Washington Examiner chief political correspondent Byron York slammed Democrats for their continued support of Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner after a New York Times report detailed disturbing accounts from several of Platner’s ex-girlfriends.
“I think the Democrats, and Platner, are trying to draw a line here. And the line here is assault and abuse, no physicality, which [Lyndsey Fifield, one of Platner’s ex-girlfriends] said, and nobody underage. And if they can’t prove he did any of that, then it’s ok. He’ll just say he’s sorry and move past this. But I don’t think that’s going to work,” York said on Fox News’s Special Report With Bret Baier Friday.
Fifield recalled Platner’s unsettling behavior while they were dating and said he was “cavalierly contemptuous of women’s emotions, of our ‘weakness,’” according to the report.
Fifield fired back at the New York Times in an X post on Friday for downplaying the story.
“The Times also failed to include any mention that I DID confide in multiple friends through the years that Graham had been abusive — long before he was running for office. Those friends confirm they told the Times so,” Fifield said in one post.
“It dawned on me that this really was a set-up all along. The journalists I trusted who convinced me to share a story I never wanted to tell methodically delayed and twisted this into a gift to the Platner campaign. Violating the trust of his victims,” another Fifield post said.
The report was published by the New York Times on Thursday, just days before the Maine primary. Last week, another scandal involving Platner arose, involving sexually explicit texts he sent to women.
York noted that there have been no reports from the women themselves to whom Platner allegedly sent the messages. He questioned the lack of information surrounding the women, saying it remains unclear how many are involved and how the texts were sent.
“Did they want to receive these texts? Most people don’t,” York said.
If Platner wins the Senate seat, it could return control of the Senate to Democrats. He faces current Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
“There’s a lot more to be learned, and it’s not all going to be learned by Tuesday when the primary hits,” York said.