Graham Platner slams article on alleged sexting scandal as “gossip” and “journalistic malpractice”

PORTLAND, Maine (WMTW) - Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner is now responding to claims first published by the Wall Street Journal about alleged sexually explicit text messages between him and other women, calling the story “journalistic malpractice.”

Platner was answering questions after a campaign event hosted by the Maine People’s Alliance in Portland and accused the media of running “gossip” instead of wanting to talk about his policy positions.

“They never want to talk about policy,” said Platner alongside his wife Amy Gertner. “I have a very loving and very happy marriage. They would very much like to try to rip that apart. They’re going to come after us in every awful way that they possibly can, and we’re just going to keep talking about the fact that the hospitals are closing, the fact that child care facilities are closing, the fact that teachers and nurses aren’t paid enough and the fact that everybody down here continues to work harder and longer and get less.”

Platner’s comments come after the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times published stories on Saturday which said that Gertner, who married Platner in 2023, had flagged the text messages to Genevieve McDonald, the formal political director for his campaign. Gertner reportedly viewed the text messages as a potential political liability, according to what McDonald told CNN.

Our media partner, WMTW, has not independently verified the existence of the text messages.

On Sunday, Platner said McDonald’s claims were not true but did not clarify whether he was talking about the text messages themselves or the specific claims McDonald told the Wall Street Journal.

Platner’s campaign team has acknowledged the text messages.

“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,” said Platner. “What Genevieve McDonald claims isn’t true.”

After taking questions in Portland, Platner released a written statement saying that he and his wife “went through something hard, because of me.”

“I’ve learned throughout this campaign is that people don’t care about gossip or headlines, they care that you’re fighting for their hospitals, their paycheck, their kids,” wrote Platner. “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.”

Platner’s wife addressed the controversy herself on Saturday by posting a 5-minute-long video to social media and also said in a statement that she feels deeply hurt and betrayed by McDonald, who she had considered a friend.

“I trusted this person with the most private chapter of our lives — the early days of our marriage before any campaign was on our mind — and I am deeply hurt by her betrayal and the invasion of our privacy,” Gertner said.

In her social media message, Gertner went on to say, “No marriage is perfect, and I don’t want a perfect marriage; I want my marriage.”