Graham Platner's ex-girlfriend torches New York Times over 'twisting' bombshell 'abuse' exposé

By JON MICHAEL RAASCH, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT Published: 16:45, 5 June 2026 | Updated: 16:45, 5 June 2026 An ex-girlfriend of Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner has bashed the New York Times for downplaying her 'abuse' in a new exposé.  Lyndsey Fifield spoke with the Times for an article detailing his behavior towards women on Thursday. The bombshell report raises serious questions about Platner's treatment of women while he is already under fire over a sexting scandal. The married Maine Democrat left a trail of bad impressions with women he dated from both Washington, DC, and his home state of Maine. He admitted to sexting multiple women after he was married to Amy Gertner in 2023.  Platner is running in the contentious Maine Senate race, hoping to oust incumbent Senator Susan Collins, a Republican. The string of scandals has brought new scrutiny from both sides of the aisle to the candidate's campaign.  Platner and Collins are currently neck and neck in the polls, each receiving 46 percent among likely voters, according to a new survey from Republican firm Fabrizio, Lee & Associates. Fifield said that Platner would become aggressive, particularly when drinking. Though she said he 'never hit me,' she claimed he would regularly grab her by the shoulders, leaving marks, and once pulled her from a taxi by her wrist during an argument. Fifield, a conservative operative, also recalled an incident in which he twisted her arm behind her back, pushed her into a bedroom, and held the door shut, telling her to stay there until she was 'calm.' But now Fifield is accusing the Times of not telling the full story, claiming they 'methodically delayed and twisted' her story into a story she likened to 'a gift to the Platner campaign.'    Graham Platner, Democratic candidate for US Senate in Maine,has been accused of being abusive towards women by one of his ex-girlfriends, Lyndsey Fifield  Fiefield, shown here with Platner, dated the candidate on and off a gain from 2013 to 2015. She is now accusing the New York Times of twisting her account into 'a gift' for the Democrat's campaign Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner and his wife Amy Gertner 'The Times also failed to include any mention that I DID confide in multiple friends through the years that Graham had been abusive — long before he was running for office. Those friends confirm they told the Times so,' she posted on social media after the expose was published.  'It dawned on me that this really was a set up all along,' she continued. 'The journalists I trusted who convinced me to share a story I never wanted to tell methodically delayed and twisted this into a gift to the Platner campaign.' She further accused the outlet of violating the trust of his victims and 'shattering the trust I placed in them with the most vulnerable story of my life.' The ex-girlfriend penned several social media posts on Friday, claiming that she was told by the NYT reporters that the story would feature other women who claimed Platner sexually assaulted them.  But the exposé was void of any such claims.  'After the story went up I began to ask them … wait, where are the stories from the other women? Where are their accusations of sexual assault?' Fifield wrote.  The story did include remarks from two of Platner's other ex-girlfriends, but they stopped short of any sexual assault accusations.  Jenny Racicot, another of the Maine Democrat's former lovers, said without elaborating that Platner 'does not respect women.'  Graham Platner with his Nazi-linked Totenkopf tattoo, before he covered it up. He claimed he did not know the image's historical ties to the Nazi party and the SS, but the NYT expose includes claims from his ex that he did indeed know the history of the tattoo Platner's Kik profile picture, viewed by the Daily Mail, showed the Democratic candidate posing shirtless and in only a towel. He admitted to sexting multiple women while married A third anonymous lover was also quoted, but she simply claimed to be 'collateral damage to the world that is his.'  He would also speak about 'rape' in an odd and disturbing way, Fifield claimed in the NYT piece.  'He said this a lot: If anybody ever broke in here, I would rape them,' she recalled, he added the act would be not be in 'a sexual way, not in a gay way.' 'He was like, I would rape them to show them that I’m dominant,' she said. Fifield insisted to the Times that if Platner were running as a Republican, she 'would be doing this exact same thing.' 'I know it looks like a bitter ex-girlfriend Republican trying to take down a Democrat — it has nothing to do with that,' Fifield said.  Platner's campaign told the Daily Mail in a statement, 'Let's be very clear: This is a lifelong GOP operative who's dedicated her career to electing Republicans.'  Racicot also described Platner's behavior to the Times as 'reckless' and 'unsettling.' 'When I saw the old comments that he made online,' she said, 'I recognized a version of him that I had experiences with.'  The third unnamed woman, a Maine Democrat, described the candidate as charismatic at times but also prone to heavy bouts of drinking. The Daily Mail has contacted the New York Times for comment.   No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? 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