Graham Platner Finds A Scapegoat After Reports On Sexual Escapades

After being caught up in multiple sex scandals, Maine Democrat Graham Platner lashed out at the “establishment media” for reporting on his sexual escapades. 

Platner attacked the media on Sunday after reports surfaced over the weekend that he sent sexually explicit messages to other women while married and maintains an active account on Kik, a platform plagued by accusations that it enables sexual predators. The Senate hopeful’s account on Kik was uncovered by The Daily Wire and features a profile picture of a shirtless man with a towel wrapped around his waist.

“It’s no surprise to me that the establishment media outlets are just gonna run gossip instead of wanting to talk about the things that actually matter in this race, which are the material realities that the Mainers are working with,” Platner told ABC’s Portland, Maine, affiliate WMTW on Sunday. 

Platner’s Kik profile was created on June 26, 2016. The Democrat, looking to unseat Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), was almost 32 years old when he joined the app, on which an estimated 70% of users are between the ages of 13 and 24. Though the app recently required users to be 18 or older to join, for most of its history it welcomed users 13 and older. Despite those guidelines, the app still does not require official age verification.

“These people are gonna try to make this race about anything but what it’s supposed to be about, which is policy. They never want to talk about policy,” Platner said Sunday. “Amy and I have a very loving and very happy marriage. They would very much like to try to rip that apart.”

Platner also accused The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times of “journalistic malpractice” for publishing stories on the sexually explicit messages he sent to multiple women while married. He claimed the outlets “ran stories without any evidence besides the gossip from a former staffer. I’m sorry that’s, frankly, journalistic malpractice. We pushed back on it, they won it, they did it anyways.”

A Platner campaign official told The New York Times that Platner was pushing back on the number of women he explicitly messaged, not that the messages existed. 

Many Democrats are still rallying behind Platner despite the latest revelations. 

When asked if Platner passed the character test after the latest reports on his sexual escapades, Democrat Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) said he had “not followed this story as closely as others have.”

“Graham Platner is somebody that served our country. He served his community. He’s also made mistakes, and he has admitted that,” he said. “Character also involves standing up to people who are bankrupting and corrupting this country.”