California Rep. Ro Khanna has again said he believes the women who have accused Maine Democrat Graham Platner of physical roughness or mistreatment, even as he continues to support Platner’s campaign.
Khanna, a Democrat who was among Platner’s early supporters, argued that the oyster farmer deserves a chance at redemption while emphasizing his broader priority: helping Democrats capture 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 said during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday.”
The California lawmaker also pointed to Platner’s military service, noting that he served multiple tours in Iraq and later returned home with PTSD.
“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,” Khanna said.
Platner, however, has disputed some of the most serious allegations against him, including claims that he was physically rough. He has acknowledged, more broadly, that he was a bad boyfriend in the past.
Several women have publicly described past experiences with Platner. Among them is Lyndsey Fifield, who alleged that he was physical with her.
Fifield claimed that in one incident, Platner pulled her out of a cab by the wrists. She also alleged that on another occasion, he twisted her arm behind her back and locked her in a room.
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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.
