SULLIVAN, Maine — Accused rapist Graham Platner finally bowed out of the Maine Senate race Wednesday with a long-winded video statement, blaming everyone but himself for his campaign’s implosion.
He called out “large forces,” “corporate media” and the “political establishment” for trying to force him out of the race.
“We believe that for the movement to continue, it can’t be me. And for that reason we are suspending campaign operations,” Platner said in a video announcement posted on X.
The announcement comes after a woman he previously dated, Jenny Racicot, publicly alleged that he drunkenly raped her at her Maine home in 2021 despite her repeated pleas to stop. Platner called the allegations false and remained defiant in his 11-minute monologue.
Leading Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, yanked their support of him in light of the allegations, but Platner framed it as a well-timed political hit job.
“I just want to make it clear this is all false. The things that have been claimed did not happen. It’s not real,” he said in the X video.
Platner argued the Democratic establishment used the rape allegation “as an excuse to take away all of the things that we need to run a campaign.”
Inside the Platners’ mother’s tavern moments before he dropped the announcement, his mom, Leslie Harlow, kept serving customers. She was greeted by friends who gave her a big hug.
It’s unclear if the news that he was dropping out had already circulated among his family and close friends.
Platner had until July 13 to exit the closely watched race for Democrats to be able to easily replace him as the party battles for control of the upper chamber.
“This was the last week to try to get me off of the ballot. And that’s why this is occurring,” Platner charged.
Platner went on to urge the public not to view his decision to withdraw from the race as “an admission of guilt.”
“It most certainly is not. We’re not doing it because of the allegations. We’re doing it because of the structures that are being taken away from us by those in power,” he said.
Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman blasted Platner after his announcement.
“The trash took itself out tonight,” he bluntly told Fox News.
“Now finally people in Maine have a chance to vote on someone that’s not a total piece of trash.”
While Platner vehemently denied the rape accusations against him, he canceled his scheduled appearances this week.
Just hours after the latest rape claims, Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) issued a joint statement denouncing Platner.
“The allegations reported today are incredibly disturbing – violence, abuse and sexual assault are absolutely unacceptable,” it said.
“Graham Platner needs to immediately withdraw as the Democratic nominee for Senate and allow Maine Democrats the opportunity to choose a new candidate who can defeat Susan Collins. The DSCC [Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee] will not invest in the Maine Senate race if Platner remains on the ballot.”
Platner lashed out at those who abandoned him and pulled his financial support.
“We are going to lose our ability to fundraise. We are going to lose our ability to access voter data. We are going to lose all of the things that any campaign needs on the basic level simply to function,” he bemoaned.
“Larger organizations, the national level party, the bigger donor networks – they have all committed to spending no money in this race if I’m in it,” Platner continued.
“They would rather see Susan Collins win than have me be the next senator from Maine,” he said.
Throughout his campaign, Platner had survived a steady string of scandals and repeatedly insisted to the public that he didn’t have any more skeletons in his closet before more bombshells dropped.
He’s been accused of sexting other women while married, lying about a since-removed Nazi tattoo and being unfaithful to girlfriends and contemptuous of women.
Maine is widely seen as a must-win race for Democrats in order to retake control of the Senate.
Most Democrats had stood by Platner throughout nearly all the scandals that emerged against Platner, and he won his primary last month nonetheless.
But the rape accusations, first reported by Politico, proved to be a death knell for his candidacy.
Racicot described in disturbing detail how an “almost blackout drunk” Platner entered her home without permission one night in 2021 after she texted him that she didn’t want to see him.
In graphic detail, she recounted how she repeatedly rebuffed him, but he followed her into the bedroom and ejaculated in her.
“And, the look on his face and realizing what was happening, I just realized that, like, I am in a situation where there’s no consent here,” she told Politico.
Here’s the latest on the bombshell sexual assault allegations which forced Graham Platner to drop out of Maine Senate race :
“One of the reasons I didn’t come forward sooner was, the huge moral conflict that I had between supporting his politics, but not supporting him as a person,” Racicot told the outlet. “I just want the truth out there. I just want people to have a whole scope of who he is as a person.”
Asked by CNN whether she was alleging that he raped her, Racicot responded: “By definition, yes, absolutely yes.”
Ahead of the July 13 deadline, Democratic operatives scrambled to get as much dirt on Platner to the public as part of an apparent pressure campaign to force him out of the race.
The nonprofit group Reckoning Action, which was founded by progressive lawyer Cheyenne Hunt, got in contact with Racicot, according to Politico.
Hunt endorsed Platner late last year, but backed off after accusations of him being rough with women were reported by the New York Times last month. Hunt also backed women who made accusations against disgraced former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.)
Platner had defied the Democratic establishment by taking down Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) in a primary and clinching the nomination last month, despite fears that there was more to come out about him. Mills suspended her campaign in April, weeks before the primary contest took place.
Ahead of the primary, Platner was hit with accusations from multiple past girlfriends who accused him of troubling behavior.
One of the women, Lyndsey Fifield, claimed that he once twisted her arm behind her back before trapping her in a room and, at another point, yanked her out of a cab by the wrists.
Platner denied those accusations, claiming they were “politically motivated.”
After Racicot went public with her rape claim, Fifield came forward with yet another shocking allegation against Platner — that he repeatedly removed his condom during sex without asking permission.
“He would pull condoms off,” Lyndsey Fifield said in an interview with the Washington Post. “He would do it in a sneaky way. He wouldn’t tell me.”
“I confronted him both during and after [sex] because he knew that I was not on birth control and how dangerous that was,” Fifield added. “He would act like cute about it, like ‘Oh sneaky me.’”
Fifield’s account was corroborated by a friend of hers, who described how Fifield was left “extremely angry about the situation and about what he had done.”
Platner’s campaign again told the outlet Fifield’s allegation was “categorically false and politically motivated.”
Fifield and another former flame of his also had private messages with confidants describing Platner’s skull-and-crossbones tattoo as a Nazi symbol long before it was publicly known.
Revelations that Platner had a tattoo on his chest resembling a Totenkopf, which was used by the Nazi Schutzstaffel or SS. He claims he got that ink while inebriated in Croatia in 2007 and has since covered it up.
In late May, it emerged that Platner allegedly cheated on his wife, with whom he had tied the knot in 2023, and had an account on Kik, an anonymous platform used for hookups. Platner’s profile showed him shirtless with a towel over his waist and his phone blocking the Nazi tattoo.
Ahead of the primary race, his former campaign political director, Genevieve McDonald, penned a blistering Washington Post op-ed telling Maine voters that Platner was unfit to become a senator.
On Reddit, Platner previously trashed a Purple Heart veteran, defended urinating on dead Taliban fighters, suggested that sexual assault victims should “take some responsibility,” argued that rural voters are racist, and more.
Whoever Democrats tap to replace him will have to face off against incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who has a history of outperforming polls.
Maine Democrats have promised an “open” and “transparent” process to choose another candidate for the ballot.
Platner’s team, however, has “repeatedly reached out” to the state party “in an attempt to put their thumb on the scale of what this process looks like,” Maine Democratic Party Executive Director Devon Murphy-Anderson revealed Tuesday.
“We have repeatedly reiterated to Graham Platner’s team that they have no role in determining our next Democratic nominee for the US Senate, nor in determining what this process looks like,” Murphy-Anderson said in a video posted on X.
Prior to Murphy-Anderson’s complaint, The Post reported that Platner was refusing to bow out of the race unless he was given the chance to approve his successor.
While Platner claimed he wasn’t “trying to dictate” how Maine Democrats should go about choosing his successor, he seemingly demanded that a candidate with his lefty views be tapped.
“I want to make clear, though I intend to file my paperwork to withdraw, the process needs to assure that what comes next is reflective of the Mainers who on June 9th, turned out and showed that they are desperate for a different kind of politics,” he said. “It needs to be driven not from backrooms, but by the will of the people.”
Platner did not name who he’d back as his successor.
