By Breitbart News Network | Created at 2026-06-10 03:20:11 | Updated at 2026-06-10 17:24:17
16 hours ago
Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner’s ex-political director argued that her former boss “shouldn’t be a U.S. senator,” revealing that she quit her job after becoming “disturbed” by what she had learned about him and claiming that she was offered hush money in a new bombshell exposé.
Genevieve McDonald, a former Maine state representative who said she joined Platner’s campaign because she believed he genuinely wanted to fight for the working class, released a damning op-ed in the Washington Post on Monday evening, a day before the state’s Democrat primary.
“I know firsthand why Graham Platner shouldn’t be a U.S. senator,” the headline read. What followed was a recap of the embattled candidate’s scandals, including accusations of abusive behavior towards women he has dated, donning a Nazi tattoo for 18 years, sexting several women while married, and a host of others.
While Platner has received defense from Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Chris Murphy (D-CT), other Democrats, like Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) and Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA), have denounced him.
“I quit the campaign in October, disturbed by what I learned about the candidate and concerned about his potential impact on the Democratic Party’s prospects in my home state,” McDonald wrote. “As Tuesday’s primary arrives, I want to make clear what transpired since August and why my concerns have only grown […] Graham Platner is not someone who would be good for Maine or for the country.”
According to Platner’s former political director, he “exhibits a pattern of dishonest behavior that is impossible to ignore.”
“Despite being exposed by a series of scandals beginning last October, he kept assuring voters and the Democratic Party that there were no more skeletons in his closet,” McDonald stated. “Then more emerged — the latest, in recent days, have involved former girlfriends’ serious accusations of physical mistreatment.”
The New York Times published allegations by three women against Platner last week, including conservative politico Lyndsey Fifield, who dated the Mainer from 2013 to 2015.
Fifield told the outlet that Platner “could be rough” with her but stated that he “never” hit her — despite alleging that he “regularly grabbed her by the shoulders — sometimes hard enough to leave marks.”
The woman, who once worked for former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s 2024 presidential campaign and the conservative thinktank Heritage Foundation, also alleged that Platner “twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a bedroom, and held the door closed from the other side so she couldn’t get out.”
Incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) denounced these allegations, describing the stories of Platner’s behavior as “unsettling” and “troubling.”
McDonald continued on, identifying herself as “one of the Platner campaign’s first gaslighting casualties.”
“In September, he told me that he had a tattoo that could be problematic, but assured me that it was just a military thing. I believed him,” she wrote. “Then, I began receiving calls from Washington warning me he was not who he seemed: ‘Have you read his oppo file?’ I had not. I trusted that his out-of-state consulting team had thoroughly vetted him.”
While McDonald said she worked hard to sell Platner’s “narrative of redemption” to voters, she was sharing her “growing apprehension” of him with her inner circle of friends at the same time.
“When I raised concerns to anyone in the campaign, Platner would call me and convince me that everything was fine and that his intentions were noble,” she recalled. “I was willing to believe his explanations — I wanted to believe — until his flaws as a candidate became impossible to ignore.”
Then, now-deleted Reddit posts from an account of Platner’s were published. The highlights include him telling a Purple Heart recipient that he did not deserve to live, talking about how he masturbates in port-a-potties, and how victims of sexual assault should “just take some responsibility for themselves.”
“Troubling posts kept surfacing,” McDonald wrote. After Platner’s 2013 Reddit comments on sexual assault victims were revealed by the Washington Post on October 17, 2025, she publicly resigned from the campaign.
“I would no longer validate Platner,” she continued, describing how the campaign allegedly offered her $15,000 to sign a nondisclosure agreement, but she refused.
Platner’s tattoo lies blew up in his face after he claimed that he did not know it was associated with the Nazi Party and had gotten it during a night of drinking in his twenties while on leave from the U.S. Marines in Croatia. He eventually covered up the tattoo with a different one after initially saying he would have it removed.
McDonald wrote, “Then his skull-and-crossbones tattoo, a symbol used by the Nazis, was revealed. His team’s cavalier response, and what I strongly suspected was his feigned ignorance about the significance, was appalling. I said so publicly.”
She began receiving attacks from the campaign in the media, being dubbed a disgruntled ex-employee who was only offered a severance package not based on signing an NDA.
“Then, in late May, the Wall Street Journal contacted me, saying it had multiple sources confirming that Platner, who is married, had a history of sexting with other women,” McDonald wrote. “His wife, Amy Gertner, had made the campaign aware of the problem before Labor Day — an early sign, for me, that the candidate I had signed up with a few weeks earlier was not who he seemed.”
Despite the drama Platner had found himself engulfed in, “many Democrats seem unconcerned,” McDonald remarked, before calling Sen. Sander’s response to the behavior “dismissive.”
“Is he a saint? I guess not. I don’t know too many saints here,” the socialist lawmaker said during a CNN appearance.
Sanders’ comment reflects “one of the deepest problems in American politics today,” McDonald argued, before concluding her piece by making a plea to Maine voters:
We have learned to excuse what we should condemn. I want better for my daughters, and for the people of Maine. Democrats are being sold a narrative that Platner is the only choice for the race against Republican Sen. Susan Collins. Maine voters don’t have to accept that. There are two other named candidates on Tuesday’s ballot. If Platner wins the nomination but later withdraws, Maine Democrats can hold a convention and choose a different nominee.
The answer to a broken political culture is not to accept it. Demand better from those entrusted with power or seeking it. Enough is enough.
Platner remains the projected frontrunner in Tuesday’s Democrat primary over Gov. Janet Mills and David Costello. The polls closed at 8:00 p.m., with no results in at the time of publishing.
Lyndsey Fifield, the aforementioned conservative woman who accused Platner of disturbing behavior during their relationship that ended over a decade ago, praised McDonald for sharing her story:
“Last year, I watched a woman sacrifice her career to stand on principle and warn the public about a dangerous man,” Fifield wrote on X, along with a link to the Washington Post op-ed. “Genevieve has been relentlessly attacked—but she kept her honor and her soul. She has inspired me to stay strong through this storm.”
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.
