MAINE KAMPF: Chris Hayes Triages Graham Platner After New Bombshells

Jorge Bonilla
June 5th, 2026 1:58 AM

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As predictable as the Sun rising in the East, new bombshells dropped against the embattled Maine Democrat Senate candidate, Herr Oystergruppenfuhrer Graham Platner. The New York Times published an article enumerating some deeply concerning behaviors by Platner as told by his ex-girlfriends. An emergency interview with MS Now’s Chris Hayes ensued. Here are some of the most telling moments from that interview.

For the most part, the interview played like a 24-minute extended remix of The New York Times’s Lulu García-Navarro asking Platner whether there was anything else he wanted to get ahead of, and Platner replying in the negative. Hayes tried to strike a delicate balance between giving Platner the customary MS NOW tongue bath, and trying to assess whether any additional damage was incoming. 

Hayes begins the interview by going directly to the Lyndsey Fifield portion of the Times article, which is the most damaging. Platner denies the allegations upon direct questioning from Hayes (Click “expand” to view transcripts)

CHRIS HAYES: I just want to say at the start that like, you know, we've had you on before and I think you and I are both people that in other contexts talk about income inequality and health care and all those issues, which are extremely important. And we devote a lot of time to on this program. We are- this is not, you know, the thing that we spend a lot of time chasing. 

But, you know, there's some serious stuff there I want to go through with you. And I think voters have a right to know about it. And I want to start with what Ms. Fifield says about being “rough”, is the term the Times wrote. And I'm going to just read you the account so you have it. This is from the Times. 

“Mr. Platner could be rough with her, Ms. Fifield said, particularly when they were drinking, leaving her shaken and sometimes afraid. In the interviews, she grappled with how to process her experiences. She was quick to note ‘he never hit me. He never punched me.’ She said he regularly grabbed her by the shoulders, sometimes hard enough to leave marks. On one occasion yanked her out of a cab by her wrist after an argument when she wanted to stay in the car. During one argument, she recalled, he twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a bedroom and held the door closed from the other side so she couldn't get out, telling her to remain there until she was calm. Eventually, Ms. Fifield said, she fell asleep and left the next morning. ‘It hurt’, she said. But she added, ‘it didn't cause any injury. It didn't break my arm.’ Did that happen?

GRAHAM PLATNER: No. It did not. There are some allegations in this piece that I just want to be kind of unequivocal about are simply not true. Anything alleging physicality, anything alleging that I knew what my tattoo was. These are the statements of someone who's politically motivated. In this piece, there's a lot about my struggling, not being a good boyfriend, certainly self-medicating with alcohol. And I've been very upfront since the beginning of this campaign that that was a pretty dark period of my life after I came back from my combat service. And that's what that combat ser-, that's what that kind of life looks like. And, and so there are things in this that I absolutely will take responsibility for and have been speaking about openly for months now. But those serious allegations are just not true.

HAYES: You did not grab her by the wrist. You did not put your hands on her shoulders. You did not push her into a room that you closed the door on. 

PLATNER: No.

HAYES: She’s- she’s lying about that, is what you’re saying.

PLATNER: Yes. That is not true.

This exchange is important because it reveals the pattern that defined the rest of the interview. Hayes lays out some damning fact or accusation, Platner goes into a pre-set statement, Hayes offers little if any pushback and moves on. Such is the case with the disturbing allegations made by Fifield, who appears to be getting not much “believe all victims” benefit of the doubt. Platner brushes off the accusations as being based on partisan motivation and Hayes lets it go.

Next up: the Totenkopf tattoo.

HAYES: You- you mentioned the tattoos, so I want to talk about that because I think this was troubling to a lot of people. And I think, again, your account of it assuaged some of that- that fear clearly in Maine voters, as reflected, again, by reporting and polling. She says, same person, that you referred to the tattoo as “my Totenkampf(SIC),” which is the German word for this particular Nazi symbol. There is other reporting in Jewish Insider in October, in which an anonymous acquaintance says, you used that same phrase. Did you know what this tattoo was about before last October when you said you first became aware of it?

PLATNER: No, I did not. And I also think it's important to note that it's very likely, and I think that that she is that same source. She's the person who's been telling people this from the beginning. And it's a- so I feel like, you know, we're kind of rehashing the thing we've been through. I had that tattoo for 17 years. It's a skull and crossbones. I got it with other Marines who I served with in Iraq, in Croatia. And in the time that I had it, I got a security clearance with the State Department. I re-enlisted in the United States Army where I was screened for gang and hate tattoos, and I took my shirt off in front of my family, many of whom are Jewish. We even released as a campaign a video which you're putting up on the screen right now of me dancing at my brother's wedding to his wife, who is Jewish, and her fully extended Jewish family. And I would not have taken my shirt off in that context if I had known. And so any statement saying that I did know is- is, again, totally false.

HAYES: I do want to follow up on one place on this, and I don't want to get too forensic, but, you know, the Times basically reported that they saw texts of hers, including a text in August, I believe August 3rd of last year. This would be before October of last year, in which she basically said that you had a, quote, “Nazi tattoo”, and she joked about how she was going to go volunteer for Collins. Now, again, this is a text that got sent so we can place the time. Right? This is in August. How does she know it's a Nazi tattoo in August of last year? And you don't know it's Nazi tattoo in August of last year?

PLATNER: Well, she certainly didn't send that text to me. So whoever she sent it to and was talking to, that's- I can't say why, but I will say that I certainly didn't know. And and the text messages she sent to friends who may have recognized it’s- they didn’t tell me that. So.

Here again, Platner’s strategy is to deflect and blame Fifield. And Hayes’s strategy appears to be to enable that while appearing to ask hard questions. This is not so much an interview as it is an emergency triage effort where there are multiple wounds requiring attention.

Hayes shifts to the sexting scandal, setting up Platner for a lengthy communications set piece that is light on details. Hayes tries to pin Platner down on a specific time frame as to when he stopped the sexts. Platner’s response: “I stopped when it was happening.”

We move on to the next eye-popping moment, wherein Hayes asks Platner if there are any texts or compromising pictures of Platner that could get dropped late in the race. Platner’s response- not a no, but “I’m not worried about it,” leading to another lengthy set piece about redemption and “transformational politics."

HAYES: Are there texts of yours, pictures of yours floating around out there, which again, maybe from a time capsule. But people I think are understandably a little nervous. Maybe you'll be the nominee, probably be the nominee for the Maine Senate on Tuesday, and then it's October 10th. And here's a text or picture of Graham Platner that is not the kind of thing that you want to see. Like, are you worried about that? Are there texts like that?

PLATNER: I'm not worried about it. I mean, one, I went as I've talked to him, I went through my life through a number of years struggling and not exactly acting with the best behavior. I've been very, very open about that. And if people would like to continue to drag things up from that time in my life, I'm sure that we are going to see at some point somebody attempt to do exactly that.

Just know that these are things that happened before I became a public figure, before I got into politics, and it's a part of my life that I'm very happy to talk about and talk about the struggles within. And so I do think that as we move forward, you know, what we've built up here is really something quite spectacular. It's very new. And I think one of the reasons why it's worked so well is because I have been very open with the people of Maine. I go all over the state, I've held over 80 town halls, and I ask or I answer questions from Mainers, regardless of what the question is. I've made myself very accessible to people, and I want them to know about my struggles because I firmly believe that if you believe in a transformational politics, you've got to believe in the ability for people to transform. And my journey is one of transformation, and I'm very happy to talk about that earlier part in my life. And I have no doubt that people will attempt to continue to revisit Reddit posts, continue to try to revisit parts of my past. But I think what's really important to note here is that these are things that I talk about in my past, things that I'm not proud of, but it is a past that I had to go through to get where I am today, and I’m very proud of who I am today. I’m very proud of the movement that we’ve built up here in Maine. 

In a rare follow-up, Hayes practically begs Platner for assurance that the recipients of the inevitable next incoming tranche of texts or pictures were consenting adults. Platner provides a definitive “yes.” 

HAYES: Just to be clear, just about revisiting, right? I mean, I think- channeling concerns, I think of Democratic voters and Democratic officials, and a lot of people, right? That it's not a question of revisiting, right? It's new revelations like vis a vis, you know, texts or pictures. And I just, I know you want to give some privacy in your marriage, but I really do feel like I need to get these answers from you, which is like the people you were texting with, whatever that was in whatever context- they were adult women. You knew that and it was consensual. Is that true?

PLATNER: Yes.

HAYES: And you have that- you confirmed that you knew their age.

PLATNER: Yes. Oh, God. I mean, yeah. Yes, of course.

What is this if not a modified limited hangout meant to blunt the impact of whatever else might drop? What was that if not an admission that more is to come? 

At this point, Hayes gets Platner to react to statements from Senator Elissa Slotkin and Governor Janet Mills. Hayes then tried to get Platner to specify that there is nothing else inbound. Platner bemoans a “dirty campaign,” and promises nothing new. After some back and forth on trustworthiness, Hayes closes out by asking Platner whether the DCSS or any other entity has tried to get him to drop out, ti which Platner replies in the negative.

HAYES: Final question for you. Have you had any communication with the folks at the DSCC, or Democratic operatives who have talked about dropping out, who have talked about other options? Have you received any communication today about that?

PLATNER: No, I have not. And and I- I expect that we will not, primarily because what we've built up here, it's robust. It's very strong. I mean, even just the past couple days, the outpouring of support that Amy and I have seen has been deeply humbling. We have people dropping off food at our house. We have neighbors coming across with eggs. Everybody is incredibly concerned about our well-being because they feel like we're being attacked in some way, and they want to help protect us. And it is that kind of feeling of community, that feeling of standing up for each other that I really think embodies this whole campaign. And that's why we're going to beat Susan Collins in November.

HAYES: All right. Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, who will be on the ballot on Tuesday, in Maine. We will be covering that here. I really- I do appreciate you taking all that time today to do that interview. 

PLATNER: No, of course. Thanks, Chris.

The interview then gives way to a panel discussion with “Air” Claire McCaskill and The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, who were not assuaged by Platner’s responses. Watch as Hayes goes into a “but Trump” defense of Platner, weirdly tying the allegations to the E. Jean Carroll case- and Tim Miller’s discomfort at Planer’s replies.

HAYES: You know, that- that point you just made, Claire. Tim, you know, we live in the Donald Trump era, right? So everything is sort of, in some ways been transformed. I mean, I was saying to someone the other day that if the article that came out today said a woman is accusing Graham Platner of raping her in a dressing room, like that would be it. It would be over. Right? Like the- the thing that E. Jean Carroll said about Donald Trump, that, you know, it was then essentially sustained by civil juries under preponderance of evidence standard, like that would be it in this context. And that's also not to say, like, that, like, a whatabout response? Because the other thing I tell myself is- the moral ruin of the Republican party has been its inability to do any line drawing. And so that- that also can't be the kind of model for how Democrats deal with whatever era we live in now, with whatever rules there are.

TIM MILLER: Yeah, we don't want to copy them. I mean, I left the Republican party for a reason. It's nice to have some standards. But I don't think obviously that Graham Platner is Donald Trump, for a million reasons….

HAYES: To be very clear.

MILLER: …very clearly the one that Claire McCaskill laid out. You know, the fact that he's apologized for what he did and he's trying to become a better man. I don't think I've ever heard Donald Trump say what Graham Platner just said in that interview, that he's trying to become a better man every day. I don't think he is. I think he's doing the opposite, you know? So, look, I think that in addition to what Claire said, I would just add a couple things. One is he's obviously resonated in Maine with people of Maine, and it's been his political message that's resonating. And he's a very talented politician. And if we're going to be part of a big pro-democracy movement from former Republicans to quasi-socialists, with Claire McCaskill in the middle, like, you got to respect democracy. And that's kind of what democracy is. You know, a candidate putting themselves before the voters, offering a platform and looking for voters that- that decided that's the platform that they'd like to see. I think Graham Platner has done that successfully. Like the other part of that, though, is that there's like a little bit of unknown- a known unknown, to borrow from Don Rumsfeld here, that I think is the concerning part of this, right, which is there is a prospective element to this. Right? 

HAYES: Right. 

MILLER: He's resonated, his message has resonated to date. We don't exactly know what's to come. And I think that's the one thing that concerns me about this a little bit. It does feel risky. It's an extremely important state. The Democrats absolutely have to take the Senate, which means they have to take four states. Maine is- should be the easiest one. And so for that to be the one causing the most problems right now is a little concerning. I mean, it should be the easiest in the sense that it's the one that Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton all won. So ostensibly, a Democrat should only have to get their voters to win. 

HAYES: Right. 

MILLER: So there, that is the one thing that sticks with me about this. And part of it is, you know, Graham Platner and whether that, you know, whether what he's saying is accurate and, you know, you have to be respectful of women that are speaking out, but there's only the one woman that's a Republican operative that's that's suggesting anything untoward. The thing that worries me is his answers to your questions on kind of like, when did this stop and what else might come out? It still left me a little uncertain. I don't feel certain that this story is the last one, and given the importance and the stakes of the race, you know- I think that’s one thing for Maine voters to consider, along with the message that’s resonating.

In sum: But Trump, blame Lyndsey. That’s the ultimate takeaway from this triage interview, or modified limited hangout- whatever your perspective might be. 

What we saw wasn’t an exchange in pursuit of the truth and of justice for potential victims of what appears to be some manner of dating violence. If there was any concern shown for victims, it wasn’t for any of the women who endured Platner’s various predations. Instead, concern was reserved for the truest and purest victim of Platner’s indiscretions: the Democrats’ chances at retaking the Senate.

 

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