ME-SEN: Platner Denies Reports About Sexually-Explicit Texts

[RandySF]

Graham Platner (D) “struck a defiant posture on Sunday in response to reports that he had sent sexual messages to women outside his marriage, accusing a former aide of false claims and news outlets of ‘journalistic malpractice,’” the New York Times reports.

Asked by reporters whether they were true, he said: “No. This is the amazing part. The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times ran stories without any evidence besides the gossip from a former staffer. I’m sorry, that’s — that’s frankly journalistic malpractice. We pushed back on it.”

CNN: “CNN has not independently confirmed the existence of the text messages. CNN did verify that an account on the messaging app Kik appears to belong to Platner. The account, under the username ‘phustle0331,’ features a profile photo showing Platner shirtless in a bathroom with a towel on his waist and uses a handle similar to ones on his since-deleted Reddit account and a now-deleted Instagram account.”



https://politicalwire.com/2026/06/01/platner-denies-reports-about-sexually-explicit-texts/

[chelsea0011]

1. Meanwhile....

Paxton gets meeting with Thune while House leader Jeffries shits on Platner. It never changes.

[harumph]

2. Amazing isn't it?

Circular firing squad.

[Quiet Em]

7. What are you talking about?

I don't believe Jeffries has ever said anything about Graham Platner. Why would he?

[betsuni]

11. When and what did Jeffries say? I searched and found nothing. Could you tell us?

[chelsea0011]

13. He was on news this morning

Ny

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. His wife told the campaign these texts existed and the campaign confirmed it to reporters. Is he calling them liars?

[RandySF]

4. And now the kik profile is starting to percolate. .

[mcar]

5. So he's calling his wife a liar?

[karynnj]

6. Do he and his wife talk?

How do you square his denial with her video yesterday? The only think I can think of is that there were messages but the couple differ on their characterization.

[krawhitham]

8. Asked if he was confirming that the messages do not exist, he answered

“I’m confirming that what Genevieve McDonald said in The New York Times is not true.”

That's not technically denying the sexually-explicit texts exist, just saying

So yesterdays plan was to confirm the text story? You have his wife's video plus his campaign flat out confirming them yesterday

And what, today's plan is to scream fake news and hope it blows over?


Welcome to the Streisand effect

[RandySF]

9. The Times also confirmed the texts with a current campaign staffer.

[Nixie]

10. There it is. If he knowingly will misrepresent the sexts that his

own wife brought up, then he is capable of knowingly misrepresenting his tattoo. Red flags again. What else is being misrepresented.

[MineralMan]

12. Hmm...I wonder how the Mainers are looking at this.

Maybe they'll re-elect Susan Collins. That'd be great, eh? Maybe she'll consider voting with the Democratic Caucus in the Senate...again....

Anyone from Maine care to comment?

[ColoringFool]

14. Are you from Maine?

[MineralMan]

15. Nope. It's one of two states

I've never visited.

[chelsea0011]

16. Many of us want Collins gone

Collins has the worst smear campaign going with the OACS controlling the narrative. But, that’s what Republicans do up here. Maine is the whitest state in the union but to watch ads up here you would think we are being run over by people of color committing every crime imaginable. It is one Willie Horton ad after another. Platner hasn’t committed any crime. His wife stands by him. Let’s here about issues which Collins will have to confront after primaries.

[MineralMan]

17. She's awful.

I hope you're able to retire her!

[MorbidButterflyTat]

18. When he "struck a defiant posture"

was he wearing just a bath towel around his waist?