Graham Platner, the self-described communist who had a Nazi tattoo on his chest for nearly two decades and still won Maine's Democrat Senate primary in June, announced Wednesday that he is suspending his campaign in the wake of the rape allegations made against him, as reported by Politico on Monday.
Naturally, he opened his video with a blanket denial.
"I think, as many of you know, over the past couple days I have faced some very serious allegations," Platner said. "And I just want to make it clear this is all false. The things that have been claimed did not happen, it's not real."
From there, he reached straight for the sympathy card. "Amy and I are regular people," he said. "We were not looking for this experience. We were not looking to get into politics. We had no desire to run for office."
Then came the part where Platner claimed to be blindsided by the allegations. He complained that he learned of the story through press inquiries, with "no time for investigations before a corporate media system and the political establishment got to act as judge, jury and executioner." I remember when Obama used to play that game, too.
Platner then claimed the timing proves the whole thing was a plot.
"I only have until July 13th until I am officially the nominee," he said. "This was the last week to try to get me off of the ballot, and that's why this is occurring."
Well... okay, that’s fair. I think establishment Democrats were behind all this. But that doesn’t make the rape allegations suddenly not true.
Platner then admitted the real problem with continuing his campaign: the money spigot is shutting off, and national Democrats want nothing to do with him. "Larger organizations, the national level party, the bigger donor networks, they have all committed to spending no money in this race if I'm in it," he said. "They would rather see Susan Collins win than have me be the next senator from Maine."
This is a message straight to his supporters, and let me tell you, he's telling them to reject the next candidate that the Democratic Party picks. So, this will get interesting. Now that he’s out, any leverage he had is gone, and you can bet he won’t be happy with the result, and he’s going to make Democrats feel like they should have stuck behind him.
Here was the tell: even though he is suspending his campaign, he made demands for how the Democrat Party should replace him, insisting the process stay out of Washington's hands. "People in D.C. need to stay in D.C.," he said, adding that "party apparatchiks are not the ones to make these decisions."
Related: Greg Gutfeld's Epic Takedown of Graham Platner Is the Best Thing You'll See All Week
In other words, he doesn’t want an establishment-friendly candidate. Good luck with that. After the debacle that became his campaign, you better believe they’ll be eyeing safer candidates.
Anyway… eventually, after what felt like hours of grievance, he got to the point. "We are suspending campaign operations," Platner said.
But he wants everyone to know why.
"This is incredibly difficult because I know that some will think 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."
Got that? He's dropping out, but the dropping out has absolutely nothing to do with the rape allegations that made everyone stop funding him.
"I want to make clear, though, I intend to file my paperwork to withdraw," he added, before rattling off his movement's wish list. "All we were asking for was health care, was to end a genocide, to use our taxpayer dollars at home to uplift our communities instead of waging war overseas."
Because… obviously, this had nothing to do with his endless parade of scandals.
He ended by thanking his supporters and telling them, “We're gonna win someday."
My name might be on the ballot right now, but that ballot line belongs to the people of Maine. pic.twitter.com/RKVyLU76tm
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 9, 2026
Maybe one day they will… Perhaps Democrats will learn from this experience and realize that banking a Senate seat on a dude with a Nazi tattoo isn’t a good idea.
“Every Democrat that endorsed Graham Platner endorsed a rapist, and every Democrat that stayed silent was complicit," RNC Chairman Joe Gruters said in a statement. "They knew who he was, but the left is so deeply deranged and power-hungry that they were willing to send a racist, woman-hating Nazi who excused rape and abused multiple women to the United States Senate. Democrats rolled in the mud with Platner, and now they are completely stained by their association with this sick monster.”
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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