MS NOW EXCLUSIVE: Graham Platner responds to BOMBSHELL NYT report

[0:00] Graham Plattner, Democratic candidate for Senate in Maine, joins me now. [0:04] Mr. Plattner, it's good to have you on. [0:05] Thank you so much for doing this. [0:08] Thanks, Chris. [0:09] I really appreciate it. [0:10] Thanks for having me on. [0:11] I just want to say at the start that, like, you know, we've had you on before, and I think [0:15] you and I are both people that, in other contexts, talk about income inequality and health care [0:19] and all those issues, which are extremely important, and we devote a lot of time to [0:22] on this program. [0:23] This is not, you know, the thing that we spend a lot of time chasing. [0:26] But, you know, there's some serious stuff there I want to go through with you, and I [0:30] think voters have a right to know about it, and I want to start with what Ms. Fifield [0:34] says about being rough is the term the Times were. [0:37] And I'm going to just read you the account so you have it. [0:40] This is from the Times. [0:41] Mr. Plattner could be rough with her, Ms. Fifield said, particularly when they were drinking, [0:44] leaving her shaken and sometimes afraid. [0:46] In the interviews, she grappled with how to process her experiences. [0:49] She was quick to know. [0:49] He never hit me. [0:50] He never punched me. [0:51] She said he regularly grabbed her by the shoulders, sometimes hard enough to leave marks. [0:54] On one occasion, yanked her out of a cab by her wrist after an argument when she wanted [0:59] to stay in the car. [1:00] During one argument, she recalled, he twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a [1:03] bedroom, and held the door closed from the other side so she couldn't get out, telling [1:06] her to remain there until she was calm. [1:08] Eventually, Ms. Fifield said, she fell asleep and left the next morning. [1:11] It hurt, she said, but she added, it didn't cause any injury. [1:14] It didn't break my arm. [1:15] Did that happen? [1:19] No, it did not. [1:21] There are some allegations in this piece that I just want to be kind of unequivocal about [1:25] are simply not true. [1:27] Anything alleging physicality, anything alleging that I knew what my tattoo was, these are [1:34] the statements of someone who's politically motivated. [1:37] In this piece, there's a lot about my struggling, not being a good boyfriend, certainly self-medicating [1:43] with alcohol. [1:43] And I've been very upfront since the beginning of this campaign that that was a pretty dark [1:48] period of my life after I came back from my combat service. [1:51] And that's what that combat, that's what that kind of life looks like. [1:56] And so there are things in this that I absolutely will take responsibility for and have been [2:03] speaking about openly for months now. [2:06] But those serious allegations are just not true. [2:09] You did not grab her by the wrist. [2:10] You did not put your hands on her shoulders. [2:12] You did not push her into a room that you closed the door on. [2:15] She's lying about that, is what you're saying. [2:18] Yes, that is not true. [2:21] You mentioned the tattoo. [2:23] So I want to talk about that because I think this was troubling to a lot of people. [2:28] And I think, again, your account of it assuaged some of that, that fear, clearly in Maine [2:33] voters, as reflected, again, by reporting and polling. [2:36] She says, same person, that you referred to the tattoo as my Totenkampf, which is the German [2:43] word for this particular Nazi symbol. [2:46] There's other reporting in Jewish Insider in October in which an anonymous acquaintance [2:50] says you used that same phrase. [2:52] Did you know what this tattoo was about before last October when you said you first became [2:58] aware of it? [3:01] No, I did not. [3:02] And I also think it's important to note that it's very likely, and I think that she is [3:07] that same source. [3:09] She's the person who's been telling people this from the beginning. [3:12] And it's a—so I feel like, you know, we're kind of rehashing the thing we've been through. [3:17] I had that tattoo for 17 years. [3:20] It's a skull and crossbones. [3:21] I got it with other Marines who I served with in Iraq, in Croatia. [3:26] And in the time that I had it, I got a security clearance with the State Department. [3:30] I re-enlisted in the United States Army, where I was screened for gang and hate tattoos. [3:34] And I took my shirt off in front of my family, many of whom are Jewish. [3:39] We even released as a campaign a video, which you're putting up on the screen right now, [3:43] of me dancing at my brother's wedding to his wife, who is Jewish, and her fully extended [3:50] Jewish family. [3:51] And I would not have taken my shirt off in that context if I had known. [3:57] And so any statement saying that I did know is, again, totally false. [4:02] I do want to follow up one place on this, and I don't want to get too forensic. [4:06] But, you know, the Times basically reported that they saw texts of hers, including a text [4:12] in August, I believe August 3rd of last year. [4:14] This would be before October of last year, in which she basically said that you had a [4:18] quote, Nazi tattoo, and she joked about how she's going to go volunteer for Collins. [4:22] Now, again, this is a text that got sent. [4:24] So, like, we can place the time, right? [4:26] This is in August. [4:27] How does she know it's a Nazi tattoo in August of last year, and you don't know it's a [4:31] Nazi tattoo in August of last year? [4:35] Well, she certainly didn't send that text to me. [4:37] So whoever she sent it to and was talking to, that's, I can't say why. [4:43] But I will say that I certainly didn't know. [4:47] And the text messages she's sending to friends who may have recognized it, that's, they didn't [4:53] tell me that. [4:54] Can we talk, I want to talk about the piece that came out before this, which was about [5:00] what your wife had alerted your internal campaign folks to, and just to sort of stipulate, to [5:07] get out ahead, that, like, I think some people view this as a real betrayal by your former [5:11] campaign manager, and that may be true, and I understand, and I also watched the video [5:16] that your wife put out, which I found incredibly compelling and moving about what you've worked [5:21] through. [5:22] But just to be clear, again, on the details here, and there's obviously two subtexts [5:25] here, right? [5:26] This is you facing main voters at a primary and also a general election that's going to [5:30] happen. [5:30] We all know that, right? [5:31] We're all on the same page. [5:32] Were you sending sexually explicit messages to other women back in 2023, 2024, as reported [5:42] in the piece? [5:45] So, this is the first time in my life that Amy and I's marriage has been the interest of [5:52] people besides Amy and I. [5:54] Yes. [5:54] And it's definitely a bit jarring, a bit strange. [5:58] Yeah. [5:58] It's also a marriage that is very strong and that I do believe we deserve some privacy [6:04] in. [6:05] I will just say this. [6:07] I, at the beginning of our marriage, I made mistakes, and Amy held me accountable for them, [6:15] and we worked through them, and the work that we did made our marriage significantly stronger. [6:21] And who we are today is an incredibly faithful and happy married couple. [6:26] Amy is my best friend. [6:28] I love her more than anything else. [6:32] And quite honestly, the hardest part about this whole campaign is I don't get to spend [6:36] as much time with her as I like to. [6:39] And so, it has been a, yeah, it's been a hard experience to have gone through this together [6:45] as a couple long before our lives were brought out into the public, and then to have it essentially [6:52] outed by someone that we put our trust in, who then turned around and betrayed Amy's [6:57] trust, and has now turned, frankly, our private parts of our marriage into a bit of a public [7:03] political spectacle. [7:04] It's hard. [7:07] But it is, but it's our marriage, and it's a good marriage, and we're very happy in it [7:12] and very happy with each other, and I thank my lucky stars every single day that Amy is [7:16] my wife and that she has given me a lot of grace and a lot of love over the years, and [7:23] I'm a lucky man for it. [7:25] I'm here for you. [7:26] You don't want to get into specific details, and I can respect part of that, but I do want [7:30] to just make sure on the timeline, right? [7:31] Because I think there's two things going through people's heads a little bit here, which is, [7:36] you know, you have talked about self-medicating with alcohol and being pretty messed up when [7:42] you got back from the service and trying to figure out what you're doing and doing things [7:44] maybe you don't, you wouldn't stand by now and saying things you wouldn't stand by, but [7:49] this is 2023, and so there's a difference in the time, and I think the first question [7:53] is, like, when did this stop? [7:55] If it stopped, if there was stuff that you're not proud of that you worked out with your wife [7:58] and you don't want to talk about the details, when did it stop? [8:02] Oh, it stopped when it was happening. [8:06] I mean, like, it was a—Amy and I—Amy and I, it happened soon after we got married, [8:12] and we dealt with it very, very early in our relationship, and so that's when it stopped. [8:21] Are there texts of yours, pictures of yours floating around out there, which, again, may [8:29] be from a time capsule, but people, I think, are understandably a little nervous. Maybe [8:35] you'll be the nominee, probably be the nominee for the main Senate on Tuesday, and then it's [8:41] October 10th, and here's a text or picture of Graham Plattner that is not the kind of [8:49] thing that you want to see. Like, are you worried about that? Are there texts like that? [8:56] I'm not worried about it. I mean, I—one, I went—as I've talked to him, I went through [9:01] my life through a number of years struggling and not exactly acting under—with the best [9:08] behavior. I've been very, very open about that, and if people would like to continue [9:13] to drag things up from that time in my life, I'm sure that we are going to see at some point [9:19] somebody attempt to do exactly that. Just know that these are things that happened before [9:24] I became a public figure, before I got into politics, and it's a part of my life that I'm [9:29] very happy to talk about and talk about the struggles within. And so I do think that as [9:34] we move forward, you know, what we've built up here is really something quite spectacular. [9:42] It's very new. And I think one of the reasons why it's worked so well is because I have been [9:47] very open with the people of Maine. I go all over the state. I've held over 80 town halls, [9:53] and I ask or I answer questions from Mainers regardless of what the question is. I've made [9:59] myself very accessible to people, and I want them to know about my struggles because I firmly [10:05] believe that if you believe in a transformational politics, you've got to believe in the ability [10:08] for people to transform. And my journey is one of transformation. And I'm very happy to [10:15] talk about that earlier part in my life. And I have no doubt that people will attempt to [10:20] continue to revisit Reddit posts, continue to try to revisit parts of my past. But I think [10:26] what's really important to note here is that these are things that I talk about in my past, [10:32] things that I'm not proud of, but it is a past that I had to go through to get where I am today. [10:39] And I'm very proud of who I am today. And I'm very proud of the movement that we've built up here [10:43] in Maine. Just to be clear, just about revisiting, right? I mean, I think channeling concerns, [10:48] I think of Democratic voters and Democratic officials and a lot of people, right? That [10:52] it's not a question of revisiting, right? It's new revelations, like vis-a-vis, you know, [10:56] texts or pictures. And I just, I know you want to give some privacy in marriage, but I really do [11:00] feel like I need to get these answers from you, which is like the people you were texting with, [11:05] whatever that was, in whatever context, they were adult women. You knew that and it was consensual. [11:11] Is that true? Yes. And you have that, that you confirmed that you knew their age. [11:17] Yes. Oh God. I mean, yeah, yes, of course.