WASHINGTON — Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) led the #Metoo effort that took down former Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and tried to tank Supreme Court justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation — as a self-styled champion of zero-tolerance feminism.
But as head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the New York Democrat has refused to disavow embattled Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, even after bombshell New York Times allegations from ex-girlfriends that he despised women and at times physically manhandled them.
“We are still going to win Maine,” Gillibrand told CNN’s chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju after the latest New York Times story interviewing his former girlfriends broke Thursday.
A source close to the DSCC told The Post that the main campaign arm for Senate Democrats is now reconsidering spending heavily on ads in Platner’s race to unseat incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) as a result of the sexual misconduct revelations.
Platner’s wife, Amy Gertner, revealed to a campaign aide last August that her husband had been sexting on his phone with at least six women outside their marriage, forcing the couple to seek marriage counseling, The Times and Wall Street Journal reported.
And the candidate had maintained an active account — with a picture of himself stripped to the waist and wearing only a white towel — on the private messaging app Kik, which has been accused of being a hotbed for adultery, casual hook-ups and sexual predation.
That’s on top of new details gleaned in the Times from ex-girlfriend Lyndsey Fifield about a tattoo on the candidate’s chest that he had previously denied knowing was a Nazi symbol — despite referring to it as such in conversations with her more than a decade ago.
Gillibrand struck a different tone following accusations of sexual misconduct that eventually drove Franken from office in December 2017.
“I do not feel that he should continue to serve,” Gillibrand said in a press conference that same month.
“Enough is enough. I mean, this is a conversation we’ve been having for a very long time and it’s a conversation that this country needs to have,” she added. “We, as elected leaders, should absolutely be held to a higher standard.”
Two years later, she defended her decision in a New Yorker interview that “the women who came forward felt it was sexual harassment. … So it was.”
“Some of the allegations against me are not true. Others I remember very differently,” Franken had said in his resignation speech.
Gillibrand had also claimed Senate Republicans “don’t believe women” during Kavanaugh’s confirmation process.
She sat next to actress Alyssa Milano in the Senate hearing in 2018 in support of Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford, whom she insisted was telling the truth about an alleged high school sexual assault that should disqualify Kavanaugh from the Supreme Court.
Platner was facing a Democratic primary challenge from Maine Gov. Janet Mills before she suspended her campaign on April 30.
He now appears poised to win his party’s nomination in the June 9 election, barring an unprecedented swap between then and the November contest.
“The Governor remains on the ballot, and in the wake of this week’s stories, people across Maine are reaching out to tell her they’re voting for her and encouraging her to get fully back into the race,” a source close to Mills told CNN.
Platner has denied any assault allegations from his exes and vowed to stay in the race.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has also stuck by his endorsement of Platner, with winning Maine critical to his goal of Democrats retaking the Senate.
But not all of his colleagues are holding the line.
“Reports of threatening behavior and anti-semitism like the ones made against Graham Platner are serious and deserve scrutiny,” said Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH), who is retiring from office in January 2027.
“It’s also critical to acknowledge how difficult this is for the women who’ve come forward,” Hassan added. “Character matters now more than ever, and any high-profile campaign including Mr. Platner’s involves the close examination of a candidate’s history, statements and behavior, as well as the candidate’s reaction to the pressure that such examination entails.”
“Ultimately the people of Maine will decide who has the character and judgment to best represent them,” she noted.
Reps for Gillibrand and the DSCC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Ally Goelz contributed to this report.
