This week we do our podcast a bit early, due to the explosive new scandal in Maine’s U.S. Senate race. Graham Platner has now been accused of sexual assault by a former on-again off-again girlfriend, Jenny Racicot.
According to Politico:
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.’”
This is a story that was reiterated in a personal interview with Jake Tapper of CNN which aired shortly after the Politico story dropped.
While Platner had survived prior scandals — from tattoos to internet trolling to prior abusive relationships with women — this one is different. Support for him among the Democratic establishment collapsed (finally) Monday, with the DSCC, Maine Democratic Party, national progressive allies like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and local Maine politicians all calling on him to drop out. Platner, for his part, said that he would be “taking time to reflect” about the best path forward.
We reflect on how things got to this point, and what happens next for Platner. If he does drop out, there is already a mad dash of candidates throwing their hat into the ring to run in his place. Which among them is the most likely? We discuss.
We also talk about what has happened to our politics and our society that it took this long to ultimately end the Platner candidacy.
All this and more on this week’s Pine Tree Pulse podcast.
