Graham Platner says he's not going anywhere. Per the Hill, the Democrat favored to take on Sen. Susan Collins in Maine told MS Now's Chris Hayes on Thursday that he has "not once" considered dropping out of next week's primary, despite fresh reporting on his past behavior by the New York Times. The Times interviewed several ex-girlfriends, including Republican operative Lyndsey Fifield, who alleged Platner knew his chest tattoo resembled a Nazi symbol and sometimes acted physically rough, though the paper said it couldn't independently verify the latter claim.
Platner's campaign "strongly disputes" he knew the tattoo's meaning or was rough with his exes, calling Fifield "politically motivated." Platner told Hayes any claims about physical aggression or knowledge of the tattoo's symbolism are "simply not true," while acknowledging he was "far from perfect." The Maine primary is on Tuesday, in a race that Democrats see as crucial to flipping the Senate. The latest development from the Times has sown seeds of doubt about Platner's candidacy among some Dems, even as others decry the latest reporting as a bad-faith smear.
"Frankly, I'm sick of it," Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, in the former camp, told MS Now of the negative press that's emerged on Platner, per the Washington Post. "We've got a lot of bigger issues to fry here." Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin and Jeanne Shaheen also noted their own wariness on Thursday. "The campaign's line for a long time has been that these issues are in the past and he has reformed," a source tells the Post. "The stories over the weekend [about the texts he sent to women while married] set people off because they happened so recently." "Democrats who defend him sound like Republicans defending Donald Trump after the Access Hollywood tape," a DNC member out of New York tells Politico.
Others worry about yet another shoe dropping. "There's only so many bricks the load can take," says a Platner ally who remained anonymous. Still, other Dems are determined to help push him over the finish line despite the flow of allegations, all in the interest in defeating Collins. "I will put a bag over my head and go vote for the man, so I don't see it, I don't hear it, I don't smell it," one Democratic operative says. Rep. Ro Khanna, who will appear at a Friday rally with Platner, called Platner's past alleged behavior "wrong and toxic" but added, per the Post: "Graham has acknowledged that and sought redemption."
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