Graham Platner, an oyster farmer and Marine Corps veteran who has been accused of rape, among other sexual improprieties, and who has said that Israel is guilty of “genocide,” dropped out of the Maine Senate race on Wednesday night.
“We are suspending campaign operations,” he said about seven-and-a-half minutes into a more than 11-minute video he posted to social media.
“This is incredibly difficult, because I know that some will think that it’s an admission of guilt, and it most certainly is not,” he said. “We’re not doing it because of the allegations. We’re doing it because of the structures that are being taken away from us by those in power.”
Platner has also been in the hot seat for a Nazi tattoo he got in the Marines and sported for years, saying he was unaware of the significance of the symbolism until more recently (he has since covered up the tattoo).
In the video, he said “accusations are supposed to be the beginning of things, not the end.” He added that one of the things that the campaign was calling for was to “end the genocide.”
Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said that “Platner lied about not knowing his tattoo was a Nazi tattoo, and he’s lying now. This guy is a sicko. He blames everything on ‘powerful forces.’ The only powerful force that did this was his body against Jenny Racicot, the woman accusing him or rape. Good riddance.”
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) told Fox News that Platner “will only be remembered as the accused rapist that got pushed out of your election.”
He told the now ex-candidate to “go back under the rock that you came from.”
Earlier on Wednesday, the Maine Democratic Party stated that “while the Platner campaign remains focused on distracting from the job of defeating Susan Collins in November with false accusations against us, the Maine Democratic Party remains hyper focused on developing a representative, transparent and inclusive process to select a new nominee when he chooses to withdraw from the race.”
