Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner rejects new allegations of abusive behavior

Graham Platner at an event in Ogunquit, Maine in October. The new claims prompted fresh calls for Platner to withdrawn from next week’s Democratic primary. Photograph: Sophie Park/Getty View image in fullscreen Graham Platner at an event in Ogunquit, Maine in October. The new claims prompted fresh calls for Platner to withdrawn from next week’s Democratic primary. Photograph: Sophie Park/Getty Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner rejects new allegations of abusive behavior Platner says claims in New York Times article of physical misconduct and offensive remarks ‘politically motivated’ Graham Platner, a Democratic candidate for the US Senate , has rejected an explosive new report about his treatment of women, insisting that allegations of abusive behavior are “politically motivated”. Platner, a progressive running for election in Maine, was responding to a New York Times article published on Thursday that included an interview with a Republican operative who accused him of womanizing, physical misconduct and making troubling comments about rape. The claims prompted fresh calls for Platner, 41, who has faced scrutiny over past social media posts and a tattoo recognized as a Nazi symbol, to withdraw from next week’s Democratic primary in Maine , though he gave no hint of doing so. The New York Times said its report was based on interviews with more than two dozen people including Lyndsey Fifield, 40, whom the paper described as “a Virginia conservative who has worked for right-leaning groups and Republican campaigns”. According to the newspaper, Fifield dated Platner from about 2013 to 2015 and found him “cavalierly contemptuous” of women, adding that his offensive online posts “reminded me of just how much he hated women”. In a 2016 diary entry, she described him as “the most toxic literally abusive man on earth who destroyed my life”. In the article, Fifield alleged that Platner frequently grabbed her by the shoulders and once yanked her out of a taxi by her wrist. “During one argument, she recalled, he twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a bedroom and held the door closed from the other side so she couldn’t get out, telling her to remain there until she was ‘calm’.” The Times noted that Platner “strongly disputes” any claims of physical intimidation or altercations, and said it could not independently corroborate Fifield’s account of them. Fifield further recalled that Platner would sharpen an axe while watching TV, and left an AR-15 lying around in his Washington apartment. She said he described women as “hatchet wounds”, a crude reference to female anatomy, and repeatedly asserted, “If anybody ever broke in here, I would rape them,” adding that this would not be in “a sexual way, not in a gay way”. Fifield told the paper: “He was like, I would rape them to show them that I’m dominant.” Fifield also cast doubt on Platner’s claim that he was unaware that his tattoo was a Nazi symbol until it became the center of controversy last ye