AnnaBanana

Platner: If you are an independent voice, why do you vote with Donald Trump 95% of the time? Susan Collins is only bipartisan when it doesn't matter

Platner: The national pundits, the political establishment, they keep looking for that one story, that one headline, that one moment in my life that they can define the campaign by. But in trying so hard to understand me, they failed to understand that this is not about me at all. This is a movement about us.

I think Democrats and others are being terribly naïve about Graham Platner. I would like them to be less naïve, even if they are in the camp of "Okay, let's take this poison pill." Okay, take the poison pill. But be very careful. First, there is the documented pattern of lying across a variety of topics. -He lied to the New Yorker about receiving a VA loan for his house -He lied about having to go to Prep School because his local school wasn't accredited -He lies repeatedly in speeches about how he earns his income. "I earn my living at the sea." He draws no wages from his business. Just these facts alone indicate: treat this guy with kid gloves. He could be lying about a whole lot more. And, yes, he also lied about knowing whether he had a Totenkopf. Multiple people have said he knew. And there is objective, visual evidence in the form of a text message from his ex-girlfriend saying, "He has a Nazi tattoo" from August, 2025. As well as his own history of commenting on Nazi insignia. There are other possible domains where he looks like he *could* be lying. He told the NYT that the mortgage loan he got from his dad was at a higher rate than he would have gotten from a bank. That sounds fishy. Then there's the fact that he's ostensibly re-paying his father for that loan with VA benefits. Instead of having taken out a loan from the VA itself, which, again, he claimed to have done. GOP is also asking other questions about his income. Why he draws no wages. The re-investment/tax structure of his business. The nature of his disability claim + the amount he receives per month. Now let's take the allegations of violence against women. Try to be dispassionate. The allegations could be true or could be false. A lot of focus has rightfully been on the most serious allegation: domestic violence, against Lyndsey Fifield, occurring between 2013 and 2016. There is another allegation of problematic behavior: that Platner showed up drunk at Jenny Racicot's home in 2021, after she specifically told him not to come. So, if the allegations are true, this is a time range of at least 9 years. In 2024, Jenny Racicot also posted to a facebook group "Are we dating the same guy?" Multiple women replied to that post indicating problematic behavior towards women, after Platner was married. At the very least: cheating. Then there's the KIK profile, which runs up to the current moment. The extra-marital texting with ~12 different women. So, that's proof he lied to his wife. Graham Platner is untrustworthy; demonstrably so. He has lied to reporters, lied to his wife, lied to other women, and also lied directly to voters. All of that is concrete and demonstrable, whatever you think of the abuse claim. He also arguably lacks impulse control. He tells lies that are easily disproven; sexts outside of marriage with multiple women, etc. Just the lying about why he went to Prep school, the VA loan, how he makes a living, & a variety of other issues looks pathological in nature. If he lies about all this, what else does he lie about? Why would he say the VA gave him a loan when they didn't? Why would he lie and say he HAD to go to Prep school because the public school was not accredited? Why tell those specific lies? Add to that: "Susan Collins sent me to war," when we know that he wanted to go to war. From 2011 to 2020, he said, multiple times, that he wanted to go to war and had no regrets. These lies all go in a very specific persona-building direction. Don't trust a guy like that. In terms of the allegations. Again, maybe they're true and maybe they're false. But there is enough "there there" to be cautious, at the very least, particularly in combination with the observed pathological lying. Allegations from 2013-2015; then allegations from 2021. Did anything else happen in between? After? And, if there is a pathology to this, will anything else happen if he's elected Senator? Pathological people don't just "stop." You add what looks like compulsive cheating on top of that. . .well. . . A final note. Platner has repeatedly said: "Nothing else will come out" and then something comes out. So, that's a real reason for caution. Also: Platner's campaign manager threatened his previous campaign manager with a smear campaign. "If you tell the truth, I will destroy you," essentially. That is a sign of tremendously bad character. It's also a sign that warrants even more caution: Has anyone else been threatened into silence? I understand the consequentialist arguments re: Platner vs. Collins in a binary race re: the judiciary. But don't be naïve. Even if you hand-wave away the alleged violence against women (which, gross), there's still all the other lying. Don't ever assume a demonstrated liar is *now* telling the truth because he tells you so. He still had the KIK profile 10 days ago. That behavior is less problematic than the abuse allegation, but it's still an objective demonstration of dishonesty and an arguable demonstration of compulsive behavior (sexting multiple women while married). If you naïvely tie yourself to a person like that, they will bring you down with them. And, please, don't change your definitions of what constitutes violence or harm against women based on a man with this profile. That's harmful in and of itself. But, worse, what if more comes out? What if he does something while he is a Senator? How's that going to look for you? How will it look for the Democratic party?

Graham Platner: “The fact that Jeff Bezos exists and the fact that I know someone in Sullivan who works three jobs and pays 60% of her monthly income in rent, those two things are directly connected. There is no metric of hard work that justifies a billionaire when people in Eastern Maine work three jobs just to put food on the table”