He had revealed himself way before the election.

nope - some of us saw reality

not all of us

I cannot stand BS

But, I don’t give a shit about their personal life. We have a rapist as president, and a senator in Maine that supports rapists.

He's running for Senate, not sainthood.

because they make money on doing what I end up having to do anyway.

In this case, apparently the wife is reporting proactively that text might be a problem in the future tense. And that they attended counseling and that their "marriage is stronger than ever".

Like, if I were prone to a certain sort of conspiratorial thinking (wink wink), I'd say there are no texts at all and he is a articulating perhaps the best media-driven narrative possible.

I'm partially joking. It sucks if he cheated on his wife. But I don't really care because neither his wife nor he are my friend. He is indicating he will take a hatchet to billionaires. I'd like that.

And it shows poor judgment on his part. That many different women and he didn’t think it would come out? As a candidate, his decision affect us. He was 7 points up on Collins before this news broke. I now expect the worst.

And unless his messages were with underage women or vulnerable women he was using some influence of power with — this is going to smack of desperation looking for a story.

Anyone on this thread giving this oxygen is supporting Susan Collins.

Truth be told he is a poor candidate who continues to damage the party.

After the primary, the choice is binary.

Why couldn't Governor Mills find this oppo with the full force of Schumer and Gillibrand?


The reason is because this is oppo from the Collins campaign and we, as Democrats should know better.


If he has sex tapes, I hope he and has wife enjoy them. I care not the least little bit about his personal life because he is saying the right mouth words and his opponent, Susan Collins, can't even form a sentence.

It is concerning that I am this concerned by this post.

I apologize for 3 direct replies to the same post.

And WSJ!

Including the “family values” voters.

They let an adjudicated rapist off the hook, but mark my words, they will make this an issue to help Collins. The Nazi tattoo doesn't help either.

At the same, they will gloss over Ken Paxton's infidelity.

But we shouldn't care, either. Politicians are vehicles for policy and we shouldn't look to them for moral clarity. They are as a consequence of power, history, and law by nature compromised. As such, all our candidates are at best complex and at worst compromised.

Where it matter is the words they say and the deliverables they achieve. In this contest, it is between Graham Platner who is saying some seriously solid mouth words, and Susan Collins who is made of jello.

As a matter of political tactics, I think it is fascinating that his sex life is coming up, considering his opponent who I believed is the uncontested sexiest member of Congress.

Out. He ended up giving ammunition to his enemy. And we will end up being the worst for it…losing a seat in the Senate.

Maybe Maine voters what a candidate that has had sex in the last 30 years.

it seems there's some Democrats here who don't care much either.

and I certainly hope we do!

My point isn't that Planter should end his campaign. As some others have noted, this couple has apparently worked it out, and it is something that's essentially between them.

Having said that, I just get a bit tired of people acting like cheating on a spouse "means nothing" in terms of character or eligibility, especially in the case of a candidate whose past has already come under some scrutiny.

That's all folks.

Yes, he won the primary by a wide margin.

But a lot of (R) consider him scum and either voted Cornyn or just sat out the run-off.

That is, some (R) care.

She doesn't want the job.

The Nazi tattoo, his use of the word ret*rd, and this charming comment:

"...people concerned about rape should 'take some responsibility for themselves and not get so f—-ked up they wind up having sex with someone they don’t mean to.'”

wasn't enough to sink this guy? And it's Janet Mills' fault??

He's running and winning and she suspended her campaign when polls showed her 30-40% behind.

Mills' (Old! AIPAC!), Corporate Dems (corrupt campaign contributions! AIPAC!), diabolical centrist establishment rigging cabal establishment, Bigfoot (AIPAC!) ... no purity tests allowed (that's for the enemy, the Democratic Party).

Holding feet to the fire, earn my vote, lesser of two evils, vote my conscience -- we won't be seeing these kinds of moral outcries.

I trust Maine Democrats have a reason.

Fuck her and her faux concerns!!

(Raw Story) "Platner's wife, Amy Gertner, told his Senate campaign about the texts with several different women, insider sources told the WSJ. Gertner discovered the texts in spring 2025, and in August, she told an aide whom she considered a friend, while the campaign was doing opposition research on Platner, the WSJ reported."

his wife considered a "friend" has a closet full of MAGAt hats.

Throw out a competent, successful woman governor for a younger white male with at least half a dozen red flags blazing, and shockingly, there's more! Who could've guessed that!

I'm calling it now.

We'll either make gains or we'll learn who to run (or not) in 2028.

He’s the official nominee, so we need to make sure he wins in one of this nation’s most important elections. I see certain Democrats can be bashed here though while others cannot. I saw a Dem “strategist” go right on to Fox News and claim it would be fine for Susan Collins to win.

She should tell that to women all over the country who lost the rights to their own bodies. That is directly due to Susan Collins and Dump. It always amazes me that democrats will tear each other apart first, even when we have actual Nazis running the country.

...it would be his duty to the party to step aside and endorse a write-in for Mills, imo. I don't know if we're there yet. That would be a desperation move. I'm waiting for our elected leaders to weigh in, frankly.

I would fully agree. We need that seat. So far, he seems to be ahead of Collins.

Don't pretend otherwise.

Don't equivocate.

THIS is the race that will be the harbinger of the night. So those among us that pearl clutch at his orgasmic practices are only helping Susan Collins and therefore control of the Senate.

Purity tests my somewhat-digusted-but-resigned-for-and-yet-enthustiatic-support of Graham Platner ass.

If we come down to 51-50, what do people think Fetterman is likely to do?

Dan Osborne isn't winning in Nebraska.

There's no rule that Dems can't react real time to reality.

He is ahead by 9 points.

Susan Collins looks like an undead muppet.

It seems to me that you are suggesting the Democratic party use the above information to seize defeat from the jaws of victory.


Graham Platner is beating Susan Collins. He is saying the correct mouth words. He is running a campaign strong enough to outperform national Democrats in a season when Democrats are already outperforming.

He is running a campaign so good that Susan Collins had to acknowledge her fucking tremor.

What are you talking about!?

He could have voted to end abortion rights for millions of Americans and protected a belligerent president for years while helping forfeit the role of congress from oversight roles entirely.

Platner is our nominee for better or worse. We need every seat we can get.

late to find an ideal candidate.

I wasn’t his biggest fan, but right now the only thing that matters is beating Collins.

There were issues with both candidates in my opinion. Going with Mills would have posed its own problems. She was a great candidate on paper, but I think there should have been alternatives to Platner, who was barely vetted, and Mills who is close to 80 years old. There’s also a lot of anti establishment vibes, and rightly or wrongly Mills is viewed as the establishment pick, especially since she was Schumer’s chosen candidate.

Lesser of two evils.

When he starts promoting cutting food and health aid for children worldwide,

kicking millions off of snap and Medicaid,

killing Black jobs and silencing minority representation via gerrymandering and voter suppression,

locking women and children up in concentration camps under some bullshit 'worst of the worst' LIE,

tanking the economy, killing off environmental and consumer protections,

sabotaging the function of government via the installation of A PUPPET AUTOCRACY,

ending birthright citizenship,

'taking over elections,

partnering with authoritarian dictators to engage in war (i.e. LAND GRABS),

WHILE pocketing BILLIONS of profit on the taxpayer's dime,

(and that's not nearly the HALF of it)...

then CALL me.

I’m a Mainer and beating Susan Collins is all that matters. Platner is a multi tour veteran who came home and posted crap. So what? Collins supports Trump almost all the time. You choose.

Time to support ALL Democratic nominees. I as an Illinoisan , preferred Mills but as an out of stater I had no say. Mainers have made their choice. Platner now needs our support. Hold your nose if you have to. We need every seat we can get.

She didn't want to run for this seat, and was happy to drop out. Schumer basically guilted her into doing it, which was a huge mistake. She barely ran a campaign at all.

Platner's online philandering would pale in comparison to Paxton's sleaze, and Talarico's christian beliefs would make Collins look downright immoral.

I'm sorry, it is a bad and unfunny joke but it immediately popped into my head and I just felt compelled to pitch it.

So I don’t worry about Senator Fetterman or a possible future Senator Platner.

I do not have big money resources but I do volunteer my time and my voice to persuade others to vote for Ossoff and candidates who share my values

I figure Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders can continue working for Platner and persuading Maine voters.

I remember him debating the empty podium, and doing it in a compelling way.

He is another eventual President.

We shouldn’t accept the claim that Platner was “sexting” anyone without seeing the texts. He’s controversial, there are a lot of attempts to sink him, and it’s perfectly possible the texts were just innocent discussions of securing the existence of our people and a future for white children.

— Illegal Aliens And Women Hat (@kenwhite.bsky.social) 2026-05-30T22:17:19.507Z

I am not alerting this post because I don't know if you posted this in error or not.

It's making fun of his most vocal defenders, white guys, who will say or do anything to defend him.

Like this one

Platner could’ve sexted my mom and I’d still vote for him

— Secular Talk (@kylekulinskishow.bsky.social) 2026-05-30T20:57:38.424Z

My mom does need to get out more.

like the 60 minutes where he spoke of causing pain in his marriage. I have not read enough to know what he said or did, but was it worse than Clinton and Flowers and Jones?

In some ways, there could be similarities. Like Hillary, his wife is standing behind him. Also they apparently worked to keep their marriage together. Also, the Republican is a generation older person who at that point was uninspiring.

Like others, I wish he would have been eliminated by all the things that already came out. However, the fact that he over that time became more popular, suggests he might in some ways be like Clinton. Clinton was able to make people forgive him.

The primary is June 9th, which seems to late to switch to anyone else. Mills might be the only option and it is not clear she could win the primary.

Donald Trump is President.

Jeffrey Epstein is on the ballot.

As Platner seems to be charismatic and Maimers did not hold all the other stuff against him, I was suggesting that as he will likely be our candidate, that the Clinton example could work.

Not to mention, if Trump becomes sufficiently unpopular in Maine, it is possible ANY Democrat will win as they vote to try to keep Trump accountable.

there is a lot of very interesting things to unpack, and I'd love to hear more.

Do you remember that Hillary and Bill Clinton went on 60 minutes because revelations of his relation with Gennifer Flowers were threatening his rise in the primaries. Hillary was incredible pointing out she was not just standing by her man.

I don't know how to compare the flaws or the good qualities of the two men. It is also true that culture of 1992 is not the culture of 2026. Not to mention that knowing nothing of his wife, Hillary was exceptional and likely pulled him out of this trouble.

I was in 4th grade, so my political awareness was not very nuanced.

It did start my lifelong desire to see Sec. Clinton become President.

My oldest was a couple of years younger and was very proud that she pulled the lever when we went to vote.

My dad liked vacillated between Brown and Clinton but was a truly rapid Clinton lover. Particularly of his intelligence and rhetorical ability.

Bill Clinton is another very interest contrast with Barack Obama, who was equally intelligent and rhetorically masterful, but applied this differently.

I was concerned about environmental issues as his Arkansas record was not good. I was impressed by both Clintons' intelligence.

I was blown away by Obama.

But we didn't set it.

no INDEED

we need to do BETTER

Even if I wasn't a big fan I would still support the nominee even after my preferred candidate lost the primary.

As far as Platner he is great on policy but there are red flags in his background. I believe he has made mistakes he apologized for which is something that Trump would never do.

Long-shot Senate hopeful tells Maine Democrats Graham Platner isn’t their only option

But David Costello, a 65-year-old Brunswick Democrat who has experience in federal, state and local government, continues to make the case to voters ahead of the June 9 primary that he’s the best one to take on Republican Sen. Susan Collins in the fall.

https://www.pressherald.com/2026/05/21/longshot-senate-hopeful-tells-maine-democrats-graham-platner-isnt-their-only-option/

Fom the NYT article:

I thought those only worked one way.

(As a ludicrous rhetorical construction used to discredit people questioning the orthodoxy when the orthodoxy fulfill 2 conditions: being wrong AND losing elections)

Purity being derived from puritanical. As in a rigid insistence on moral purity.

Of course the Original Purity Test has stood the test of time and is not likely to be supplanted or replaced - not for a while at least. It's still so useful!

we can kill whoever we want overseas!

Staying silent on the killing of babies and schoolkids and starving their remaining relatives is perfectly fine - but SEXTING is a bridge too far!

And however flawed he may be, the greater the well-deserved humiliation for Susan Collins.

Maybe no more kneeling on glass for Democrats. Hopefully.

In fact I think there's a chance this may backfire. Desparation looking for a story, as I think you aptly put it. Voters are smarter than we think.

Amy Gertner shared the texts with several members of the campaign staff.

Genevieve McDonald confirmed it to the NY Times as did another current Platner Campaign staffer.

They've got the attack ads ready to go as soon as the primary is over. Blaming the leaker is weak sauce. We all knew Platner had tons of red flags.

Why? Because he's for Medicare for all? We ignore his rape apologia, his Nazi tat, his many other - and relatively recent - foul statements?

People here and elsewhere smeared the hell out of Janet Mills, a good, solid Democrat who has done a lot for her state. Oh, but she's old!!11

He should have been thrown to the curb the second the Nazi tat came out. Instead, we're possibly stuck with a very publicly flawed nominee. Because why? Because his supporters brushed off his flaws and made up crap about Mills (AIPAC sound familiar?).

At some point we have to actually vet candidates realistically. Platner threatens all of our Senate candidates. I can already see Paxton coming out with ads saying Talarico and his party support Nazis who are sexual predators.

But sure, let's just close our eyes about it all.

Because he's medicare for all? Yeah, in part.

Janet Mills, you describe as a "good, solid Democrat". The thing is voters aren't interested in "good, solid Democrats". They don't want their old reliable team of oxen.

They want fire, not kindling.

There is projection and then there is comedy. Paxton would be laughed off the airwaves. Hope he goes for it!

https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/houston/2026/02/06/542808/ken-paxton-screwston-antifa/

It's not just single payor. It's a whole new perspective that resonates. Anti-war, anti MIC, anti-oligarch, pro-worker, no more weapons to Israel, stop the genocide. The latter of course is why AIPAC opposes him and calls him a " direct threat to the US-Israeli relationship". It's clear the knives are out for him.

As I crudely suggested in a post a deleted because of initial crudeness: no one's seen the tapes. Maybe it tickles the right buttons.

He's the one we got.

tapes or no tapes

And we are concerned about some text messages? He and his wife went to marriage counseling, and she said that their marriage was stronger than ever.

It only matters what the voters of Maine think. Everything else is noise.

Our guy had a Nazi tattoo for years upon years and only covered it up when it became politically expedient? Not a problem. He's our guy. We're Democrats.

A Democratic candidate has a demonstrated history of racist shitposts on Reddit? Absolutely nothing to see here. We're Democrats.

Our guy gets outed by his wife for having sexual conversations with other women, demonstrating a real lack of judgment? Kyle says he could rape his mom, and he'd be OK with it. So must we all. We're Democrats.

Would we accept even a tiny fraction of such deeds from anyone who isn't us? Absolutely not, and fuck you for even thinking that we might! We're Democrats!

We don't know what's up other than hearsay about this.
I think many possibly may be equating this to sexual harassment which is quite understandable given what we've all seen and been through the last several years with Trump. Naturally a default position of that is going to take the lead but what if this was consensual and had nothing to do with sexual harassment anything?

I think we're at a very different time in this country where a majority of voters really don't care much about this at all and are focused on how they're going to afford rent, health insurance, groceries, and gas in their tanks especially if this has nothing to do with sexual harassment. Should it though then that's a whole other store entirely and he's done.

Republicans will drag up anything and everything they can which includes openly lying to their base about the Democrats running against them. That's evident with how shit bags like Stephen Miller say Talarico is trans and a vegan. And those consuming such nonsense will never vote for any Democrat to begin with.

Platner should lean into this and challenge the Republicans who will go after him with this. He should straight up ask them why they're so concerned about this when their guy, Trump, is in the Epstein files more than 35,000 times, is a rapist, and fucks around on every wife he's ever had.

I only hope that he does do that.

They went to counsel and seemed to resolve the issue. He just needed a bit of lebensraum.

Politically, he's what we have been begging for. An unapologetic progressive who isn't filtered through corporate, focus-tested crap.

Personally, it's clear he's not been a Boy Scout. But he attributes much of his past bad behavior to PTSD and alcohol, and I'm willing to at least entertain what that might be like. And to the current topic, his wife is upset that it was leaked, given it was a personal matter that they addressed, worked on, and she loves him.. Unless you can point to something illegal in these texts, can we move on rather than eat our own?

If Platner was so awful from the get-go, why is the best that Schumer could recruit a 78-year-old, unenthusiastic Janet Mills? I mean, Jesus Christ. What an inept party.

why is the choice an "unenthusiastic 78-year old" and a creep with a nazi tattoo?

THAT is the real WTF

"It's shameful behavior to spend time and energy and resources on negative ads and negative stories."

Yes indeed.