Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner on Sunday accused The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal of trying to wreck his marriage while committing “journalistic malpractice.” The outlets reported that Platner’s wife, Amy Gertner, had alerted her husband’s campaign that Platner had sent sexual messages to multiple women during their marriage. The intent was to head off any potential issue that opponents could use against the Democrat.
“It’s no surprise to me that the establishment media outlets are just gonna run gossip instead of wanting to talk about the things that actually matter in this race, which are the material realities that Mainers are working with,” Platner told WMTW-TV with Gertner beside him. “These people are gonna try to make this race about anything but what it’s supposed to be about, which is policy. They never want to talk about policy. Amy and I have a very loving and very happy marriage. They would very much like to try to rip that apart.”
The Times’ report cited Platner’s former political director, Genevieve McDonald, who said Gertner made the revelation late last summer in discussing potential liabilities for her husband. The behavior stopped before the campaign started, a current campaign official told the Times.
Asked if the reports were true, Platner went after the newspapers. “No, no, this is the amazing part,” he replied. “The Wall Street Journal and New York Times ran stories without any evidence besides the gossip from a former staffer. I’m sorry that’s, frankly, journalistic malpractice. We pushed back on it; they want it; they did it anyways.”
Asked if he was confirming that the messages do not exist, he answered, “I’m confirming that what Genevieve McDonald said in The New York Times is not true.” When the reporter pressed on about a meeting with McDonald to discuss the sexts, Platner said: “We talked about things in Amy and I’s marriage that we’ve gone through over the years. We talked about that because that’s our marriage and we discussed it with the campaign. What Genevieve McDonald claims isn’t true.”
HuffPost has reached out to The New York Times and Platner for comment. Heavily favored in the June 9 primaries, Platner and GOP incumbent Susan Collins appear headed for a showdown in November.
