Bernie Sanders defends Graham Platner after reports of sexually explicit text messages

CongressBernie Sanders defends Graham Platner after reports of sexually explicit text messagesOther progressive members of Congress who endorsed Platner, the leading Democratic candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in Maine, are also coming to his defense.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner stand together during a “Fighting Oligarchy” tour stop at the Collins Center for the Arts on the University of Maine campus on May 24 in Orono, Maine.Joe Raedle / Getty ImagesShareAdd NBC News to GoogleJune 1, 2026, 7:32 PM EDTBy Sahil Kapur and Raquel Coronell UribeWASHINGTON — Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is defending Senate candidate Graham Platner following news reports that the presumptive Democratic nominee in Maine exchanged sexually explicit texts with women at the beginning of his marriage.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Sanders, who has endorsed Platner in his bid to unseat GOP Sen. Susan Collins, said that working families face bigger issues than Platner’s marriage.“We got a housing crisis. People can’t afford healthcare, they can’t afford groceries, they can’t afford to fill up their gas tanks. And I think it’s important for us to focus on the issues facing working families a little bit more than Graham Platner’s marriage,” Sanders told reporters on Capitol Hill.“I wish their marriage the very best. But right now, I think we should be focusing on the crises facing the working class and electing people of the guts to stand up to the oligarchs who control our country,” Sanders said.He also said that Platner’s wife, whom he called a “very lovely woman” he’s had “the opportunity to meet,” was standing by him.Platner’s wife, Amy Gertner, said in a video that Platner’s campaign released over the weekend that she was “really angry” about the reports of the text messages, and that she found it “shameful” that there were peopl...