2026-07-08T20:18:00-0400 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
作者：凯特琳·伊莱克 政治记者
凯特琳·伊莱克是CBSNews.com驻华盛顿特区的政治记者。她曾供职于《华盛顿考察家报》和《国会山报》，并入选2022年美国国家新闻基金会保罗·米勒华盛顿报道奖学金项目。
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更新时间：2026年7月8日 / 美国东部时间晚上9:35 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
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华盛顿 ——缅因州民主党参议院候选人格雷厄姆·普拉特纳周三宣布暂停竞选，此前一名女性指控他在五年前两人交往期间对其实施性侵。这一事件为这场原本就因个人争议备受关注的参议院竞选画上句号。
普拉特纳在一段11分钟的社交媒体视频中宣布了这一决定。他强烈否认性侵指控，称这些指控“虚假”且“子虚乌有”，但表示来自州级和全国民主党方面的压力已使其竞选活动无法继续。他将此归咎于“政治当权派”。
“这极其艰难，因为我知道有些人会认为这是认罪，但这绝对不是，”他说道。“我们退出并非因为指控本身，而是因为当权者夺走了我们赖以运转的竞选架构。”
普拉特纳表示，他计划提交正式文件退出参议院竞选。根据州法律，他必须在周一下午5点前完成正式退选手续。
这一举措将打乱本届选举周期中最受关注的竞选之一。民主党正致力于击败共和党参议员苏珊·柯林斯，这场竞选结果可能决定参议院的控制权归属。根据缅因州法律，州民主党委员会需在7月27日前选出新的候选人。
该党周三早些时候宣布将举行提名 convention 以选出新候选人，并表示提名流程的更多细节将“尽快公布”。该党还表示，普拉特纳将不再参与相关工作。已有多位缅因州知名民主党人表达了参选兴趣。
普拉特纳敦促缅因州民主党采用“公开、透明且民主”的程序替换他，并表示这一决定不应由“党内官僚”做出。
“我的名字或许目前还印在选票上，但这个参选席位属于缅因州人民，”他在周三的视频中说道。
一名来自缅因州的女性珍妮·拉西科特向《政治报》和CNN透露，普拉特纳于2021年末在醉酒状态下未经允许进入她的家中，并对她实施性侵，无视她要求其停止的呼喊。拉西科特表示，两人于2019年通过交友软件相识，在 alleged 性侵事件发生前曾有一段随意且双方自愿的交往关系。
拉西科特在接受CNN主播杰克·塔珀采访时表示，普拉特纳“按照字典定义，强奸了我”。
“那天晚上他违背了层层同意原则。他在我明确要求不要进入的情况下闯入我家，在我告诉他不要靠近时仍继续逼近，还有另一件我明确告诉他不应该做的事，”拉西科特说道，她指的是普拉特纳涉嫌拒绝使用防护措施。
她表示：“在那一刻，我评估了自身安全……我基本上觉得只有顺从才能确保安全。”
在《政治报》周一爆料该指控后、拉西科特接受CNN采访前，普拉特纳曾在一段视频中称这些指控“完全虚假”。在一份声明中，他的竞选团队将这些指控称为“由州外当权派特工策划和授意的卑劣抹黑”。
在宣布结束竞选的视频中，普拉特纳表示他是通过媒体问询才得知这些指控，“根本没时间真正回应，也没时间开展调查，企业媒体和政治当权派就已经扮演了法官、陪审团和刽子手的角色”。
“指控本应是事情的开端，而非终点，”他说道。
“现在是将我从选票上除名的最后一周，这就是此事发生的原因，”他补充道。
这些指控促使缅因州民主党本周早些时候呼吁普拉特纳退选，参议院少数党领袖查克·舒默以及负责参议院民主党竞选事务的民主党参议院竞选委员会主席、纽约州参议员柯尔斯滕·吉利布兰德也提出了同样要求。民主党参议院竞选委员会表示，如果普拉特纳继续留在选票上，该委员会将不会为这场竞选投入资金；参议院多数党政治行动委员会也表示，鉴于这些指控，将把资源从缅因州参议院竞选中转移出去，这严重削弱了普拉特纳竞选活动的可行性。
此外，普拉特纳在国会的多位重量级支持者——如加州民主党众议员罗·卡纳和亚利桑那州参议员鲁文·加列戈——也在事件曝光后撤回了对他的背书。
周二，佛蒙特州独立参议员伯尼·桑德斯表示，他已与普拉特纳交谈，并“建议他退选”。这一声明具有重要分量，因为桑德斯此前一直是普拉特纳的关键支持者。
周二晚，普拉特纳仍未退选，而6月13日的选票除名截止日期日益临近，缅因州民主党指责普拉特纳的竞选团队试图“操纵规则”，影响新候选人的提名流程。普拉特纳的发言人否认其竞选团队试图操控该流程，但表示普拉特纳希望确保这一决定由“选民和志愿者”做出。普拉特纳的一些前盟友敦促州民主党领导层从该党进步派阵营中挑选人选替换普拉特纳。
与此同时，共和党人暗示，即便普拉特纳退出竞选，针对他的指控仍将在大选中产生影响。普拉特纳退选后不久，共和党全国委员会主席乔·格鲁特斯在一份声明中称：“民主党与普拉特纳一同深陷泥沼，如今他们与这个病态怪物为伍，已彻底声名狼藉。”
现年41岁的普拉特纳是缅因州沿海地区的退伍军人兼牡蛎养殖户，他于去年从默默无闻中崛起，吸引了全国关注以及桑德斯等知名进步派人士的支持。上个月，缅因州州长珍妮特·米尔斯退选后，普拉特纳几乎未遭遇强劲对手，轻松赢得民主党参议院初选。
但普拉特纳的逆袭竞选一直被一系列个人争议和行为指控所困扰。去年，多家媒体报道了普拉特纳数年前在Reddit上发布的一系列有问题的帖子，普拉特纳承认自己在海军服役期间纹了一个被广泛认为是纳粹标志的纹身。他随后为自己的网络言论道歉，并表示已将该纹身遮盖。
随后，在米尔斯退选后，《华尔街日报》报道称，普拉特纳的妻子告知竞选团队，他在婚姻存续期间曾向其他女性发送露骨色情短信。几天后，《纽约时报》报道称，与普拉特纳交往过的女性指控他有“令人不安”的行为，包括一项“肢体威胁”的指控，普拉特纳对此予以否认。
普拉特纳曾表示，针对他的部分指控源于“我人生中一段非常黑暗的时期，当时我饱受未确诊的创伤后应激障碍困扰，常常借酒消愁，远不是一个完美的男友”。
包括普拉特纳前政治主任在内的一些此前的支持者在《纽约时报》和《华尔街日报》报道相关事件后，曾建议他退选，担心争议会使民主党难以赢得选举。柯林斯自1997年起代表缅因州担任参议员，击败她一直是民主党十多年来的首要目标之一，但尽管缅因州日益趋向民主党，这位温和派共和党参议员仍多次成功连任。
普拉特纳上个月在接受MS NOW采访时表示，他“从未”考虑过退选。
“艾米和我从一开始就知道我们会遇到挫折，我们只是全身心投入这场竞选，”普拉特纳说道。“我们从未想过退出。我会全身心投入直到最后一刻。”
这是突发新闻；将持续更新。
https://x.com/grahamformaine/status/2075009677495058687
https://x.com/grahamformaine/status/2074214272628916296?s=20
Graham Platner suspends Maine Senate campaign after sexual assault allegation
2026-07-08T20:18:00-0400 / CBS News
By Caitlin Yilek Politics Reporter
Caitlin Yilek is a politics reporter at CBSNews.com, based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked for the Washington Examiner and The Hill, and was a member of the 2022 Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship with the National Press Foundation.
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Updated on: July 8, 2026 / 9:35 PM EDT / CBS News
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Washington — Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner announced Wednesday he is suspending his campaign after a woman accused him of sexually assaulting her when they were dating five years ago, ending a Senate run punctuated by personal controversies.
Platner announced his decision in an 11-minute social media video. He vehemently denied the sexual assault allegations, calling them “false” and “not real,” but said the pressure from state-level and national Democrats had made it impossible for his campaign to continue. He blamed the “political establishment” for the situation.
“This is incredibly difficult, because I know that some will think it’s an admission of guilt, and it most certainly is not,” he said. “We’re not doing it because of the allegations, we’re doing it because of the structures that are being taken away from us by those in power.”
Platner said he plans to file paperwork to withdraw from the Senate race. Under state law, he must formally withdraw by Monday at 5 p.m.
The move will disrupt one of the most closely watched races of this cycle, as Democrats seek to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins in a contest that could determine control of the Senate. Under Maine law, the state party will have until July 27 to select a new nominee.
The party said earlier Wednesday it would hold a nominating convention to choose a new candidate, adding that more details on the process would come “soon.” The party has also said that Platner will not have a role. Several high-profile Maine Democrats have expressed interest.
Platner urged the Maine Democratic Party to use an “open, transparent and democratic” process to replace him, and said the decision shouldn’t be made by “party apparatchiks.”
“My name might be on the ballot right now, but that ballot line belongs to the people of Maine,” he said in his video Wednesday.
A Maine woman, Jenny Racicot, told Politico and CNN that Platner entered her home without permission in late 2021 when he was drunk and forced himself on her, ignoring her demands for him to stop. Racicot said the two met on a dating app in 2019 and had a casual, consensual relationship before the night of the alleged assault.
Racicot told CNN’s Jake Tapper that Platner, “by dictionary definition, raped me.”
“He violated multiple layers of consent that night. By coming into my home when I asked him not to, and by advancing on me when I told him not to, and furthermore, another incident that I had told him not to do,” Racicot said, referring to his alleged refusal to use protection.
She said: “In that moment, I evaluated my safety. … I basically felt safest just complying.”
Platner called the allegations “categorically false” in a video shortly after Politico broke the story Monday, before Racicot’s CNN interview. In a statement, his campaign called the allegations “desperate smears” that were “coached and coordinated by out of state establishment operatives.”
In his video announcing the end of his campaign, Platner said he learned about the allegations through press inquiries “with no time to truly respond, no time for investigations before a corporate media system and the political establishment got to act as judge, jury and executioner.”
“Accusations are supposed to be the beginning of things, not the end,” he said.
“This was the last week to try to get me off of the ballot, and that’s why this is occurring,” he added.
The allegations led the Maine Democratic Party to call on Platner to withdraw earlier this week, along with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, who chairs Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. The DSCC said it would not invest in the race if Platner remained on the ballot, and the Senate Majority PAC said in light of the allegations, it was redirecting resources away from the Maine Senate race, severely limiting his campaign’s viability going forward.
And a number of Platner’s highest-profile supporters in Congress — like Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California and Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona — also took back their endorsements shortly after the story became public.
On Tuesday, independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont said he spoke with Platner and “recommended that he step aside.” The statement carried significant weight, with Sanders having been a key supporter of Platner’s.
Late Tuesday, with Platner still in the race and a June 13 deadline to remove his name from the ballot rapidly approaching, the Maine Democratic Party accused his campaign of trying to “put their thumb on the scale” and influence how a new nominee is chosen. A Platner spokesperson denied that the campaign was trying to control the process, but said Platner wanted to ensure that the decision was made by “voters and volunteers.” Some former Platner allies urged state Democratic leadership to replace Platner with a fellow member of the party’s progressive wing.
Meanwhile, Republicans have suggested they expect the allegations against Platner to reverberate in the general election, even as his campaign ends. In a statement shortly after Platner’s withdrawal, Republican National Committee Chair Joe Gruters said: “Democrats rolled in the mud with Platner, and now they are completely stained by their association with this sick monster.”
A 41-year-old veteran and oyster farmer from coastal Maine, Platner emerged from obscurity last year, drawing nationwide attention and support from prominent progressives like Sanders. Platner easily won the Democratic Senate primary last month, facing virtually no major opponents since Gov. Janet Mills withdrew from the race.
But Platner’s insurgent campaign was dogged by a series of personal controversies and allegations about his behavior. Last year, news outlets reported on a series of problematic posts on Reddit penned by Platner several years ago, and Platner acknowledged that he got a tattoo during his time in the Marines that is widely understood to be a Nazi symbol. He has since apologized for his internet posts and says he had the tattoo covered up.
Then, after Mills dropped her campaign, The Wall Street Journal reported that Platner’s wife told the campaign he had sent sexually explicit texts to other women while they were married. Days later, The New York Times reported that women Platner dated had accused him of “unsettling” behavior, including an allegation that he was “physically threatening,” which he denied.
Platner has said some of the allegations against him stemmed from a “very dark period of my life where I struggled with undiagnosed PTSD, too often self medicated with alcohol, and was a far from perfect boyfriend.”
Some prior Platner supporters — including his former political director — suggested he should drop out following the Times’ and Journal’s reports, fearing the controversy could make it difficult for Democrats to win. Collins has represented Maine in the Senate since 1997, and unseating her has been one of Democrats’ top objectives for more than a decade, but the moderate GOP senator has continued to win reelection even as Maine becomes increasingly Democratic.
Platner told MS NOW last month that “not once” had he considered dropping out of the race.
“Amy and I knew early on that we were going to take lumps, and we just, we’re dedicated to this,” Platner said. “It has never crossed our mind to drop out of this thing. I am fully committed to this until the end.”
This is a breaking story; it will be updated.
https://x.com/grahamformaine/status/2075009677495058687
https://x.com/grahamformaine/status/2074214272628916296?s=20