Hold On — Was There a Dirty Quid Quo Bro for Graham Platner?

By now the country has learned that blue jeans-wearing Everyman, Graham Platner, has become an erstwhile Democrat senate candidate after he announced he was sort of, though not officially yet, leaving the race after blowing the drawers — I mean doors — off his opponent, the dreary Maine governor, Janet Mills, in the primaries.

Apparently, the oyster farming, commie-turned-alleged rapist was past his sell-by date even for his party comrades.

Yet, as Matt points out here in the post The Democrats STILL Have a Platner Problem, Platner made a deal of some kind with the Party to remove himself from the race in exchange for some… assurances.

And, as he reports, we all assumed the deal was a political one.

"We need to be assured that it is going to be open and democratic as we move forward," Platner continued.
Assured by whom? He's positioning his movement as a faction that the establishment must negotiate with and satisfy. Without that assurance, his 150,000 primary voters consider themselves released from any obligation to the nominee.
The threat was clearly there.
Then came the most dangerous sentence in the speech, at least for Democrats.
"They would rather see Susan Collins win than have me be the next senator from Maine," Platner said.
He wants his most devoted supporters to believe the establishment would rather protect Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) than elect one of their own, which makes the party the real enemy and gives every Platner voter a ready-made excuse to sit out in November. The party betrayed him first, so turnabout is fair play.

We have Platner threatening the party. But there's another twist to this. Were the assurances Platner extracted from the party for "the people of Maine," or were they for himself?

Platner has been very credibly accused of multiple sexual assaults — the latest being the literal rape of a former girlfriend, which allegedly happened five years ago.

Politico reported the allegation this way:

Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner, who is now the Democratic Senate nominee in Maine, for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop.
She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual. “I remember him grabbing my pelvis and being really forceful of me,” she said. “I remember the specific moment where I thought to myself, like, ‘This is no longer my choice.’”

Radio host and Fox News talking head, Clay Travis, who's an attorney, said that Maine's sexual assault statute of limitations is as long as 20 years. This alleged rape happened five years ago.

Travis openly wondered on Jesse Watters Primetime if Platner made a deal with the state's political kingpins, that they would call off prosecutors if their pet rapist would drop out of the race.

What incredibly good questions by @ClayTravis. https://t.co/c4x1umy0aW
If he's a rapist, why no charges?
If no charges, did they make a deal not to prosecute @grahamformaine in exchange for dropping out? pic.twitter.com/nFR99xl9N4
— Victoria Taft, The Adult in the Room, FITF Squad (@VictoriaTaft) July 10, 2026

Oh, my.

Travis gave a short history lesson on how the Democrats made deals with Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden to get out of races, and now it's Platner's turn. He said 156,000 people — 70% of the Democrat vote in Maine only last month — voted for Platner with all of his peccadillos and shadiness. Now, the Democrat Party is trying to reshape yet another election.

Platner has said he's trying to get more fairness in the process, but how much fairness does one get if the person with whom the Democrats are dealing is a vulnerable, commie, Nazi rapist?

"If Graham Platner is not eligible to run — being forced out over a rape allegation — why isn't he being charged with rape?" Travis asked. What a good question.

He went on, "This happened allegedly five years ago in the state of Maine. The statute of limitations for rape charges is 20 years, so this is well within the statute of limitations they have in Maine." Oh snap.

And this is where Travis got down to basic facts. "Why is no one demanding an investigation? Why is no one demanding that there be any charges in this case?" he wondered. "If he truly raped someone in 2021, far more significant than whether he could run for office is whether he can remain free on the streets because he would be likely to victimize someone else," he concluded.

"Which leads me to a question," he posited.

"Either, Democrats conclude that there's no chance of him being convicted of a crime, which would make you say, why is the accusation, then, disqualifying of him, considering he just got the nomination last month… or are Democrats in the state of Maine, implicitly or explicitly, telling Graham Platner to drop out or we'll charge you with the crime of rape or if you don't drop out, [and] watch out, the investigation's coming."

Travis said that this looks dirty either way.

"Why is no one asking any of these questions? I think they're very valid," he concluded.

I agree.