A woman who dated Maine U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.
The woman, a 41-year-old Maine resident named Jenny Racicot, detailed the alleged incident to POLITICO in three interviews over the past two weeks. POLITICO also spoke with a man Racicot dated and confided in the years after the alleged incident, and reviewed documents, including emails between Racicot and her therapist and messages between Racicot and an acquaintance whom she warned against getting involved with Platner years before he ran for office.
Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner, who is now the Democratic Senate nominee in Maine, for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.
“I remember him grabbing my pelvis and being really forceful of me,” she said. “I remember the specific moment where I thought to myself, like, ‘This is no longer my choice.’”
Well this seems a lot more believable than everything in the NYT story. I was all in on Platner and still have some skepticism of this just due to the sheer amount of political ratfuckery in this country, but yeah this probably could end his campaign unless some other evidence against it comes out fast.
The timing of this, seeing some random people on Threads/Twitter say another accusation against him is coming a few hours ago, articles about how to replace a candidate in Maine ready to go right away etc., is definitely really suspicious too. This whole thing fucking sucks dude.
End his campaign and then what? Why would anyone, with the state the county is in, want Susan Collins to continue to provide a fascist vote?
Platner just isn’t going to win after this unless it’s roundly debunked. Would I still vote for him over Collins in November if I lived in Maine? Probably, but I wouldn’t be pumped about it at all anymore.
Best case scenario is he drops out and the Maine DSC nominates a new candidate who isn’t Mills.
unless it’s roundly debunked
Not possible.
And, honestly, if I were him, I’d cut a deal to just recoup costs and go home.
Nominating a new person is a loss. Platner got to where he is because he’s an outsider and charismatic. Which is what wins elections. Subbing in someone who the party establishment chooses will be neither of those things.
We’re stuck relying on that charisma and anti-establishment sentiment to blow through this. And if many other elections are anything to go by, it’s got a good chance of doing so.
Subbing in someone who the party establishment chooses will be neither of those things.
Yeah. That trick has never worked. Most recently, it didn’t work for VP Harris.
You are asking Democratic voters to overlook a credible rape allegation, we are not Republicans. It’s not going to happen, Platner is not going to win after this.
I don’t know how the Maine DSC works, but it’s not a given they’ll shit out Mills depending how they work. In my state, delegates from each caucus would vote for it, and our delegates this year were HEAVILY left-leaning (a midwestern state).
we are not Republicans.
Seems to be a lot of folk arguing we should still support Platner in here.
Denial (cope?) stage. Give it a day or two, I hope
Bill Clinton still gets a speaking slot at Democratic conventions.
That’s not a good comparison at all. People don’t vote for speakers at conventions, and Bill is very unpopular and would get decimated in any election right now even if he was 20 years younger
Source on Bill Clinton’s unpopularity? Because him speaking is only ever a minor controversy with progressives and that’s more because of his shitty third way policies that have caused a lot of harm.
He’s the 12th most popular Democrat in this YouGov poll, sandwiched between Mark Kelly and Pete Buttigieg.
Platner got to where he is because he’s an outsider and charismatic. Which is what wins elections.
Apparently so is forcibly raping people.
That’s how the accusation hits the front page, but the Not Guilty verdict is on page 16 in a year. If he comes out not-guilty, I wanna see lawsuits.
Should Platner take his own advice then?
“Holy fuck, how about people just take some responsibility for themselves and not get so fucked up they wind up having sex with someone they don’t mean to? Men and women, you make a choice to consume enough of a substance to lose your self control. So if you don’t want to be in a comprising situation, act like an adult for fucks sake.”
Should have thought of that back when Platner’s giant red flags were first flown, i.e. from the beginning of his run, when there was still plenty of time to find a better candidate. But no, he had the charisma to suck everyone in, so it was deny, delay, and defend, up to now at the last minute when the evidence has, as it obviously and inevitably would, piled up to undeniable level and everyone is screwed again. smh. He can’t win now no matter what.
Why do you think someone with a blue tie has to vote blue all the time? Do you think it’s a magic tie?
We know how Susan Collins votes. We don’t need to speculate what her winning will do.
And we know how fascists vote, and its not along party lines. The ‘Military History buff’ who ‘didn’t know he had a nazi tattoo,’ the ‘innocent reformed soldier’ who fucking served in Abu Grahib during all the torture, then couldn’t get enough of killing civilians so he joined Blackwater, probably isn’t going to vote dem regardless of what happens.
Someone having a D next to their name does not magically make them vote the way you want them to, they have no legal or constitutional requirement to do so. Recalls take 2/3rds of a state legislature to vote on it. That’s never going to happen even the bluest of states.
You think the Nazi rapist won’t end up casting fascist votes?
I think you’re delusional about the Nazi part and well, being a drunken abuser sucks but it’s not going to be as bad as being a known fascist supporter.
If you really want Susan Collins to win, I don’t think you have a moral leg to stand on with respect to literally anything else. She’s voted for things a million times worse.
How many signs do you need? It’s comical at this point, you’re like the West World robots “doesn’t look like anything to me”
Oh I’m delusional about the obvious Nazi tattoos this rapist was sporting? Me? I’m the delusional one?
Hahahahahahahaha
Yeah I really wanted to believe that Platner was better than he seemed.
I’m sad to have my expectations met :(
He was a “military history buff” who had no idea what a totenkopf was but miraculously had one on his chest for decades. And he joined fucking Blackwater as a merc. The only thing he had going for him was he said a few good things about health insurance. Oh, and he had no political history at all so there was no track record of him doing anything other than “being an oyster farmer” with his family money.
So many of us were pointing out he was an even shittier version of fetterman (who also had massive red flags everyone chose to ignore). None of this is a surprise.
People supported Platner despite his red flags because he’s an outsider. Which as you already pointed out, it’s exactly how Fetterman got in. There are plenty of candidates who got in who lived a regular life. Plenty of people don’t have pasts as sordid as this guy. I can’t imagine running at all knowing he has so many skeletons.
What is especially frustrating is that one of the other people in the primary basically had a very similar platform AND was also a military vet. But she was a she so of course the podcast bros didn’t care.
I get that this is maine so “drain the swamp” probably WAS a smart play but… holy fuck there were so many red flags.
And he had a LOT of support from establishment Democrats since at least January of this year. Which is another thing he and other “outsiders” have in common, I guess.
No real winning outcome on this. A guy with a credible SA allegation doesn’t deserve to be a Senator, we don’t deserve another term of Susan Collins or a Republican majority in Congress. I just don’t think a replacement for Platner is beating Collins
He should have never been chosen to run against Collins. Everyone looked past the Nazi tattoo, the sexist and racist comments, and the other sexual assault allegations and now here we are.
So, off the top of my head:
- Did a tour at Abu Ghraib (yes, THAT Abu Ghraib), decided that wasn’t enough, and signed up to Blackwater
- Brags about how he ignored the rules to fire grenades into civilian centers
- Had a fucking totenkopf (see: Are We The Baddies?) on his chest for decades
- Replaced it with a REALLY sketchy “celtic” tattoo
- Fucking rapist
What next will the evil opposition make up about this wonderful and heroic leftist?
I love living in America where our choices always seem to be this fucking guy or this fucking guy plus corruption and corporate boot licking… It’s so fucking wonderful that out of 400 million fucking people, these are the people we end up with…
The “good” news is that this is not a uniquely American problem. You just aren’t paying attention to other countries’ elections.
That said? The key, like in almost all things, is to work with your local party. Folk deeply underestimate the value of having someone in the room (when the cameras are off) saying “Can we maybe not explicitly endorse genocide?” or “People want their tax dollars to go to something that matters”. The DSA have finally started to realize that and it is doing wonders. Find the locals who actually would be good candidates and push them in the primaries. And… it gets more than a bit sketchy, but there are also efforts to “import” candidates to some districts with the goal of running them after they “put down roots” for a year or three.
The problem is that people don’t want to do that. MAYBE they’ll send a text but they expect The Party to provide exactly what they want with no prodding. And, to be fair, for a lot of the most basic of things… the Democrats really shouldn’t need to be told. But that leads to people like platner. Borderline sociopaths who just want power who will come out of nowhere, flash some cash, say words they know will get the influencers to talk about them, and win.
Like… it isn’t THAT WKUK skit, but https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtJuiTAR29E kinda sums things up.
Don’t forget wanting to not do anything about the bloated military budget, but instead spend it on just ship building
Wonder what all of the people calling us purity-testing republican plants for seeing the blatant signs he was a piece of shit have to say now
They’re going to ask why this woman is coming forward now and cast doubt on her claims.
They’re already doing it in this thread.
Oh yeah, we’re going to see a lot of Dems and leftists doing the thing they swear only Republicans do.
my decision to use the block and report buttons at the drop of a coin keeps paying dividends.
Ever since all the KHive and facebook moma moved in bluesky has been unlivable
deleted by creator
If you read the article, she explains why.
But you’d rather cast doubt than take a few minutes to read the context.
Racicot previously described “reckless” and “unsettling” behavior by Platner to The New York Times, but says she didn’t go public with the specific assault claim because she didn’t want to be known as a rape victim.
Racicot said she later felt compelled to go public about her experience because the reaction to the Times story was dominated by controversy about another woman, Lyndsey Fifield, who alleged Platner mistreated her and faced attacks because of her ties to the Republican Party. (Contacted by POLITICO, Fifield stood by the allegations she made to the Times and declined to comment further.)
“My part of the story was just a read-over,” Racicot said in an interview. “And the story was Lyndsey, and the accusations of her being politically motivated.”
Racicot said she was torn over coming forward in part because she agrees with Platner politically.
I think you’ll notice I deleted my comment once I saw that. And also I wasn’t casting doubt. I believe her. And I supplied a possible reason that, as it turns out, was her reason.
Saying you aren’t casting doubt when you are in fact casting doubt doesn’t negate it.
Thanks for deleting your comment and reading the context.
Saying you aren’t casting doubt when you are in fact casting doubt doesn’t negate it.
Ah yes, the black and white fallacy. A sneaky version of it, but it’s here nonetheless.
I think explaining the opposing viewpoint and then disagreeing with it is a useful rhetorical tool. It is far more likely to convince someone they are wrong if you are able to state their position clearly and accurately. Saying, “I can understand why someone might doubt this person because of this reason,” and then saying, “I don’t doubt them, here is a possible answer” is more useful than just shitting on people.
That’s easy for you to say with your comment deleted.
You were casting doubt and there was a reason you deleted your comment when I pointed that out. I was sincerely thanking you for deleting your comment.
Sigh. Is it really this difficult to find a decent person in Maine to run for office as a Democrat? Jesus fucking Christ.
I mean… you know that SNL joke about “This is the part of New York that still flies the confederate flag”? Maine is basically an entire state of Upstate New York.
Some of the candidates in the primary actually did seem a lot better. But… rich white blackwater rapist is gonna be hard to beat. Wouldn’t be overly shocked if they decide to stay in with a mix of “fake news” and “she was dressed like a slut”.
Being a leftist is a lot like pointing to a dead canary in a coal mine and having everyone around you say ‘well that could mean anything!’ but it turns out it was the most probable thing the whole time. It also means saying ‘man I would have loved to be wrong’ a whole hell of a lot.
Welp, I guess we’ll be getting a fascist then.
As if the choices weren’t between two fascists…
The dude had Nazi tattoos. We were going to get a fascists already.
Maybe now we actually won’t.
It’s just that difficult to find someone who hasn’t raped people before apparently.
Primaries are over.
And everyone who brought up concerns before the primaries were over got shouted down to stop purity testing.
They’ve got shit on their face now
And they don’t care.
I’ve increasingly come to realize it is the mix of the cosplayers who just wanted to keep a nazi on the card and… the idiots are hellbent on getting revenge for 2024. They are mad that the DNC didn’t find a way to fit a full national primary in when Biden fucked us over by stepping down like 5 months before the general election so OBVIOUSLY “their” candidate should stick around because “there isn’t time to find a new candidate”… almost a year prior to the primary.
Now we know why Platner postponed a bunch of events this week.
The nazi war criminal is also a rapist?
Who knew. Who could have predicted that maybe, just maybe, the far-right would implant someone who is able to keep their mouth shut on their real beliefs long enough to spew out vaguely progressive and left wing points?
What a shocker, right?
The last time I had to vote in a federal election between a Republican and a Democrat man with sexual assault allegations, I was getting scolded and yelled at by Democrats on the internet for considering abstaining. So just in case those scolds are still around, I recommend still voting Platner.
Still around, yes people should still vote blue.
Last time I checked, Collins didn’t rape anyone.
It’s a bad choice between the two admittedly, but I’ll side eye anyone who votes Platner after being real cheeky about the Epstein files.
This was a cynical reference to Biden 2020, I don’t think it’s a stretch to assume that the money behind Planter oppo research that lands in the NYTimes is the same money that was behind Biden. Not that I don’t find the SA allegations against both men credible, I certainly do.
It’s just that only one of the Maine candidates has a long and well-documented track record of voting for fascist policies that have negatively affected millions of women. They’re a known quantity, verifiably and provably awful.
Side eyes from anyone wouldn’t stop me from making what I felt was the less harmful choice, but I’m not a Maine resident.
Biden did not have credible allegations against him
I’m sick of those on the left pretending to be champions of women’s rights in general. Y’all don’t give a fuck clearly. Platner is your man through and through, it’s all the fucking same all the way through, blue or red, left or right.
Our rape culture is out of fucking control.
So what are you advocating for then? Voters abstain? Voters pick Collins?
Sorry I understand the outrage but is it just too much for someone to admit they’d make a weighed choice between two bad options? What’s missing?
I’m expressing frustration at how prevalent rape is in our government. That simply being a rapist isn’t enough to derail a political campaign.
As far as what we do moving forward? I don’t know. How do we stop putting up people with Nazi tattoos and rape allegations as primary candidates? Why didn’t we take his past allegations seriously?
Yeah I get you then. It’s maddening.
I think most realistically, the path to evicting sexual assault from government is to get the parties themselves to enact background checks on their anointed candidates, and no-excuses dismissals of those credibly accused. That includes not looking back at Al Franken with regret.
Ironically they won’t do that because of the nature of power, so you have to replace them from the outside.
Which is a rocky road because as we’re seeing, outsiders certainly are not and will never be held to such standards either.
Which is a rocky road because as we’re seeing, outsiders certainly are not and will never be held to such standards either.
More and more I believe we simply don’t have standards. If leftists are willing to look away when it comes to rape, what standards do they have over those on the right?
Why do women have to continue to sacrifice for the greater good to allow a rapist to be elected because he’s anti-fascist?
These are rhetorical questions, not necessarily directed at you. This was an entirely predictable scenario to come up and I’m mad that the left continued to infight about purity testing around this when we could just NOT CHOOSE RAPISTS PLEASE, for fucks sake.
Thanks for understanding where I was coming from with that previous comment.
I would personally never vote for Susan Collins.
I’d just sit out before doing that.
I’d rather sit out than vote for either at this point myself.
It is sickening the amount of justification for electing a rapist I am seeing here.
Ok, so you’re literally a fascist supporter.
I’m morally against electing rapist Nazis.
EXACTLY! I’d MUCH rather Vote for the Woman who Indirectly Killed MILLIONS OF AMERICAN CHILDREN INSTEAD of the Man Republicans keep accusing of Rape!
You think the man who was a mercenary contract killer didn’t kill children?
So she chose not to come forward till after the primary???
Racicot previously described “reckless” and “unsettling” behavior by Platner to The New York Times, but says she didn’t go public with the specific assault claim because she didn’t want to be known as a rape victim.
Racicot said she later felt compelled to go public about her experience because the reaction to the Times story was dominated by controversy about another woman, Lyndsey Fifield, who alleged Platner mistreated her and faced attacks because of her ties to the Republican Party. (Contacted by POLITICO, Fifield stood by the allegations she made to the Times and declined to comment further.)
“My part of the story was just a read-over,” Racicot said in an interview. “And the story was Lyndsey, and the accusations of her being politically motivated.”
Racicot said she was torn over coming forward in part because she agrees with Platner politically.
We all chose not to believe Lyndsey Fifield because she’s conservative.
That’s a perfectly good reason to not believe someone. Conservatives lie. Regularly and with glee. Especially when it will benefit them politically. It’s ok to treat politically beneficial claims from conservative operatives as likely lies.
Well she was fucking right this time.
Someone being truthful once doesn’t mean they are trustworthy or should have been trusted. If conservative operatives wanted to be given good faith they shouldn’t have spent their entire career gleefully abusing it. It’s perfectly fine to require exceptional proof from known liars.
Well this woman is not conservative. Are you going to believe her more?
Yes.
Maybe read the fucking article where that is addressed?
I did.
I also know that politico was bought by a right wing company controlled by this guy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathias_Döpfner#Politics_and_activismWho describes himself as “non-Jewish Zionist”
Döpfner has been described as a “close associate of Netanyahu.”
So yes, i am skeptical of the timing of this. And so should you be.
Love it how we on the left say “support the victims until proven otherwise.” Yet when it is time for action on those words
“Erm actshually this is kinda sus. Should we really believe this chick? She is trying to mess up a good thing for us here guys.”
Nevermind this absolute monster of a candidate that went to Iraq 5 times. One of which as a merc for blackwater. Is it really such a logical leap from torturing iraqis to raping women? He probably pulled this heinous shit there too. But remember everyone, only american women are people that deserve to be treated as such. That’s why we care only now.
Also love the “non-jewish zionist” point about politico. When platner’s step brother (seth frantzman, his father is married to platner’s mother) is literally a zionist through and through. Maybe you should do a little more research before being “skeptical”. (Bonus points if you can find the sticker that shows how remorsful he is about blackwater on his fridge. Pic taken august 2023)
https://sethfrantzman.com/ (seth frantzman’s very own website!)
https://www.amazon.com/October-War-Israels-Battle-Security/dp/B0DBF4WJRF (frantzman’s own zionist book on october 7th. He also gave a presentation on his other book “drone wars” for aipac)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LG1eR9wxzhs (frantzman directly talking about his history reporting and following the idf)
https://search.pullpush.io/?author=p-hustle&subreddit=usmc&type=comment&q=kill&sort_type=created_utc&sort=desc&before=1578009600&after=1577836800. (Archive of platners post about loving killing iraqis)
If you didn’t know this before, you obviously didn’t look hard enough. Platner should’ve been ditched immediately when he put his name in the running.
Just because Platner has a history of stupid, doesn’t mean people can’t conspire against him. I would not be surprised if both the accusation, and the defense, were both true. But that doesn’t mean we should just swallow whatever a bias media spoon feeds us. Skepticism is always warranted.
Kind of like how even paranoid people have enemies.
Fake news
A) believe all women.
B) Maybe she didn’t want a traumatic experience public until there was no other choice to keep her assaulter out of office and out of power?
Racicot previously described “reckless” and “unsettling” behavior by Platner to The New York Times, but says she didn’t go public with the specific assault claim because she didn’t want to be known as a rape victim.
That’s exactly one of the reasons why she didn’t come forward sooner.
The Dems and those on the left all collectively rejected Lyndsey Fifield’s accusation against Platner. I hope we don’t treat this woman the same.
It makes me sad knowing how controversial the statement ‘believe all women’ is on this site.
This place is REAL reddit-y in the ways that matter.
This scandal proves again democrats don’t care anymore than republicans do about sexual assault on women despite their pretenses.
Have this user tagged tankie both sideser lol.
Platner likely to step down and many have retracted endorsements.
Actually proving the opposite: Dems hold themselves to a much higher standard.
Same cannot be said for GOP President and rapist and pedophile they all continue to support in lockstep. Sit the fuck down.
Look into the comments on these they are people defending him still and I’m no “tankie” whatever you think that means.
If it was a binary choice between he and Collins who continues to simp for a rapist pedophile and promote atrocious actions like the Iran war, or enabling revocation of USAID that has already led to the death of thousands of children, yes I’m voting Platner who is only accused, not convicted. This is the logical and ethical thing to do.
I’m calling bs. Smells like a coordinated effort to reëlect Collins. Convenient timing.
platner seems to have a LOT of those coordinated effforts put out against him. Like a whole new controversy every month it feels like. I especially hated the one where those evil establishment Democrats got him drunk twenty years ago, tattooed a nazi symbol onto him, and then got him drunk every single for almost twenty years since so that he wouldn’t know it was there until it was too late!
Also
Believe women. Except when it would be inconvenient to me. Then they are all liars out for sperm
Believe women.
