daughter – sitting in the highest office in the land, what a different country we’d have today.
Some do, certainly, and I don’t want to dishonor the very real efforts of some on both sides to see the truth come out.
But as a whole, their concern about Graham Platner rings hollow as fuck. And at this point I’d vote for fucking Pol Pot raised from the dead before I voted for that dinosaur Susan Collins.
You can choose between a rapist or someone who supports, enables, and keeps in power an entire administration of rapists, including child rapists.
America!
I will believe the accusations by default but if he does not drop out, Mainers still need to choose the rapist (accused, alleged or not) over the supreme-rapist enabler who will help remove the right for women to vote and have bodily autonomy, continue reckless and expensive wars, subsidizing billionaire excess, and send US taxpayer money to Israel’s genocide while starving Maine. If Platner drops out, more likely than not, a replacement like David Costello may write many words in opposition to Collins’ party, but push for little action.
I think Platner has 48 hours to research to find if AIPAC or outside groups (not including Cheyenne Hunt & Reckoning Action, Racicot reached out to them supposedly) have unduly influenced the details or timing of this. Some kind of credible evidence to put the evidence behind the allegations in doubt would be needed else this whole campaign is possibly sunk. CNN’s Tapper is happy to jump on this story asking leading questions. ETA: And many outlets that would decry HasanAbi as an anti-Semite are readily citing him speaking against Platner.
I dare ask - why believe by default? What’s happened to innocent until proven guilty?
I won’t reflexively deny the victim. Trust but request verification. Platner is definitely presumed innocent but this is one where we still need more info. And it’s not at the standard of a criminal proceeding to determine whether people would want someone representing them in the Senate or not - rather it’s more like a job interview.
When it’s time to vote blue: “Platner the oyster farmer?”
I think Platner has 48 hours to research to find if AIPAC or outside groups (not including Cheyenne Hunt & Reckoning Action, Racicot reached out to them supposedly) have unduly influenced the details or timing of this
Politico, the website that published the story originally, is owned by unapologetic pro-Israel billionaires
Platner can’t win. The accuser has corroborated contemporaneous communications. He’s just going to lose.
Finding this out now is a gift - he can drop out by the 13th. Rs would love to have kept this hidden until then. Now he can be replaced by the 27th (I think?)
Jackson is being floated as an alternative, but I’d love to see Heather Cox Richardson drafted
HCR has already said she has no interest in running for office, and reiterated it just last week in one of her live chats. She apparently has the idea of public office suggested to her often.
And honestly she’d be wasted* in office: she’d certainly do well in any position, but no one could do in her stead what she is doing now for us.
*Not wasted in the Kash Patel sense, obv
Fully agree, but you just made me think she’d maybe be hilarious on Drunk History
People let some Nazi merc slide because he broke out the working class starter pack dialogue choices. We need to return to context clues and some basic morals. Having a Nazi tattoo is instantly disqualifying in any party but the Republican one.
Yup. The people here are so desperate that they’ll accept literally anyone who gives them the most basic lip service. It’s pathetic.
It will never not be funny to me that people are totally okay with a pirate tattoo, but not a Nazi tattoo. Pirates routinely raped, tortured, murdered and pillaged.
Pillaged yes, raped/tortured? That’s iffy. Murder I’m sure happened, but take Blackbeard for instance, all intimidation, never had to kill anyone until he was attacked by the Navy and killed.
Many of the successful pirates like Bart Roberts had rules about rape.
Every crew had their own rules, but if you want to make a list of bad things pirates did you might want to put slavery at the top. Think there was more pirates that stole slaves and resold them then there were murdering people without reason.
Slavery should definitely be on the list, your right.
Pirates may not have raped people on the boats they took, because there often weren’t any. The pubescent cabin boys and powder monkeys were a different story however.
As far as torture, lashings were the standard baseline punishment. Edward Low was known to be particularly violent and liked cutting ears off people on ships he boarded. Keelhauling wasn’t as universal as media would indicate, but it was an actual practice.
This is why you disqualify the guy with the nazi tattoo immediately…
Anyone with judgements that bad us going to have more skeletons in the closet
This is what always gets me. It’s not like there aren’t hundreds if not thousands of people who want the job.
I felt this way during the Kavenaugh hearings for the SC. If someone has anything big that would disqualify them if true, even if it isn’t, why push that candidate?
It’s not a court of law. We’re not throwing them in jail. It doesn’t need to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. They are just not getting a job they wanted.
I’ve seen people not get a job they wanted because they forgot a word during an interview. Why the hell can someone be credibly accused of rape and everyone’s like, “well yeah, but we still want them to get this job.” Just interview other candidates! There’s not a lack of people who would want to be a Senator or SC Justice or whatever. What the hell?
Why the hell can someone be credibly accused of rape and everyone’s like, “well yeah, but we still want them to get this job.”
This is built right into our government. We, the people, have said we don’t care about rape and rape victims. And now it’s clear that it doesn’t matter which aisle they’re on, people will support their candidate no matter what.
The first one might have been a Republican hit piece, but this one is a lot more credible. The woman warns another woman about him years before any political stuff in chats.
But hey run the nazi-tattoo guy XD what could possibly go wrong.
Yet another purity test failed, why can’t we tolerate sex pest Nazis?! Is nothing good enough for you leftists?
First you don’t want genocide and war crimes, now you don’t support rapists! We all know she is a filthy liar! No people in positions of power would do such a thing. Except for all the ones in office who do. But those guys don’t count! They’re Republicans!
If being a rapist gets you cancelled by the left, then the left would rather lose than let a rapist in office!
Clearly she’s lying about all of it. Never believe a single woman when they confess they were raped by someone I like. That’s what MSNBC told me when Biden was being questioned for his actions and defended Clarance Thomas to enter the Supreme Court, known sex pest.
This is just filthy slander, just vote Blue no matter who he rapes!
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Yep, I’m a bot, posting from an American IP, during American hours.
Yawn.
So are you pro rapist nazi-murderer or anti rapist nazi-murderer?
A nazi-murderer would be someone that murders nazis.
Nope, other way around. A Nazi murderer murders Nazis. A Nazi-murderer is a Nazi who murders.
I don’t think that’s right. The hyphen should imply both words apply to the subject, not each other. Grammar is fucky with hyphens though. But nazi-murderer being a compound word would mean someone that murders nazis. https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/hyphen-rules-open-closed-compound-words.
Huh, TIL.
Thanks for the information!
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I think you just feel personally called out and are lashing out with a pathetic defense. Just my take tho
Good for you 🙂
Thanks!
Love the comments saying they don’t care about rape showing how big of a piece of shit they are. Really cool guys.
There’s so many comments not caring about rape.
Those who were willing to overlook the other red flags have no issues ignoring or dismissing another one sadly
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The guy with the nazi tattoo on his chest turned out to be a POS? What? This has to be some sort of mistake. This seems so uncharacteristic. Sometimes, reality truly is stranger than fiction.
Also a big fuck you to everyone that defended him. We told you so. We told you so, and you didn’t listen. You people are so dense. Anyway, talk to you with the next obvious Obama/Letterman/Planter situation, where you’ll make the exact same fucking mistake, because this time it really is different.
Have fun in the Republican death camp when doing jack shit to stop them leads to its inevitable conclusion.
If we don’t elect a rapist, we’ve done jack shit to stop fascism?
Do you even read back what you write after you regurgítate it out to us?
Only rapists with Nazi tattoos can stop fascists. As we all know.
I dunno buy a gun
If Platner wants to defend himself publicly on this, and/or keep running, and/or sue the accuser for libel, he’s free to do any or all of that. As anyone who’s been around for a few cycles know, its pretty common for candidates and other public figures, when they first reach a certain terminal level of attention or fame, to get a wide range of accusations on business, personal matters, drug use, and past sexual behavior. Just because these appear to be conveniently timed politically, is not evidence for or against their veracity. If there is no actual juice to these accusations, then dealing with people who lob bombs like that into the middle of campaigns is a well-worn playbook that thousands of politicians have run and won with, and he’ll be fine. If.
Another aspect as to why this is different is because it’s so well substantiated. It’s like… Textbook. There’s so little to argue with.
The previous claims against him had none of that, and came from his direct opposition. That is suspicious. These claims are not.
That is suspicious. These claims are not.
You don’t find the timing suspicious? JFC, you guys are as delusional as MAGA.
If someone is raped, are they no longer allowed to tell anyone should that person be elected to a political position?
She warned multiple other women and has proof way before he even started his campaign
What proof. Why did she wait 5 years.
Very much with the “if.” I’d rather not add more logs to the everlasting bonfire of “women ignored for political expediency.” If it is fake, then handle it like a normal person instead of self-destructing.
There are no criminal charges because no prosecutor would waste time and money on allegations with no evidence, and delayed for 5 years.
“The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them. To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”
― Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Just hold a lottery for the senate / house seat. No politics, no filtering.
Sad situation. Either way AIPAC won America lost
Maybe not. I just got done listening to Heather Cox Richardson – a Mainer herself – on the subject.
Noting that HCR has never offered a single word of endorsement for Platner (only that she thinks candidates for Senate should have some managerial experience prior to running) she now frames this as a great opportunity and lays out how Platner “was always going to be a heavy lift” because in a state that should be D+15, Platner has only ever run at +2. In addition, Collins has a dismal 17% approval rating, and there’s still time to get a new candidate. According to HCR, there are a number of qualified individuals in Maine who could step into the Democratic slot and not only be good candidates but actually win.
You may agree, you may disagree, you may be tempted to call it hopium and maybe you wouldn’t be wrong, but inasmuch as there’s still time to get a different candidate on the D side who presumably will not bring a history of sexual misconduct with them it’s not the worst thing, IMO.
That particular bit is at the 33 minute mark but overall it’s an excellent listen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkDRcv1pzT4
