WASHINGTON — Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is defending Senate candidate Graham Platner following news reports that the presumptive Democratic nominee in Maine exchanged sexually explicit texts with women at the beginning of his marriage.
Sanders, who has endorsed Platner in his bid to unseat GOP Sen. Susan Collins, said that working families face bigger issues than Platner’s marriage.
“We got a housing crisis. People can’t afford healthcare, they can’t afford groceries, they can’t afford to fill up their gas tanks. And I think it’s important for us to focus on the issues facing working families a little bit more than Graham Platner’s marriage,” Sanders told reporters on Capitol Hill.
“I wish their marriage the very best. But right now, I think we should be focusing on the crises facing the working class and electing people of the guts to stand up to the oligarchs who control our country,” Sanders said.
He also said that Platner’s wife, whom he called a “very lovely woman” he’s had “the opportunity to meet,” was standing by him.
Platner’s wife, Amy Gertner, said in a video that Platner’s campaign released over the weekend that she was “really angry” about the reports of the text messages, and that she found it “shameful” that there were people spreading “gossip” instead of discussing the issues Platner is running on.
The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that Gertner told Platner’s campaign about the sexually explicit texts last year at the beginning of his Senate bid, while discussing potential opposition research on him. The Times cited a former senior official in Platner’s campaign, and the Journal cited people familiar with the matter.
Platner’s campaign confirmed he sent multiple women sexually explicit texts at the beginning of his marriage. He and his wife got married in 2023.
“Amy and I went through something hard — because of me,” Platner said in a statement. “We did the work, and I’m grateful for her every hour of every day. I’ve learned throughout this campaign that people don’t care about gossip or headlines, they care that you’re fighting for their hospitals, their paycheck, their kids. This campaign is about the ideas that will move Maine forward and past a broken politics of the past. Our opponents want politics to be empty of content and empty of actual change — and beating that is exactly what our movement is about.”
Gertner said in her video on Saturday that she and Platner have a “great marriage” and that counseling has helped.
Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., is also defending Platner.
“We know that Graham has lived not your typical political experience. He’s been very clear and open with his wife, and they worked through whatever they worked through,” Gallego told reporters Monday. “He’s winning the polls, he’s willing to accept that he has grown as a person, and I think we should accept that.”
Gallego added that voters are more focused on economic and financial challenges.
“The drip, drip that’s actually happening is, Americans are really, really hurt ... the fact that gas is still high, food is still high, they can’t buy a home, you can’t afford rent,” he said. “They’re not going to care about text messages and everything else like that that happened years ago, especially when it was worked out between spouses.”
Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., on Monday called the reports of the text messages “a tabloid story” that is a “big deal in D.C.” but not in Maine.
“I think in Maine people are going to litigate this race on who has the back of working-class Mainers,” Heinrich told reporters. “There’s a big D.C.-America disconnect, and it certainly applies to Maine.”
Heinrich, who gave the candidate his endorsement in March, added that he is “very friendly” with both Platner and Gertner, saying, “I’ve had plenty of conversations with both him and with Amy, and I think this is between them.”
The comments come a day before Platner is set to meet with Senate Democrats, a source familiar with the matter told NBC News. The source said the trip had been previously planned and was unrelated to the reports of the texts that surfaced over the weekend.
In addition to Sanders, Platner has been endorsed by several national progressives, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who reiterated his support for Platner following reports about the text messages.
Asked Monday whether events in Platner’s past signaled an issue with his character, Warren criticized Collins’ support of President Donald Trump and initial support of the U.S. war against Iran.
“Graham Platner is showing the courage and determination to take that on. I believe that’s what the people of Maine care the most about,” Warren said.
The reports about the text messages are not the first to cast a cloud over Platner’s candidacy.
In October, he apologized for resurfaced Reddit posts in which he minimized the challenges faced by military members who had been sexually assaulted, called white rural people racist and stupid, referred to himself as a “communist,” and encouraged people to limit their intake of certain substances to avoid being raped.
That same month he covered up a tattoo on his chest that resembled a Nazi symbol, saying he got the tattoo while in the Marines in 2007 and did not know the skull-and-crossbones figure was associated with Nazis.
But in the following months polling indicated he was still a favorite among Democratic voters in Maine, to the point that Democratic Gov. Janet Mills suspended her Senate campaign in April.
On Monday, though, Mills said she is “still on the ballot” for the June 9 primary.
“People have the impression that I ‘withdrew’ or ‘dropped out,’” Mills said in an interview in The Portland Press Herald. “I simply suspended active campaigning. I am still on the ballot.”
Collins, R-Maine, also responded to the reports Monday.
“Well, I really don’t have anything to add,” she said. “Every day there’s a new revelation about Graham Platner that reflects on his character.”
