Platner drops out, doesn't admit wrongdoing. Just like Democrats. | Opinion
Graham Platner is out – but it's too little too late. The damage is done, and it's serious.
The embattled U.S. Senate candidate in Maine announced he has suspended his candidacy, following a torrent of scandals and accusations, including a Nazi tattoo and alleged sexual misconduct by multiple women.
"We believe that for the movement to continue, it can't be me. And for that reason, we are suspending campaign operations," Platner said in a video message posted to social media July 8. "This is incredibly difficult because I know that some will think it's an admission of guilt. And it most certainly is not. We're not doing it because of the allegations. We're doing it because of the structures being taken away from us by those in power."
What an arrogant, tone-deaf statement. It's bizarre to hear Platner, who denies the allegations, say that he didn't suspend his campaign because of accusations of sexual misconduct. Even now, he can't admit wrongdoing. How on brand for him – and for the Democratic Party.
The Platner debacle has exposed a monumental hypocrisy in the party's stance on women and sexual misconduct.
Graham Platner's alleged sexual misconduct disqualifies him
Politico reported July 6 that Jenny Racicot, an ex-girlfriend of Platner's and a Democrat herself, claimed that while drunk, he broke into her home and raped her almost five years ago. Platner denied the encounter but later said he is "taking the time to reflect on the best path forward."
These are serious accusations, and they weren't the first.
Racicot's story followed a bombshell the New York Times published June 4 about other former girlfriends recounting "unsettling" behavior by Platner, though the story focused primarily on Lyndsey Fifield, a Republican, and his alleged toxic treatment of her.
In a July 7 interview with CNN's Jake Tapper, Fifield detailed the alleged mistreatment: Platner repeatedly grabbed her, at times leaving bruises, isolated her from friends and once blocked her inside a bedroom while they were dating more than a decade ago. Those are behaviors consistent with coercive control, a form of abuse often present in intimate partner relationships.
#MeToo for you, but not for us
Democratic Party leaders' calls for Platner to step down came too little, too late, as far as I'm concerned.
As a conservative woman, I've watched the Democratic Party become the de facto head of two powerful, interwoven cultural movements: postmodern feminism and #MeToo. Both empowered women and also declared war on men, demonizing them as stupid, unnecessary or predatory. "Believe all women" became a powerful mantra, echoed around the country, one that pushed the movement too far: suggesting any woman making an allegation was automatically telling the truth.
But when a candidate like Platner, or former Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-California, demonstrates behavior anathema to women's basic rights, even in the form of allegations rather than police reports, it takes numerous claims before there are any serious ramifications.
New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor downplayed the abuse accusations against Platner, saying in a June CNN interview that "they were not like classic abuse allegations" akin to those that sparked the #MeToo movement.
"They're not about a boss and a young female employee being subjected to sexual advances. They were mostly made in the context of consensual relationships," Kantor said. Her comment is telling: Kantor and her colleagues won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking the 2017 story exposing Hollywood director Harvey Weinstein's sexual misconduct. That's disappointing, to say the least.
Call me a conservative cynic, but Democratic leaders didn't call on Platner to step down until multiple allegations surfaced, crucially, from a fellow Democrat. Fifield's claims, published in June, were downplayed by Kantor and others, and even somewhat buried in the original Times story, which focused heavily on her resume in conservative politics, insinuating that a political motive made the abuse allegations somewhat beside the point.
"As much as I'm grateful and I'm glad and I hope that finally this was enough," Fifield told Tapper, she was disappointed that her "accusations weren't enough" to spark condemnation from Platner's supporters.
That's because, nine years later, the #MeToo movement, wrapped in feminism and platformed by the Democratic Party, is hypocritical: it's now rooted in political bias, at least among its leaders. Plenty of everyday people would condemn any of these men, regardless of politics. The party spent months excusing Platner's Nazi tattoo, his admitted infidelity, and allegations of abuse, assault and intimidation, and now rape. They only found their #MeToo voice when the political cost of standing by him outweighed the cost of cutting him loose.
It's been clear from the beginning that Platner wasn't a great guy, but his charismatic appeal hijacked the mainstream media's senses. That the burly, veteran-turned-oyster farmer could have passed for a Republican, yet identifies as a Democrat, was a bonus. The irony was too delicious to resist: a candidate whose tough-guy image made him seem an unlikely #MeToo villain also made the allegations easier to wave away.
A 2025 survey by the National Women's Defense League found that more than 145 state lawmakers have been publicly accused of sexual harassment or misconduct since 2013, from both major parties. This time it's Democrats. Next time it might be Republicans. Both parties can and should do better. But it's worse when one party claims to champion women's voices, yet stays silent on their accusations until the political cost of silence gets too high.
Nicole Russell is an opinion columnist with USA TODAY. She lives in Texas with her four kids. Sign up for her newsletter, The Right Track, and get it delivered to your inbox.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Platner drops out, doesn't admit wrongdoing. Just like Democrats. | Opinion
Reporting by Nicole Russell, USA TODAY / USA TODAY
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This story was originally published July 8, 2026 at 8:02 PM.