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June 5, 2026 / 4:08 PM EDT
/ CBS News
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For the second time this week, Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner is facing another major controversy just days ahead of the Maine primary he is poised to win. On Thursday, the New York Times reported allegations of Platner's "unsettling" behavior toward women he dated, including one claim that he was physically abusive, which Platner denies.According to the Times, Platner's then-girlfriend, Lyndsey Fifield, said that while they were dating a decade ago, he "regularly grabbed her by the shoulders — sometimes hard enough to leave marks." During one argument, he "twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a bedroom, and held the door closed."In an interview with MS Now after the Times report was published, Platner denied Fifield's claims. "There are some allegations in this piece that I just want to be kind of unequivocal about, are simply not true," he said. Platner, a political novice and oyster farmer, has also insisted that he did not know a chest tattoo he got as a Marine while drunk in 2007 is a widely recognized Nazi symbol. He has since had the tattoo covered up. But Fifield told the Times that Platner did know its significance, and that he even joked about it."Anything alleging physicality, anything alleging that I knew what my tattoo was — these are the statements of someone who is politically motivated," Platner said in the interview.
