ABC, NBC Ignore Disturbing New Allegations Against Maine Dem Graham Platner

Curtis Houck
June 5th, 2026 1:47 PM

Text to Speech

00:00 00:00
Font Size

On Thursday afternoon, The New York Times released a long-rumored item about embattled Maine Democratic senatorial candidate and liberal media darling Graham Platner that detailed claims that many will find unsettling and even abusive toward ex-girlfriends.

The major broadcast networks – ABC, CBS, and NBC – saw no reason to tell viewers about it on their flagship Thursday night newscasts. On their lead Friday morning shows, the blackout continued with nothing ABC’s Good Morning America and NBC’s Today, but CBS Mornings stepped out with nearly six minutes (5:42).

CBS co-host Nate Burleson even teased it twice, including telling viewers before the “Eye Opener” set of teases that “we also have new allegations of misconduct by Senate candidate Graham Platner.”

Following a lead-off report on the Senate passing President Trump’s border funding package, featured co-host Vladimir Duthiers declared: “A Democratic candidate in a crucial Senate race in Maine [is] facing explosive new allegations. The New York Times reports some women who used to date Graham Platner say they saw disturbing behavior. Platner was already facing scrutiny over explicit texts he sent to other women early in his marriage.”

Congressional correspondent Caitlin Huey Burns noted this was “the second time this week” that Platner was “fac[ing] new controversy” and, even though he “acknowledged that he made mistakes and was far from a perfect boyfriend, he denies allegations, these new allegations from former girlfriends, and insists he is staying in the race.”

Huey-Burns covered the explosive claims from two women he previously dated, Lyndsey Fifield and Jenny Racicot (although Huey-Burns didn’t mention her by name). She included Fifield’s claims about being grabbed in a way that most reasonable people would deem abuse or even assault (click “expand”):

HUEY-BURNS: Graham Platner pushed back late Thursday against new allegations he was physically rough with at least one woman he dated.

PLATNER [on MSNOW’s All In with Chris Hayes, 06/04/26]: Those serious allegations are just not true.

HUEY-BURNS: Lindsey Fifield told The New York Times that, while he dated a decade ago, Platner “never hit me, he never punched me,” but she said he regularly grabbed her by the shoulders – sometimes hard enough to leave marks.” And she alleged. “[d]uring one argument, he twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a bedroom and held the door closed.”

PLATNER [on MSNOW’s All In with Chris Hayes, 06/04/26]: There are some allegations in this piece that I just want to be kind of unequivocal about are simply not true.

(….)

HUEY-BURNS: Platner’s campaign told CBS News, “Let’s be very clear. This is a lifelong GOP operative who’s dedicated her career to electing Republicans.” But a second woman, a Maine Democrat, who also said she dated Platner, told The New York Times she found some of his behavior “reckless” and “unsettling.”

Whereas The Times spent 11 paragraphs litigating her employment history, Huey-Burns merely noted it: “Fifield has worked for right-leaning causes and Republican campaigns, but denied any connection to Republican Maine Senator Susan Collins, who Platner would face this fall if he wins Tuesday’s primary.”

Huey-Burns ducked the fact that leading Senate Democrats haven’t abandoned him, instead claiming his behavior has “led to questions from some” of them, citing Pete Welch (VT) and John Fetterman (PA) as examples. All told, she said “some high-profile Democrats are sticking by Platner,” including Congressman Ro Khanna (CA) still planning to campaign with him.

The CBS reporter also kept up the charade of Platner as working class and a newbie to politics (“a political novice and oyster farmer”) and said his Nazi tattoo is merely “widely recognized as a Nazi symbol.”

The show then turned to CBS News contributor and former Obama official, Joel Payne. Duthiers asked him what he made of Platner’s denials because “this is the latest in a slew of controversies” and left “a lot of people are suggesting, is this really the best candidate to win[.]”

Payne didn’t directly respond to the allegations, but said Platner “has allowed” the campaign “to become a referendum on him” and not Susan Collins, which he believes “the campaign plans to pivot to do that” to emerge from “the morass that he’s in right now.”

Saturday co-host Kelly O’Grady pressed by pointing out “there’s a lot of time between the primary and the general election” and life could remain “really problematic for him” because “[w]e’re going to expect a lot of digging to happen between now and then.”

Payne doubled down on Platner since voters could look past all this because they have shown “they will accept flawed, imperfect candidates who have complicated, and frankly, pretty sordid pasts if it goes to the brand of that candidate,” and because Platner “has never sold himself to be a choir boy.”

It’s not as though ABC and NBC weren’t aware of this story. In ABC’s case, they buried with nearly two minutes (1:50) on their overnight, little-watched show, Good Morning America: First Look:

Sadly, The Times seems to have engaged in a soft catch-and-kill on behalf of Platner. According to Fifield and a Daily Caller column by Will Upton, the paper had encouraged her to speak out after informing her of other women with disturbing allegations.

But once she came forward, those were left on the cutting room floor, along with the longtime friends Fifield offered to corroborate her story.

Full disclosure: I’ve been friendly with Fifield for many years. While I wouldn’t say we’re friends or communicate regularly, I’ve always viewed her as an exception to The Swamp: a funny, hard-working person with integrity.

To see the relevant transcripts from June 5, click here (for CBS Mornings) and here (for ABC’s Good Morning America: First Look).

Donor Privacy Policy