作者： root

‘Prairie populist’ Turek wins Democratic nomination for US Senate in Iowa

2026-06-03T01:50:24.501Z / Reuters

By David Morgan

June 3, 2026 1:50 AM UTC Updated 1 hour ago

• Turek defeats Wahls with backing from national Democrats and Tom Harkin
• Turek faces Republican Ashley Hinson, who is endorsed by Trump ​and GOP leaders
• Analysts see seat likely Republican, but polls show tight ‌race with Turek narrowly ahead

WASHINGTON, June 2 (Reuters) – Iowa State Representative Josh Turek, who describes himself as a “common-sense prairie populist,” won the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate on ​Tuesday and a chance in November to become the party’s first ​senator from the farm-belt state since 2008.

Turek, who is backed by ⁠national Democrats and former Democratic Senator Tom Harkin, defeated state Senator Zach ​Wahls 63.7%-36.3% with 30.6% of the vote counted, according to the Associated Press. ​He will square off against Republican U.S. Representative Ashley Hinson, who won her party’s nomination for the open seat.

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Turek and Hinson are running to replace Republican Joni Ernst, a two-term senator ​and retired military officer whose decision to retire from Congress has given ​Democrats hopes of picking up the seat in the general election and potentially taking control ‌of ⁠the Senate.

Turek, a 47-year-old gold medalist in Paralympic wheelchair basketball, has a history of getting elected in Republican areas, which supporters say could help him appeal to disaffected Republicans and independents at a time of rising economic anxiety. He ​has also championed access ​to healthcare, a ⁠living wage, affordable housing and other policies important to working families.

Hinson, a 42-year-old three-term congresswoman and former news anchor, ​is backed by President Donald Trump, Senate Majority Leader John ​Thune ⁠and Ernst. She opposed legislation that ultimately codified the right to same-sex marriage and has campaigned on her support for Trump’s 2025 tax-cut and spending bill.

Independent analysts ⁠rate Iowa’s ​open Senate seat as likely to remain ​Republican. Polling data suggests a tight race in November, with Turek leading by a single percentage point, ​according to the poll-tracking website, RealClearPolitics.com.

Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Lincoln Feast.

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Justice Dept. says it has obtained superseding indictment against Southern Poverty Law Center with new details on donor funds

June 2, 2026 / 11:14 PM EDT / CBS News

The Justice Department said Tuesday it obtained a superseding indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center that contained new allegations about how its donations were purportedly used to pay informants inside hate groups.

The superseding indictment, which the DOJ said was returned by a grand jury in the Middle District of Alabama, alleges that $4.1 million worth of tax-exempt funds were used to pay informants inside extremist organizations, who then allegedly engaged in activities including recruiting new members and purchasing materials for cross burnings and Ku Klux Klan robes and hoods. The charges do not stem from the general practice of paying informants but from the Justice Department’s allegations that the SPLC made these payments without disclosing the practice to donors and by defrauding banks.

The superseding indictment does not contain any new charges or name new defendants from the original version, which was returned in April.

The group still faces 11 counts of wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, with prosecutors alleging it defrauded its donors and duped its banks by creating shell accounts to funnel money to insiders who belonged to the same hate groups it pledged to dismantle.

The Southern Poverty Law Center pleaded not guilty to the charges filed in April, and recently asked the court to dismiss the case, saying it is a victim of an unlawful vindictive prosecution.

“This apparent superseding indictment attempts to shore up the flaws in the initial charges, but it changes nothing,” the SPLC’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement provided to CBS News.

“The SPLC did not lie to its donors, it did not mislead banks it did business with, and its informant program prevented violence and saved lives.”

A public copy of the superseding indictment was not yet available on the docket as of Tuesday night, and the version provided by the Justice Department was not a final signed copy.

Lowell, in his statement, said the Justice Department appeared to have shared a copy of the superseding indictment with the media before it was unsealed by the federal district court.

Such a move represents “another example of the government’s troubling and unusual handling of this case,” he said, adding that SPLC’s legal team would be addressing such irregularities with the court.

The new version of the indictment appeared to clean up what some former prosecutors said was problematic language in the older version.

In the prior version, the indictment alleged that an SPLC employee who opened the bank accounts in question made “false or misleading statements.”

But the Supreme Court last year, in Thompson v. USA, ruled that the bank fraud statute at issue only criminalizes false statements — and not statements that are misleading but not false. Former prosecutors told CBS News that this error meant the indictment was wrongfully suggesting that misleading statements could be criminal, and they predicted that the DOJ would need to return to the grand jury to fix the mistake.

The new version of the indictment no longer includes the words “or misleading” in reference to the statements made to banks.

The superseding indictment also contains information about SPLC’s revenue from its public tax filings, which had not been included in the original indictment.

DOJ charges Southern Poverty Law Center with fraud

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/justice-department-charges-southern-poverty-law-center-fraud-extremism-investigations/

Justice Department charges Southern Poverty Law Center with fraud over extremism investigations

(03:21)

AI声音诈骗激增 美国母亲误信“儿子求救”险被骗钱

2026年6月3日 11:23 / 联合早报

美国联邦调查局今年4月警告，涉及AI技术的诈骗正快速增加，其中包括语音克隆骗局。FBI指出，美国民众去年因AI诈骗损失超过8亿9300万美元（约11亿新元）。 （示意图/王彦燕摄）

随着人工智能（AI）技术迅速发展，语音克隆诈骗在美国愈发猖獗。不法分子利用AI模仿亲友声音，制造紧急情境骗取金钱，令受害者防不胜防。

美国纽约州布法罗市46岁保险经纪人本茨（Liz Benz）告诉法新社，她近日接到一通陌生来电，对方声音与16岁儿子弗雷德几乎一模一样，语气、发音和说话节奏都高度相似。

电话中“儿子”哭着求助，称朋友遭枪击身亡，自己则被绑架，绑匪要求她带现金到附近超市交赎金。

本茨一度深信不疑，直到儿子从当地橄榄球赛现场传来自拍照，她才意识到这是一场精心设计的骗局。

她说，这场惊魂持续约20分钟，让她至今心有余悸。“没有什么能让我做好听到儿子声音的心理准备，也没有任何事能让我相信这是一场骗局，直到亲眼看到儿子安然无恙。”

美国联邦调查局（FBI）今年4月警告，涉及AI技术的诈骗正快速增加，其中包括语音克隆骗局。FBI指出，美国民众去年因AI诈骗损失超过8亿9300万美元（约11亿新元）。

如今，网上可轻易找到大量语音克隆应用程序，部分甚至免费，仅需数秒真实录音，就能生成高度逼真的声音复制品。

提供AI诈骗防范培训的安保公司Adaptive Security首席执行官朗（Brian Long）指出，过去制作逼真语音克隆较困难，如今“任何人几秒钟内就能做到”。

诈骗通常以“亲人陷入危机”为套路，例如车祸、被捕或卷入犯罪，并要求紧急汇款。骗子还可能冒充律师、法庭人员或银行职员轮番施压，制造混乱与恐慌。

网络安全公司Pindrop产品管理副总裁古普塔直言，许多以家庭紧急情况为幌子的诈骗，甚至未必需要完美复制声音，“一句带着焦急语气的‘妈妈，救我’，只需几秒钟足够可信”，就可能让受害者在查证前仓促行动。

专家警告，年长者尤其容易受骗，“祖父母诈骗”案例持续增加。

FBI数据显示，美国60岁以上长者去年通报损失超过77亿美元，较前年显著上升。

曾于2020年遭遇类似骗局的73岁律师希尔德霍恩（Gary Schildhorn）说，他当时接到冒充他儿子声音的电话，对方称因醉驾被捕急需保释金，令他匆忙赶往银行，直到儿子本人来电提醒“你被骗了”，才惊觉真相。

他当时回应儿子说：“我到死都会相信，那确实是你的声音，是你的语调，你惯用的措辞。没有口音，电话那头就是你。”

Exclusive: Warsh pledges to follow best of Fed’s traditions, while also looking for change

2026-06-02T22:21:41.364Z / https://www.reuters.com/business/warsh-pledges-follow-best-feds-traditions-while-also-looking-change-2026-06-02/

Incoming Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh stands in the East Room during his swearing-in ceremony, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 22, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

• Summary

• Warsh promises review of Fed strategies and possible operational changes
• Names conservative analysts Daniel Heil and Paul Winfree as transition advisers
• Warsh has been critical of Fed policies

WASHINGTON, June 2 (Reuters) – Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh pledged to follow “the best of the Fed’s traditions” in an opening note to the central bank’s more than 20,000 employees as he starts his four-year term, while also promising a broad ‌look at what might be done differently.

The memo is an early window on Warsh’s efforts to pursue what he has described as an extensive reform agenda for a central bank he regards as having strayed from its mission, while also mending fences with colleagues and staff whose work he has criticized.

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“Our highest priority will be to get policy right in service to ​our remit and the national interest. We will ensure an environment that supports our people in doing their life’s best work,” Warsh said ​in the memo, sent on Tuesday and reviewed by Reuters.

“We won’t rely on past practices when we find better alternatives,” Warsh ⁠said. “In the coming quarters, I expect that together we will have open, clear-eyed discussions of Fed strategies, policies, and operations.”

Separately, Warsh has named two conservative analysts ​to advise him during a transition period as he takes over from former Fed Chair and now Governor Jerome Powell, according to a source familiar with the ​new chair’s first staffing decisions. The appointments, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, were described as temporary contractor positions to help Warsh plan his first projects as chair.

Daniel Heil is a policy fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, where Warsh also worked prior to becoming Fed chair. Paul Winfree was formerly with the Heritage Foundation and assembled the chapter on ​Federal Reserve reform included in the think tank’s controversial Project 2025 blueprint for conservative reform.

Both have helped Warsh on different research and writing projects in recent ​years, the source said. As a fellow at the Hoover and in work with the Group of Thirty think tank, Warsh has kept up a steady output of speeches and ‌newspaper columns.

Warsh ⁠has laid out his own ideas for change at the Fed, including a desire to pare the Fed’s $6.7 trillion balance sheet, to talk less specifically about coming interest rate decisions, and to discuss if there are alternate measures of inflation that better capture price pressures in the economy.

In the months he was under consideration as chair, Warsh was often deeply critical of the Powell Fed’s approach to policy, and of a Fed system, including the 12 regional reserve banks, he felt ​had strayed into issues beyond monetary ​policy.

Now leading the organization he criticized, ⁠Warsh struck a more boosterish tone in the memo.

“This new chapter at the Fed finds us in a time of great consequence for our nation. New technologies and new ways of doing business are arriving with unmatched speed,” Warsh wrote. “I ​could not be more optimistic about all that we can achieve together.”

The first meeting with Warsh as chair – and ​likely his first substantive ⁠comments about the economy and monetary policy – will be on June 16-17. The Fed is expected to hold interest rates steady, but new economic projections will set expectations about where policy is heading under Warsh and whether his colleagues are concerned that inflation, which remains above the Fed’s target, may get worse.

His tenure starts on an unusual ⁠footing.

The Fed ​is awaiting a Supreme Court ruling on President Donald Trump’s attempt to fire Governor Lisa Cook, ​seen as a direct threat to the Fed’s independence in setting monetary policy, perhaps its most central tradition.

In addition, Warsh will preside over a body that includes its former leader, Powell, who because ​of the administration’s efforts to influence the Fed decided to remain in his seat on the Fed’s Board of Governors.

Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Nia Williams

WATCH: Chuck Schumer sidesteps Platner scandals, confirms support for controversial Dem

2026-06-02 6:19pm EDT / Fox News

Schumer dodged questions on the controversies surrounding Platner’s campaign, vowed to ‘take back the Senate’

By Peter Pinedo Fox News

Chuck Schumer doubles down on support for controversial Graham Platner

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., sidestepped questions about controversial Democratic candidate Graham Platner and confirmed his support for the Democrat.

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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., ignored persistent questions about controversies surrounding Democrat Graham Platner and reaffirmed his support for the embattled Senate candidate.

Platner, a Marine veteran and oyster farmer, has faced a series of controversies in recent weeks, including criticism over a tattoo with links to Nazi imagery, resurfaced Reddit posts where he made inflammatory comments about veterans and reports about sexually explicit messages exchanged with other women during his marriage.

Speaking with journalists in the Capitol on Tuesday, Schumer was pressed on whether he, as the top Senate Democrat, is satisfied with Platner’s explanations of the scandals dogging his campaign. In response, he said, “I met with Graham Platner today, we’re going to beat Sen. Susan Collins and take back the Senate.”

PLATNER CONTROVERSIES FUEL SPECULATION ABOUT LITTLE-KNOWN MAINE BALLOT REPLACEMENT PROVISION

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., confirmed his support for Maine Democratic candidate Graham Platner on Tuesday amid mounting controversy.(Joe Raedle/Getty Images; Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Schumer was asked several more times whether he still supports Platner in the face of the scandals considering his endorsement came before all the controversy. He was also asked whether Democrats’ backing of Platner undermines the party’s credibility in criticizing Texas Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton, who has faced some similar scandals.

The New York senator did not respond to these questions directly. Instead, he repeated: “We’re going to beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate.”

Schumer attempted to prompt reporters to ask about other topics.

“Any other subjects you got?” he said. But reporters continued to zero-in on his support for Platner.

After being asked about the candidate for a fifth time, Schumer finally responded, “As I said, I endorsed Graham Platner.”

“We’re going to beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate,” he reiterated before walking away.

SUNNY HOSTIN SUPPORTS GRAHAM PLATNER DESPITE CALLING HIM ‘A LIAR, A RACIST, AN ANTISEMITE’

Sen. Bernie Sanders 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 in Orono, Maine, on May 24, 2026.(Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Platner has run a deeply controversial campaign, in addition to being the subject of various scandals, he faced scrutiny for having a “Totenkopf” Nazi SS tattoo, which he then covered-up with a different tattoo.

The far-left Senate hopeful has most notably ignited backlash after his vulgar messages on a since-deleted Reddit account were uncovered. Under the moniker “P-hustle,” Platner joked about masturbating in public portable toilets, among other crude posts.

Platner also called himself a communist, denigrated rural White people as “racist” and “stupid” and singled out Black people for not tipping.

GRAHAM PLATNER PULLED OUT OF MS NOW INTERVIEW IN WAKE OF SCANDAL, HOST CLAIMS

Graham Platner, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Maine, points to a covered tattoo that was previously recognized as a Nazi symbol during an interview in Portland, Maine, on Oct. 22, 2025.(WGME via AP)

It was also recently uncovered that Platner has an active account on Kik, an anonymous chatting platform notorious for lax identification methods that have enabled the proliferation of child sexual abuse material.

The profile, reviewed by Fox News Digital, contains a sexually suggestive picture of Platner only wearing a towel around his waist. It is unclear when the image was taken, but Platner created the account in 2016.

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Schumer previously endorsed Maine Democratic Gov. Janet Mills to challenge Collins. Mills dropped out of the race in April, citing failure to garner the necessary financial backing for her campaign.

Her departure left Platner the frontrunner in the Democratic primary.

Peter Pinedo is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.

This is the main reason some college grads are struggling to find work — and it’s not AI

June 2, 2026 / 4:03 PM EDT / CBS News

By Megan Cerullo Reporter, MoneyWatch

Remote work, once seen largely as a pandemic-era perk, is hurting young workers’ employment prospects, economists say.

Work-from-home arrangements account for 64% of the jump in unemployment among young college graduates since the pandemic, according to new research from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It’s harder for managers to train and mentor young workers when they aren’t physically in the same space, the study found.

“Accordingly, companies may be reluctant to hire less-experienced workers in distributed work arrangements,” Fed research economist Natalia Emanual wrote in a blog post.

“Employers may not want to hire fresh graduates onto distributed teams because it is more difficult to teach them the requisite skills from afar,” she added.

From 2017 to 2019, the average unemployment rate for college grads under 29 years old was 3.1%. By contrast, from 2022 to 2025, joblessness for the group rose to 3.7%.

Emanual said that the growth of remote work explains “the bulk of the rise in youth unemployment,” noting that the recent rise in the jobless rate for recent college grads predates widespread adoption of AI.

“[T]he evidence to date suggests that the rise of remote work has meaningfully contributed to the recent challenges facing young college graduates,” she said.

Many economists say that AI hasn’t yet had much impact on the overall U.S. labor market, although it appears to be pushing up layoffs in the technology industry. Companies have announced nearly 50,000 job cuts this year linked to AI, according to research from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Those layoffs account for roughly 17% of the roughly 300,000 total job cuts announced so far in 2026, the firm’s figures show.

Goldman Sachs analysts estimate that AI has increased the nation’s unemployment rate, now at 4.3%, by 0.1 percentage points, noting that the increase mostly affects less experienced workers.

Edited by Alain Sherter

Amazon faces lawsuit over Ring facial recognition software

June 2, 2026 / 4:25 PM EDT / CBS News

A Virginia resident is suing Amazon for privacy violations after the e-commerce company’s Ring video doorbell camera allegedly used facial recognition technology to record and store images of his face without his consent.

Charles Sigwalt, who filed a lawsuit on Monday in Seattle federal court, where Amazon has one of its headquarters, alleges that Ring’s “Familiar Faces” feature uses facial-recognition software to scan anyone who passes by the doorbell camera and categorizes them using artificial intelligence.

The system then collects a “face print” that allows it to re-identify the person, according to his complaint, which seeks class-action status.

“When plaintiffs and class members entered the homes and businesses of places which had Ring cameras that deployed Familiar Faces, they did not consent to have their privacy rights violated at the entrance way,” the suit alleges.

Sigwalt alleges Ring collected his facial recognition data without warning while he was visiting friends’ and family members’ homes. He believes the company is still storing his biometric data, according to the lawsuit.

Amazon declined to comment on the suit.

“Familiar Faces” draws criticism

Ring introduced the “Familiar Faces” feature in September 2025, billing it as a way for owners of its doorbell camera to receive more personalized alerts when someone arrives at their residence. Instead of seeing “Person at Front Door,” for example, they might receive an alert with a name, such as “John at Front Door.”

“Your camera learns to recognize friends, family and frequent visitors over time,” the company says on its website.

Users can turn the feature on and off, according to Ring.

The Ring Spotlight Cam Pro camera during Amazon’s product event in New York on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025. Michael Nagle / Bloomberg via Getty Images

Groups like the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation have pushed back on the feature, claiming it violates people’s privacy. The biometric data could be used for mass surveillance or be leaked in a potential data breach, the group has warned.

Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts has been another vocal opponent of the Familar Faces technology, noting that it could be used to record the biometric data of people who never consented to have their faces scanned.

Other Ring backlash

Amazon has faced other litigation over its Ring product. In 2023, the Federal Trade Commission filed a suit claiming that the online retailer gave its workers and contractors access to personal videos recorded by Ring and failed to protect customer security, leading to hackers threatening or sexually propositioning Ring owners. Amazon settled the case for $5.8 million.

More recently, Amazon abruptly ended a commercial partnership with security technology company Flock Safety after backlash over a Super Bowl commercial for Ring sparked concerns about unwanted surveillance.

Amazon bought Ring in 2018 for $1 billion.

— CBS News’ Alain Sherter contributed to this report.

Possible hostage situation underway at Southern California bank

June 2, 2026 7:27 PM EDT / CBS News

By

Faris Tanyos News Editor
Faris Tanyos is a news editor for CBSNews.com, where he writes and edits stories and tracks breaking news. He previously worked as a digital news producer at several local news stations up and down the West Coast.

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Authorities were engaged in a possible hostage situation Tuesday afternoon at a bank in the Southern California city of Bakersfield.

Bakersfield police said in a social media post that “a confirmed bomb threat” was taking place at a Chase bank branch downtown.

“Please stay out of the downtown area,” police said. “Road closures are in effect and will remain in effect until further notice.”

Police told CBS affiliate KBAK-TV that there was at least one hostage involved in the incident. The number of people in the bank and the number of suspects involved were unclear. No further details were immediately confirmed. There was no word on whether there were any injuries.

An official with the Kern County Sheriff’s Office told CBS News that Bakersfield police had closed off a three-block radius surrounding the bank.

Bakersfield police had alerted the sheriff’s office about the incident but had not asked for assistance, the official said.

Bakersfield is located about 110 miles north of Los Angeles.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Trump administration drops $1.8 billion ‘weaponization’ fund after Republican backlash

2026-06-02T20:04:05.361Z / Reuters

WASHINGTON, June 2 (Reuters) – The Trump administration is abandoning the president’s nearly $1.8 billion “weaponization” fund, U.S. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told lawmakers on Tuesday, after a rare backlash from Republican senators.

“We are not moving forward with the fund,” Blanche said. “Period.”

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But Blanche also told lawmakers that an agreement with Trump to bar future audits of his or his family’s past tax records will remain in place.

The fund emerged from a legal settlement between President Donald Trump and the Justice Department to resolve an unprecedented $10 billion Trump lawsuit against the IRS over the alleged mishandling of his tax records.

The fund was dropped after furious Republican lawmakers said it might threaten the passage of a $72 billion bill to fund Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Blanche, Trump’s former personal attorney, has held the top job at the Justice Department since early April, when Trump fired Pam Bondi as attorney general. A person familiar with the White House’s thinking said Blanche’s future hinged on his ability to address the concerns of Republican lawmakers about the fund.

The $1.776 billion fund was meant to pay people who said they had been the subject of government abuse, and Blanche angered senators last month when he would not commit to excluding people who assaulted police officers during the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

White House officials spent much of Monday calling lawmakers to assure them there would be no payouts after the Republican revolt, said two sources familiar with the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The White House referred questions to the Justice Department, where a spokesperson said compensating people who have suffered from government abuse is still a priority for the administration.

“The goal of the fund was about continuing the process of fixing the wrongs committed by past administrations, but given the extraordinary misunderstanding of this, the DOJ is not proceeding with the fund,” spokesperson Emily Covington said.

Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche testifies before a House Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee oversight hearing on the Department of Justice, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 2, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

BLANCHE SAYS HE WON’T PUT IT IN WRITING

At a hearing on Tuesday afternoon, Democratic lawmakers pressed for a definitive promise that the fund was dead, but Blanche said he would not put that in writing.

“Why do I need to put something in writing?” Blanche said. “I’m not committing to doing anything in writing.”

Democratic Representative Rosa DeLauro said Blanche should not have signed off on the portion of the agreement that bars future tax audits of Trump and his businesses, noting that he formerly served as Trump’s personal attorney.

“You just gave the president and his family a tax immunity to the tune of about $100 million,” DeLauro said, referring to reports that Trump could face that amount in an IRS tax penalty. “Do you not find that there’s any conflict of interest in what you doing here as the acting attorney general of the United States?”

Blanche said the agreement did not give Trump “blanket immunity” and rejected DeLauro’s criticism.

“What are you saying is the conflict?” Blanche responded. “The fact that I used to have a job and I have a current job?”

House Republicans at the hearing did not criticize the fund.

Peter Ticktin, an attorney representing more than 400 January 6 defendants, said he and his clients are not dismayed about the announcement.

“They still expect to get paid,” said Ticktin, who has filed claims for 10 defendants requesting up to $3 million. “They trust Donald Trump.”

Reporting by Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff, Nandita Bose, Richard Cowan and Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Michael Learmonth, Andy Sullivan, Andrea Ricci, Deepa Babington and Cynthia Osterman

WATCH: Scandal-plagued Platner dodges questions before and after DC meeting with Democrats

The leading Democratic primary candidate refused to respond when asked if he deserves to represent Maine in the Senate

June 2, 2026 5:56pm EDT / Fox News

By Kiera McDonald Fox News

NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner dodged questions from reporters Tuesday before and after a meeting at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee amid an alleged sexting scandal and criticism over resurfaced online posts.

“Mr. Platner, are you here to calm the waters, sir?” Platner was asked by Fox News Digital when confronted as he exited a car to meet with lawmakers, but he did not respond.

He then ignored other questions on whether he deserves to represent Maine in the U.S. Senate, whether he will stay in the race, and controversies from his past.

DEM SENATORS DEFLECT QUESTIONS ON PLATNER’S SCANDAL-PLAGUED CAMPAIGN: ‘NOT FOLLOWING THAT RACE CLOSELY’

The Democratic candidate looking to unseat Sen. Susan Collins in Maine has admitted to exchanging sexual sexts with several women after marrying his wife two years ago, according to a report.(Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Platner, who is currently leading in the polls, was attending a planned meeting with Democratic senators in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday as concerns from both sides of the political spectrum have emerged over sexual misconduct and infidelity allegations.

In a statement sent to Fox News Digital, Platner said: “Amy and I went through something hard — because of me.”

“We did the work, and I’m grateful for her every hour of every day,” he added. “I’ve learned throughout this campaign is that people don’t care about gossip or headlines, they care that you’re fighting for their hospitals, their paycheck, their kids.”

The Democratic candidate’s wife Amy Gertner, discovered text exchanges between Platner and multiple women just months after they were married in 2024.

Platner’s campaign confirmed the sexually-explicit messages to Politico after The Wall Street Journal reported that Gertner discovered the texts soon after they were wed and warned a campaign aide about potential political liabilities for Platner’s Senate bid.

SENATE CANDIDATE GRAHAM PLATNER SENT EXPLICIT TEXTS TO MULTIPLE WOMEN WHILE MARRIED, WIFE SAYS: REPORT

Graham Platner with his wife Amy Gertner earlier this month.(Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

In a video posted to X on Saturday, Gertner also defended her husband against cheating-related attacks.

“So it makes me really angry — disappointed, and I find it really shameful that there’s a group of media outlets and people who are willing to spread gossip instead of talking about real issues that Graham is running on, like healthcare and education and childcare,” she said.

It was also discovered that Platner has an active account on Kik, an anonymous messaging app that has drawn criticism from child safety advocates and is widely associated with anonymous encounters. The profile, created in 2016 and reviewed by Fox News Digital, contains a sexually suggestive photo of Platner posing shirtless with only a towel wrapped around his waist.

A campaign official told Fox News Digital that Platner downloaded the app when he was single and claimed it has “long been deleted from his phone.”

PLATNER STILL HAS ACTIVE ACCOUNT ON ANONYMOUS APP DUBBED ‘PREDATOR’S PARADISE’ AMID CHEATING SCANDAL

Deleted online posts and a Nazi-linked tattoo have added to the controversies surrounding Platner and his bid for U.S. Senate.

Graham Platner, Democratic Senate candidate for Maine, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont, attend a Fighting Oligarchy event in Portland, Maine, on May 25, 2026.(Sophie Park/Bloomberg/Getty Images)

The Marine Corps veteran who served four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan faced backlash for a June 2019 Reddit post he made saying Purple Heart veteran Teddy Daniels, who was shot four times during a 2012 clash with Taliban fighters, “didn’t deserve to live.”

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He declined to apologize for the online comments in a video taken by Fox News Digital last month.

Platner will appear on the ballot alongside David Costello in the Democratic Senate primary in Maine. Voters will decide on June 9 who will face incumbent five-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Platner campaign for comment.

Kiera McDonald is a Production Assistant for Fox News Digital.

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6397349590112