MS NOW host Lawrence O’Donnell on Tuesday revealed one thing he has “always known” about Maine’s Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner, the oysterman accused Monday of sexually assaulting a woman in 2021: namely that he “cannot believe him.”
Platner became a progressive darling last year, running on universal healthcare and economic populism. While he has weathered several controversies since, a growing list of Democrats are now calling for him to exit the race.
“Whenever a new unknown candidate who has never been vetted in any way suddenly surges and creates pundit excitement, I always, from experience, just stay quiet and wait for the vetting,” O’Donnell said Tuesday.
The “Last Word” host continued, “And I knew with a candidacy like Graham Platner that the vetting would come from the news media. And so it has. And every stage of that vetting — every stage of it — has been disturbing.”
Platner’s campaign has been marred by scandals, including a skull-and-crossbones tattoo with historical connotations to the Nazis, which he has since covered up, explicit messages he allegedly sent to women outside his marriage and online comments he posted about rape.
The combat veteran claimed last year that he wrote those comments while struggling with depression, and previously denied sending explicit texts or being aware of the symbolism when he got his tattoo. On Tuesday, he called the assault allegation “categorically false.”
“I didn’t think any of his answers were credible,” O’Donnell said bluntly.
He continued, “And I’m in no position to say who is telling the truth in stories now told about Graham Platner by people who knew him, women who were alone in a room with him. I don’t know what happened, but I know, and I’ve always known, that I cannot believe him.”
O’Donnell explained that it wasn’t just the scandals that raised his suspicion, but the image Platner created with help from “the eager news media” as a humble oyster farmer who “knew the struggles of the working people of Maine” and entered politics to change things.
O’Donnell said, “But he didn’t. He’s never known those struggles. His most obvious credibility problem to me from the start was saying, ‘I’m a working-class guy that lives a working-class life.’ He also said, ‘I’ve never been close to money and power.’ And that was a lie.”
The MS NOW host noted Platner went to private school and was raised by a rich lawyer. He added that Platner’s mother’s restaurant is “the biggest customer for his oysters” and that tax and property records show Platner’s father gave him a $200,000 mortgage loan for a $205,000 home.
“So his father bought him a house and his mother buys his oysters,” O’Donnell said. “I found it very, very difficult to take Graham Platner’s claims about himself seriously after reading those facts about him — publicly available facts. But the enthusiasm kept building.”
That enthusiasm came crashing down Monday, however, when Politico reported that 41-year-old Maine resident Jenny Racicot told the outlet that Platner, whom she was dating on and off at the time, entered her home uninvited one night in 2021 and sexually assaulted her.
“And so it’s over tonight,” O’Donnell said. “And Graham Platner is clinging to the wreckage of his campaign, mercilessly and foolishly dragging out the day and the hour on which he will announce that he cannot find a path forward for his candidacy.”
Watch the full “Last Word” segment on MS NOW’s YouTube account.