California Rep. Ro Khanna once again admitted that he believes the women who have accused Maine Democrat Graham Platner of being physically rough with or mistreating them — but is standing by him nonetheless.
Khanna (D-Calif.), who was an early backer of Platner, contended that the oyster farmer had redemption and underscored his goal of ensuring Democrats flip Maine’s Senate seat.
“I do believe those women. And I have said that his past conduct was shameful, and I totally condemned it,” Khanna told “Fox News Sunday.”
“He did two, three tours of duty in Iraq. He came back with PTSD,” the lawmaker continued.
“That’s not an excuse, but he said that he had a problem with alcohol. He had an ugly period in his life. And he believes that he has transformed, and he’s had redemption.”
While Khanna claims he believes Platner’s accusers, the candidate himself has denied some of their key claims, particularly the part about him being physically rough, though he has copped to being a bad boyfriend in the past.
Numerous women have come forward about their past experiences with him. One of them, Lyndsey Fifield, claimed that Platner was physical with her.
On one occasion, she alleged he yanked her out of a cab by the wrists and at another point twisted her arm behind her back before locking her in a room.
Platner denied those accusations and argued they were “politically motivated,” given that she had been a GOP operative.
But Fifield also had private messages describing his skull and crossbones tattoo as a Nazi symbol in August of last year, months before its resemblance to a Schutzstaffel Totenkopf symbol became known.
Another former flame of Platner’s also publicly shared messages about his tattoo, which resembled a Nazi symbol, before that became public. Platner has since inked over it and denied knowing of its resemblance to Nazi symbolism.
“Well, she certainly didn’t send that text to me,” Platner told MS NOW when asked about how Fifield knew about the tattoo’s Nazi ties before he did.
Khanna stressed that Maine’s Democratic primary voters weighed in on the scandals plaguing Platner and backed him up.
“It’s for the voters to decide whether they believe his transformation is sincere,” the congressman said. “I believe that they will make that determination, but I do believe that people have to extend grace to folks who own up to past mistakes and say that they’ve transformed and that they’re better.”
Platner is facing a torrent of controversies as he seeks to make the leap into the Senate, including revelations he cheated on his wife, whom he married in 2023; questions about his Kik account, the profile of which features him shirtless; and baggage from his since-mass-scrubbed Reddit feed.
A recently unearthed Reddit post from 2012, in which he appeared to mock a teenage girl’s suicide attempt.
Platner currently has a 4.5 percentage point polling edge over incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), according to the latest RealClearPolitics polling aggregate.
Collins overperformed the RCP aggregate by double digits during her 2020 reelection bid.
