Top Platner ally turns on him after bombshell rape allegation rocks campaign: 'Red line'
Support for embattled Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner is cratering among Democrats, with one of his most prominent supporters calling on him to exit the race following a harrowing rape...
By Fox News · Fox News
Support for embattled Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner is cratering among Democrats, with one of his most prominent supporters calling on him to exit the race following a harrowing rape allegation. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., rescinded his endorsement and called on Platner to suspend his campaign following a bombshell Politico report detailing a rape allegation by Maine resident Jenny Racicot, 41, who previously dated the scandal-plagued candidate. Platner immediately denied Racicot's account — which alleges that he barged into her home in 2021 and forced her to have unprotected sex — but has said his campaign is determining its next steps. "I’ve been very clear that sexual assault or violence against women is a red line," Khanna said in a post on social media Monday evening. "These allegations are very serious and credible. Graham Platner should drop out from the race. I am withdrawing my endorsement." DEMOCRATS BREAK WITH SCANDAL-PLAGUED GRAHAM PLATNER, WARN OF 'CIVIL WAR' IN PARTY The blistering statement comes as Khanna, a far-left populist with likely presidential ambitions, had embraced Platner's insurgent Senate campaign for months amid a patchwork of controversies. Khanna personally campaigned with the Maine Senate hopeful in June shortly before Platner won the Democratic primary nomination. The campaign stop came just one day after Lyndsey Fifield, a former Platner girlfriend, accused Platner of abuse — an allegation first reported by The New York Times that Platner has fiercely denied. By that point, Platner was also facing scrutiny for sending sexually explicit messages to at least half a dozen women while married, making a plethora of offensive online statements over the period of a decade and getting a Nazi-linked tattoo that he wore for most of his adult life. Khanna previously appeared to dismiss the severity of Fifield’s account alongside many Democratic lawmakers, who seized on her background in Republican politics. He also argued that Platner,…