Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner on Sunday did not address recent reports that he had sent sexually explicit messages to multiple women during one of his first public appearances after the news broke this weekend.
During an event billed as a Muslim and immigrant town hall at Auburn Senior Community Center on Sunday afternoon, Platner spoke to nearly 100 people about protecting the immigrant community and abolishing federal immigration enforcement, according to community and event organizer Safiya Khalid.
Event organizers asked a BDN reporter to leave shortly before it began. Khalid later said it was because community members felt unsafe with the press being present. Platner, who is usually accessible to press, later left the event in a separate car than the one in which he arrived. His wife, Amy Gertner, was also present at the event.
Platner did not address the recent reports that he sent sexually explicit texts to several women while he was married, according to an event attendee, Ifraax Saciid-Ciiise, who said the allegations did not shake her support for the candidate. Saciid-Ciise said she was focused on how Platner would represent her in Washington D.C. rather than his personal affairs.
Khalid, a former member of the Lewiston City Council, said Graham answered questions about the war in Gaza and government surveillance systems, among other topics.
“His speech may have been similar to other town halls but the audience was different,” Khalid said. “It was folks who had never seen him or heard of him.”
The event followed a turbulent weekend for the Platner campaign. On Saturday, news broke that Platner’s wife had told a former aide at the outset of his campaign last summer she had found sexually explicit texts on his phone to multiple women, according to the Wall Street Journal and New York Times.
His campaign aides decided the texts were a private matter to be addressed in marriage counseling, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Platner campaign confirmed the existence of the messages and told the Times that the candidate had communicated with up to six women, according to the New York Times.
And on Sunday morning, t he Bangor Daily News reported that a top Platner adviser threatened the former aide, warning that if she cooperated with news outlets over the sexually explicit messages, she would be accused of lying and sabotage.
The Platner campaign has not responded to questions about whether it knew about advisor Morris Katz’s threat or agreed with his position.
In a five-minute-long video released by the campaign Saturday, Platner’s wife said “no marriage is perfect” and that the couple has received marriage counseling.
Platner, who is expected to clinch the Democratic nomination in nine days to face Sen. Susan Collins in the November election, a race Democrats see as critical to winning control of the Senate, has drawn criticism over controversial internet posts and a chess tattoo that resembled a symbol adopted by the Nazi SS during World War II.