cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/62988948
A woman who dated Maine U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.
The woman, a 41-year-old Maine resident named Jenny Racicot, detailed the alleged incident to POLITICO in three interviews over the past two weeks. POLITICO also spoke with a man Racicot dated and confided in the years after the alleged incident, and reviewed documents, including emails between Racicot and her therapist and messages between Racicot and an acquaintance whom she warned against getting involved with Platner years before he ran for office.
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.’”
I believe her. It sucks that I agree with his politics, but get him the fuck out of the race, and into a prison cell.
Can someone please explain why this particular race is getting so much attention?
Like I’m seeing a lot of people point to Graham Platner specifically as evidence that working class Americans cannot take back the DNC from the Epstien-billionare class.
I don’t understand why this particular race has become so front and center.
It’s probably the most contested race between Democrats and Republicans in the Senate. If there’s any hope of Democrats taking the Senate, Maine is a must-get. The race was always going to me important regardless of the candidate.
Add to that that Platner’s rise there is a direct challenge to the centrist political philosophy and that’s why there’s so much money going after him (not saying this woman isn’t telling the truth). If Platner’s progressive messaging could win in a purple state, then the idea that the Democrats need to moderate to win outside of deep blue areas is proven wrong.
If Platner’s progressive messaging could win in a purple state, then the idea that the Democrats need to moderate to win outside of deep blue areas is proven wrong.
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Right now the centrist machine claims leftist politics (part of which is cutting funding for Israel) only works in deep blue states so centrism and all the money flowing into it is still the strategy to win elections. Platner win in Maine puts a grenade in the mouth of the machine. Once that nade explodes, we’re gonna see a whole lot more leftist challengers all over the place. And that would be a big material problem for the ruling class as taxes will be next.
The one-two punch of Mamdani showing that progressive policies can actually be implemented to improve people’s lives and Platner showing that unabashed progressive policy can win battleground states would be devastating to them.
Who knows what’s going to happen with Platner now, but he is definitely a huge threat to shitty centrist politics.
My bet - heartfelt apology, like he did before, then pedal to the metal on that red hot communism! He’s gonna put this at the feet of the corporate political machine which wants to keep Mainers from having free healthcare, etc. And I think it’s going to work.
Nah, he’s cooked this time. Many of his high profile supporters who stuck with him through the previous allegations are currently retracting their endorsements on Twitter. He’s done.
High profile supporters aren’t what win races.
No but they are a strong indicator of the way the wind is blowing. The Maine Democrats organization has just also called for him to stand down and the pressure is quickly mounting.
Soon the pressure to drop out will be so strong, his base will splinter and he won’t have a choice but to concede. It’s looking pretty much inevitable at this point.
Honestly, I do think he can just power through this. Charisma and the election being about bigger things will get people to just forget about stuff they don’t really want to think about. The visceral emotional anger against him would need to last for months and that just hasn’t been how people tend to respond to misdeeds by politicians.
puts a grenade in the mouth of the machine.
I get you’re new to rhetorics, but the metaphor is:
a straw on the gears
’Cause last time I read, this populist Senator wasn’t campaigning on rearming his constituency. There’s no grenades, only straws to the grinder.
Part of it is that this IS a very important race. It is a genuine chance to unseat collins and is a big part of the effort to… probably still not flip the senate but get it to within the range where even one republican caring about remaining electable can stop a vote.
But mostly it kind of became a flashpoint in the Democratic party itself. platner is a laughably horrible candidate. Like, if he were a character on The Simpsons or South Park, it would be deemed as unbelievable. But his populist platform means he is saying stuff that gets online leftists clicks so the podcast bros LOVE him and establishment Democrats kinda glommed on to. So… every single time some other horrifying revelation about the blackwater nazi comes out, it becomes a huge controversy about how everyone is out to stop the leftists and blah blah blah blah blah.
And then… people realize it isn’t just bernie supporting him but a lot of other Democrats and we kinda remember why there was so little push by the Democratic party to actually act on the epstein files and… yeah.
And I think conservatives (and tankies) have realized this is a great way to undermine all the great work the DSA et al have been doing. Who cares about AOC or Tlaib or Mamdani or any other genuinely inspiring candidate. Here is a nazi rapist who got bored standing guard at Abu Ghraib and decided to join blackwater.
Wait so is bro an actual nazi?
I’m Canadian and I’m pretty tapped out trying to keep up with the USA anymore. Basically accepted that the next 10-20 of the USA is going to be the type of shit I tell kids around the barrel-stove while the more able bodied adults hunt radroaches
He’s not, people scraped his reddit history and the worst they found was some typical ex-military grunt angst and some meat head talk. Nothing anywhere close to nazi-ism. The tattoo was a bad choice but it’s very obvious to anyone who does even 5 minutes of research into him that he’s not. He’s pro-LGBT, believes in supporting minorities, is anti-authoritarian and wants to cut military spending. But leftists hate nazis so the billionaire media is paying big bucks to get leftists to hate him.
He’s not. Some people here are nutty and think everyone recognizes a specific skull and bones as a third rate Nazi symbol and then instead of saying or doing Nazi shit throughout their lives or running for the party that embraces Nazis, would instead keep their Nazi ideology secret, but still keep the tattoo, and run on progressive political messaging to challenge someone who’s already been letting the Nazis do whatever they want.
It’s a really daft theory.
everyone recognizes a specific skull and bones as a third rate Nazi symbol
Literally the symbol from the “are we the bad guys?” sketch.
20 some odd years ago, during his “service” (can’t be arsed to check if it was while he was a guard at Abu Ghraib during the tortrure and sexual assault or afterwards when he joined Blackwater as a merc…) he got a “skull” tattoo on his chest. A tattoo that just happened to be a totenkopf: One of the bigger symbols of nazi germany and basically the logo of the SS. He would spend the next two decades insisting he had no idea what it was (even though he was a self proclaimed “military history buff” and a pretty regular user of reddit where Mitchell and Webb’s “Are We The Baddies” skit/memes are common…) until he finally removed it last year… and replaced it with celtic imagery associated with white supremacy.
So he walks like a nazi, oppresses non-whites like a nazi, and tattoos his skin like a nazi. And while one can argue that “death’s heads” are common in predominantly white militaries around the world… does it matter?
Just want to point out he did not spend twenty years pretending he didn’t know what his tattoo was. He spent like the last two or three years doing that. Before he reportedly was open about it. He’s just a liar about his nazi tattoo lately.
Well at least this is coming out now. Warning signs have been there the whole time. Nazi tattoo that he continually lies about, worked for Blackwater, marine, misogynistic language, troubling fascist coded rhetoric, etc… He needs to drop out now cause he’s sunk, him staying in guarantees a Collins win. Hopefully they find someone else quick.
He also posted this video on twitter https://x.com/grahamformaine/status/2074214272628916296
So it sounds like he is dropping out of the race
I didn’t get that impression from that video.
The timing of this smells. Sounds like billionaire propaganda to me. How did he get in her home? Did she file a police report? Who in the Epstein files has been arrested?
shit heels like you are why people don’t report their rapes.
She could have reported him for breaking & entering and there’s nothing personal about reporting that. But, no, no. Let’s wait for years and years, until it’s politically convenient for the billionaire Epstein class and almost impossible to defend yourself. That’s my issue. Always the same pattern, over and over.
I want you to go talk to an actual woman in your life (assuming any will talk with you), and complain to her about this. Perhaps your mother will smack some sense into you.
Thank you for standing up against this victim blaming in these comment threads.
Most rapes go unreported and even when they do authorities don’t follow through or simply don’t believe the victim.
So that makes it okay to bring it up years later when it’s politically convenient for people supporting an actual known, documented pedophile? No double standards here.
And how are you any different from the people supporting Trump? You’re as willing to downplay your guy’s sexual predation as they are theirs?
I dunno man. Does rape sound like the kind of thing a war criminal would do?
I’ll take my answer off the air.Why are there two standards? One for Democrats, one for Republicans. Paxton got caught IRL with a new mistress. But somehow that’s less significant than an incident that happened years ago that’s pretty sketchy in both circumstance and timing. I’m not overlooking or excusing anything he’s done but how does that inform on how he’d do his job? This is bullshit and this is how the billionaires win.
Why are there two standards?
Yes, that’s my point, you’re not different to Trump supporters.
I’m not overlooking or excusing anything he’s done
You very obviously are
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Whether it’s natural or because you’re being paid is unknown.
Yeah man, I’m being paid to disagree with you online, you narcissistic dumbass
You’re working hard in these comments to break down any standards the left claimed to have.
There’s a world of difference between SA and having a mistress. Either way, there aren’t “two standards,” the standard should be to not be a sex offender like Platner.
Both are bad. It doesn’t matter when an assault is revealed but whether it is credible, and the consensus is that it is.
People are saying it’s credible, even Ro Khana who was one of his biggest supporters.
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Something I didn’t know: there are emails between the victim and her therapist corroborating the allegations. For me that moves this into credible territory. Yikes.
Right at an ideal time to impact the midterms, amidst a flurry of anti-leftist astroturfing I noticed starting yesterday. I’ve got some doubts.
Nah, he’s been showing warning signs all the way, but people wanted to believe him too much so l just avoided the arguments. I’ve felt he was deliberately elevated by the oligarchs since the beginning for just this moment.
Oh yes, the oligarchs would love for someone promoting wealth taxes and extensive social programs to become popular and potentially win a senate seat. It’s all going to plan. /s
Do I seriously have to explain this?
That’s what got him attention - giving people what they wanted to hear. Those backing him knew he was a ticking time bomb, and knew the rug would be pulled out (although it’s a bit sooner than I expected). The goal is to leave little time to build trust in another candidate that isn’t in their pocket.
He ran on a populist platform. just like trump and fetterman did. There were countless bright red flags (some with windmills on them…) but people ignored it because he was going to give them universal healthcare and DRAIN THE SWAMP.
And, like basically every other populist politician, odds are he was going to completely ignore his campaign promises and just enrich himself in office. Just like trump and fetterman did.
And yeah, there is this narrative that he is the underdog and a disruptor candidate. He is a rich white guy in Maine who was backed by establishment Democrats and center-left podcast bros like Pod Save America. Sanders went hard on him but… Bernie has a history of some REALLY stupid endorsements and he is pretty establishment Democrat at this point if you actually look beyond 2016.
I don’t know if I think he is a full on oligarch plant (Well, I do know and I don’t). I think he is just every other sociopathic rich guy who wants to cash in on having a good smile and not caring about fucking over his constituents. He just got caught with his hand in the rape jar one too many times… BEFORE getting into office.
Platner even winning the primary is damaging to the oligarchs. Him saying wealth taxes and Medicare for All and out polling Collins is bad for them even if he’s forced out.
They had a candidate who would be in their pocket. She lost the primary. And if they wanted someone to lose to Collins, she was doing that too.
And if you think this is all an oligarch plan, then this woman’s accusations now are at their behest and thus suspect. You can’t think she’s a sincere victim just acting on her own timetable and also that this is a planned downfall.
Did you even read the article? They validated the heck out of her story.
There’s little chance of finding another electable candidate, getting them sufficiently funded, awareness & trust built, etc. in time to beat Collins. That was the plan.
So is she truthful or is she a tool of the oligarchs?
She’s a tool, but it’s a case of “the evil you know is better than the one you don’t.”EDIT: Wait - do you mean Collins, or the accuser? My initial response was for Collins, the accuser seems on the up & up from the reporting. Read the article for yourself & decide.
Probably gonna get hate for this but I am willing to work with pedos. That’s only because it’s more about leftist putting people into power to enact the will of the working class and their characters don’t matter too much.
That being said planter should have approached the his accuser prior to running or early in the campaign trail, just to avoid campaign derailment or if they’re a victim apologize for what they did and put people above politics.
Planter response video was just awful. Just denied and deflected instead of going into detail about the accusations and how they could be false.
That being said planter should have approached the his accuser prior to running or early in the campaign trail,
She told him to never speak to her again. No, he shouldn’t have pressured his rape victim before he ran for a government position. What is wrong with you?
Probably gonna get hate for this but I am willing to work with pedos.
Yeah, the hate is deserved.
Why do you want the rape victim to be pressured? I wanted platner to address his past.
I deserve hate for telling Zionist they’re awful people. But it’s actually reasonable to work with pedophiles, but you’re gonna crash out
She told him to never speak to her again, but you’ve already made it clear that you support ignoring women’s boundaries.
Thanks for the conceding. I like that accusations since is way more tame than me pressuring women.
Plus it would have been worth an email/dm for platner to say he’s sorry about the alleged rape he committed and that as a human being make an attempt to make up for it, but that’s under the assumption that what the accuser says is 100% true and platner denial is false.
It could be false rape accusation idk. I do know platners response was pretty awful
I didn’t concede to your disgusting takes.
You did and I even explained how you concede, but throw all the false accusations you want. You’ll just realize your the villain and I’m out here looking out for the working class
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Well you better start killing those Pedophiles.
Also why are you quoting what I said after that you a pussy? Btw mods ain’t gonna do anything to me because you’re sending death threats
For no reason whatsoever:
Just a heads up folk, any time you see someone with a comically bad take on social media, particularly on lemmy, that makes you wonder if the stereotype about leftists being too dumb to live is true? Take a look at what instance they are from. The shitjustworks instance seems to be full of conservatives cosplaying as lefties. Which… is fascinating that anyone would care enough to “infiltrate” lemmy.
