Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner is facing allegations of unsettling and in least one case physically threatening behavior toward women he dated, according to a report published Thursday by The New York Times.
The report, which is based on interviews with six women who previously dated Platner, comes amid intensified scrutiny of his candidacy and raises new questions about the viability of a candidate who has become his party’s presumptive nominee against Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
Not all of the women who spoke to the New York Times described troubling behavior from Platner. But three of them described volatile and “toxic” relationships, including allegations of heavy drinking, infidelity, demeaning behavior toward women and, in one account, physical intimidation.
Platner “strongly disputes” any claims of physical intimidation or altercations, his campaign said.
Some of the accounts of the women go back more than a decade, to a time when Platner, a combat veteran, had recently left military service. Platner has openly admitted his struggles with PTSD, depression and drinking during this time.
