Bernie Sanders reaffirmed his support for Graham Platner on Saturday, even as new allegations about the Maine Senate candidate's conduct kept widening the political fallout around his campaign. Sanders did not directly address the accusations in a social media post, but said Platner was the only candidate who would do something about the economy, healthcare and the tax system.
The timing mattered because reported this week that multiple women accused Platner of disturbing behavior and toxic relationships. One of those women, Lyndsey Fifield, said she dated him from 2013 to 2015 and described him as “cavalierly contemptuous of women’s emotions, of our ‘weakness.’” She said he was rough with her while he drank and that he never struck her, but regularly grabbed her shoulders.
Platner's campaign told the Times that he strongly disputed any claims of physical intimidation or altercations, though it did not dispute the accounts about his remarks. Another former partner, Jenny Racicot, said she dated Platner from 2019 to 2021 and pointed to online posts he made about sexual assault and rural white Americans. The Times said it could not independently corroborate Fifield's claims about physical contact.
Sanders' backing also comes after last weekend's reporting that Amy Gertner had told Platner's Senate campaign last year about sexually explicit texts he sent to several women. Genevieve McDonald said Gertner reached out to her before a rally with Sanders and told her Platner had sent messages to as many as a dozen women. McDonald said the Senate is not a training ground for redemption, and called it a place for proven leaders with moral clarity and integrity.
Platner, who is Maine's presumptive Democratic nominee for Senate, has already acknowledged what he has called a dark period after his combat service and said he has been open from the start about struggling and self-medicating with alcohol. But the campaign's problem now is not just what Platner says about his past; it is that Sanders is still standing with him while new accounts keep surfacing, and that leaves his next response to the latest reports under close watch after he was asked about them on Sunday.
At a Friday rally in Maine, Platner asked his wife to stand, and Amy Gertner got a standing ovation as supporters chanted her name. Platner told the crowd, “As every single piece of that past and journey gets dug up, litigated, and weaponized, you have my back.”
