WASHINGTON — Morris Katz, the star Gen Z political guru behind Mayor Mamdani and Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, has offered a groveling, belated mea culpa over Platner’s campaign implosion after he was accused of rape.
But one former ally isn’t buying it, branding him a “twerp from Tribeca” — and suggesting there’s more dirt on Katz’s failure to vet Platner before backing him to run against Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
In an interview on “The Ezra Klein Show” released Friday, Katz — a co-founder of lefty consulting group The Fight Agency — acknowledged the campaign’s lapses in judgment. But, he claimed, “there is no standard vetting process that would have found the credible allegation that ended the campaign,” referencing a rape accusation from ex-girlfriend Jenny Racicot.
“That being said, in hindsight, knowing what we know now, the Reddit posts alone probably should have been enough — or should have been enough,” Katz told Klein. “The tattoo should have been enough. The initial New York Times story on troubling behavior should have been enough.”
The Marine-turned-oyster farmer had to apologize for past Reddit posts — including disparaging a Purple Heart recipient and telling sex assault victims to “take some responsibility” — and also had to cover up a Totenkopf tattoo — a Nazi SS symbol, inked on his chest nearly two decades ago.
“I think it should have been a red line,” Katz said in the Times interview of the Reddit posts. “He talked about it being one of the things he regretted saying the most, that it was indicative of a time of his life when he was lost and angry, and that it was in no way reflective of who he was.
Even after the campaign’s implosion, Platner — unlike Katz’s comments to the Times — maintained that Racicot’s allegations were not credible, dismissing them as well as earlier accusations of physical abuse that ex Lyndsey Fifield leveled in the Times as entirely false.
But Katz also used the Times interview to take a shot at Platner’s former campaign manager Genevieve McDonald, who departed the Platner campaign last October after the first wave of scandals broke.
McDonald had revealed to The Wall Street Journal and Times that Platner’s wife Amy Gertner came forward around the time of the campaign launch to reveal that her husband had been sexting with at least six women.
“In that specific instance, Amy came to her and was fully honest. To see Amy’s trust violated like that, and to see that practice that allows campaigns to operate and us to get to a place of honesty violated like that, was frustrating,” Katz said, dodging questions about reportedly threatening McDonald for speaking out.
McDonald, who departed the Platner campaign last October following reports on the candidate’s offensive Reddit posting and Nazi tattoo, fired back in an X post that if Katz “doesn’t learn to keep my name out of his mouth, I’m going to grant one of these interview opportunities and we’re all going to learn who knew what when.”
“I am not a twerp from Tribeca trying to impress David Axelrod,” she seethed.
Katz in the sitdown also acknowledged the campaign’s lapses in judgment — but claimed “there is no standard vetting process that would have found the credible allegation that ended the campaign,” referencing a rape accusation from ex-girlfriend Jenny Racicot
Here’s the latest on the bombshell sexual assault allegations which forced Graham Platner to drop out of Maine Senate race :
In the Times sitdown, Katz noted of the heightened scrutiny Fight Agency has faced over Platner’s lack of vetting: “I think a lot of the critiques and anger are fully valid.”
It’s unclear how much Fight Agency raked in for its work on the Platner campaign. Federal Election Commission filings show no direct payments to Katz or firm partner Rebecca Katz, who is not related to him, despite their agency, by its own admission, making more than 40 ads.
More than 70% of the campaign’s spending went toward ad buys, ad production and digital consulting, amounting to $10,177,696 to three other firms between August 2025 and May 2026, the filings show.
“We were proud to help elect champions for working people across New York City this past primary and will continue doing so across the country,” Fight Agency said.
“The challenge of all of this was — as someone who does deeply believe in grace and nuance and the fact that people are complicated and life is complicated and maybe politics should reflect a little bit more of that — there was a constant weighing of: How much is too much? What is the red line? And I think, obviously, I did not see it soon enough,” Katz added in this Times interview.
