{"id":99813,"date":"2026-06-04T08:33:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T08:33:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/99813\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T08:33:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T08:33:22","slug":"chuck-schumer-stands-by-graham-platner-and-avoids-questions-after-dc-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/99813\/","title":{"rendered":"Chuck Schumer stands by Graham Platner and avoids questions after DC meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Speaking with reporters after a meeting with Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner on Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sidestepped questions about controversies in the political newcomer\u2019s campaign, repeating a scripted and ambiguous message of resolve.<\/p>\n

\u201cI met with Graham Platner today. We\u2019re going to beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate,\u201d the New York Democrat said when asked about Platner\u2019s controversies, the latest of which emerged over the weekend when it came to light that in 2024 the then-recently married oyster farmer from Sullivan had sent sexually explicit text messages to six other women.<\/p>\n

Schumer delivered that message five times in less than 60 seconds. He offered no details of the meeting, one of multiple with Democratic lawmakers<\/a>\u00a0Platner has planned along with a fundraiser Tuesday. A Democratic source familiar with the Platner-Schumer meeting told the Bangor Daily News it was productive but did not elaborate.<\/p>\n

Schumer repeated his remarks when pressed more than once on whether Gov. Janet Mills \u2014 whom he initially recruited to run against the five-term Collins but lagged in polls and fundraising \u2014 should revive the campaign she suspended in late April<\/a>: \u201cAny other subject you got?\u201d the senator snapped.<\/p>\n

The meetings with senators come after The Wall Street Journal<\/a>\u00a0and New York Times<\/a>\u00a0reported that Platner had sexted multiple women a few years ago. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

When BDN shines a light, policymakers act. Make a gift to help our reporters keep Maine\u2019s leaders informed. Make a donation now.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

The latest controversy followed several that arose in the fall, including a Nazi-linked tattoo Platner has since covered, and offensive social media comments about women, Black people and rural Mainers. The sexting reports heightened concerns among Democrats in Maine and nationwide, as Platner is the presumptive nominee and the state is a must-win for the party\u2019s hopes of flipping the Senate. <\/p>\n

Several supporters, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, have come to Platner\u2019s defense, and some Democratic senators have sidestepped questions on his past to focus on the candidate\u2019s push for a working-class movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is campaigning on health care costs, food costs, gasoline costs, on the impact that [President Donald] Trump economic policies are having upon the lives of people who live in Maine,\u201d Sen. Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts, told MSNOW<\/a>\u00a0Tuesday morning. \u201cThat is the issue which \u2026 Maine voters are going to want to have the focus on for the rest of this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanders, whose office did not respond to a request for comment, told reporters Tuesday that he was still backing Platner. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s running an extraordinarily strong campaign in Maine,\u201d Sanders said outside the U.S. Capitol. \u201cHe\u2019s talking about the needs of working families. The big money interests have already pledged to spend some $90 million in super PACs to try to defeat him, why is that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Republicans have increasingly jumped at every revelation to blast Platner as unfit for office.<\/p>\n

\u201cGraham Platner is morally bankrupt and attempts by Democrat leadership to rescue his candidacy show just how far they will go to advance their far-left agenda,\u201d Republican National Committee spokesperson Kristen Cianci said in a statement Tuesday. \u201cIf Chuck Schumer, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and other Democrats leaders still haven\u2019t found their red line with Platner, they never will.\u201d <\/p>\n

Outside Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee headquarters in Washington, where meetings between Platner and some senators were reportedly taking place, a small crowd of protesters chanted that Platner was \u201ca creep.\u201d At least two were shirtless and wore a towel in reference to the profile photo on Platner\u2019s active account on the private messaging platform Kik, according to the Wall Street Journal. <\/p>\n

Platner\u2019s wife, Amy Gertner, had alerted campaign aides in August about the explicit messages. The couple, which has since gone to counseling, says they\u2019ve been betrayed by a staffer divulging private matters, and they criticized the outlets\u2019 reporting. But a campaign official told the Times Platner\u00a0had been communicating with up to six women.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t care about gossip or headlines, they care that you\u2019re fighting for their hospitals, their paycheck, their kids,\u201d Platner said this past weekend.<\/p>\n

Several senators\u2019 offices did not respond to messages seeking comment on the meetings with Platner, including Schumer and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat who endorsed Platner while Mills was criticizing the Sullivan oyster farmer over past statements on sexual assault.<\/p>\n

After the news of Platner\u2019s text messages broke, Mills told a Portland Press Herald columnist that she is \u201cstill on the ballot<\/a>.\u201d That was always going to be the case because she suspended her campaign too close to the June 9 primary to be left off the ballot, but Mills\u2019 recent comments suggested that she was always keeping the door open.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have the impression that I \u2018withdrew\u2019 or \u2018dropped out,\u2019\u201d Mills said, \u201cbut I simply suspended active campaigning.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Speaking with reporters after a meeting with Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner on Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[145],"tags":[504,3206,12318,52655],"class_list":["post-99813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chuck-schumer","tag-chuck-schumer","tag-election-2026","tag-graham-platner","tag-senate-2026"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116690917931838078","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}