June 1, 2026
Can A Sexting Oyster Farmer With Multiple Scandals Flip The Senate?
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RSS Feed The name Graham Platner has been trending all weekend after his wife of 3 years posted a video defending her husband. Platner is ahead in the polls, hoping to beat incumbent Maine Senator Susan Collins come November. That win could shift the balance of power in the Senate to Democrats. Platner has admitted to sexting several women early in his marriage and has past Reddit posts about black people and sexual assault victims coming back to haunt his candidacy.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey, the folks, it is Monday, June first, and she is standing by her man, and in doing so, she might be saving Democrats hopes of retaking the Senate. And with that, Welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Platner.
00:00:18
Speaker 2: Platner.
00:00:18
Speaker 1: It's not a guy a lot of people know, but if you've been wondering, folks, Platner has been trending a lot this week.
00:00:24
Speaker 2: It's that last name, Graham.
00:00:26
Speaker 3: Graham Platner is his name, and he is the presumptive Democrat nominee for Senate in a state that literally could shift the balance of power in the Senate. And he's going up against or will be going up against a name you do know, if you follow politics at all for the past three decades, I would say Senator Susan Collins with that very distinctive shaky voice.
00:00:53
Speaker 2: She is someone you know.
00:00:54
Speaker 3: You don't know a lot of main politicians perhaps, but she stands out among them. And she's in trouble. She's in trouble, and now he's in trouble, and.
00:01:05
Speaker 1: He's in trouble.
00:01:06
Speaker 2: What's a voter to do?
00:01:07
Speaker 4: Well?
00:01:08
Speaker 1: So they're going to have to decide between a scandal written candidate and a really three decade serving senator and Susan Collins Robes. He Graham Platner. Look, we didn't. I wasn't keeping up with the name before the scandals.
00:01:25
Speaker 2: Wasn't either.
00:01:26
Speaker 1: Okay, so he's had a couple of scandals, but the latest one we mentioned here is wife has now gotten involved in She's put out a five minute video defending him Robes and this is as crazy as it sounds, a sexting scandal. This isn't a sex scandal or even a cheating scandal that we know up to this point, but it's being referred to as a sexting scandal. Yeah.
00:01:48
Speaker 3: I guess it depends on what your definition of cheating is, but certainly this rose to a whole new level when Graham Plattner's wife, Amy Yes, made this what was at four and a half five minute long video walking along their main property basically defending her husband. And look, I'm not sure collectively how main voters are taking her video, but man, when you go on X, because what happened was Graham Platner posted this video on his X account and I was reading through the comments and they are awful because in her defense of her husband. Basically, everyone's just picking apart everything she's saying and saying she looks like a hostage, and pointing fingers at the fact that she's acknowledging that she's in therapy. He's in therapy. They have a marriage counselor. And it's just one of those moments when you say something. Sometimes it's worse than saying nothing at all. What's it's you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't. But this guy has a lot of troubling past issues that are now coming back, as they often do when you run for a national platform.
00:02:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is a big, big deal. Fifty three forty seven is the split right now in the Senate. I believe there are seven seats that are considered upper grabs. Maine is one of them, and he is ahead in polls there. So Democrats really think they got something here. You throw in Paxton down there that bumped Cornyn out in Texas. He's a shaky candidate in a lot of ways, so they're really looking Democrats and think they have a shot. So they are right now standing by their man in Maine right now. He is a former marine, He is a Oyster farmer up there, but he has really gained some steam up there in a state Robes that votes Democratic, but in the presidential election. But Susan Collins, Republican has been holding on to that seat for a long time.
00:03:52
Speaker 2: She's been holding onto that seat for a long time.
00:03:54
Speaker 3: She nearly lost it in twenty twenty, and in fact, going into the election last time, it showed that she was behind in that race as well, but ended up pulling out ahead and re or at least winning her seat or keeping her seat. But this time the polls are even worse for her. She looks even further behind Platner at this point. So there's a lot of uncertainty because they don't know whether or not the polls can be trusted.
00:04:21
Speaker 2: They weren't.
00:04:22
Speaker 3: They weren't trust They weren't something they could trust, at least in twenty twenty. They're wondering just how far off these polls may be this time around.
00:04:29
Speaker 1: And we will let you hear in a second reminder her in her own words part of this video that she did put out. But the current controversy has to do with Robes allegations. No excuse me, he admitted he's admitted this that he sent text message, explicit messages photos I guess to women outside of his marriage on a dating app.
00:04:54
Speaker 3: Have that right, Yes, but there was a dating app. Flip made a lot of yeah, because it's this it's not your typical dating app. It's not like he was on you know, I don't know e Harmony exactly. He was on this this site called Kick. I actually I carefully looked it up because I didn't want to have any weird thing on my on my computer. But then I just kind of googled what is Kick just to maybe get around downloading this in any way.
00:05:28
Speaker 2: But the problem with this.
00:05:29
Speaker 3: Website that he was on is that there's it's anonymous, and it's one on one chatting and you you don't have to have any verification. So historically the platform Kick, this site has raised eyebrows because they say children can be on there, there can be adult interactions with minors. So it's just it's not a website that you would want a political candidate or somebody who's running for a major office to potentially be on, because why do you need to be on an anonymous messaging site that doesn't verify age or verify anything.
00:06:02
Speaker 1: Even the person you're taking. You don't have to reveal yourself to the person you're talking to. Now you don't know who you're talking correct.
00:06:08
Speaker 3: Okay, so that's why this is a shady dating platform.
00:06:12
Speaker 2: Maybe that might be the better way to put it.
00:06:14
Speaker 1: Okay, you did completely write in questioning how I character Wright.
00:06:17
Speaker 2: So it was like a dating site.
00:06:18
Speaker 1: I don't know it's completely correct by getting that straight.
00:06:22
Speaker 3: Part of the defense by both Graham Plattner and his wife Amy was that well, this happened early on in their marriage.
00:06:29
Speaker 2: But interestingly they've only even married since.
00:06:31
Speaker 3: Twenty twenty three, so I don't know how you'd want you to find her early. But she discovered, according to her, these text or sext messages that occurred, she found them in twenty twenty five, so just a year ago, like spring of twenty twenty five, and when he announced his candidacy or right before he was about to be endorsed right by Bernie Sanders, she decided to go to one of his aids and just say, hey, want to make you aware I did find some sexting from my husband. We have been through therapy because of it. We're good now. But in case this comes up. I wanted to flag it.
00:07:07
Speaker 1: She did exactly what she was supposed to do. And what they want her to do is they do their opposition research all the time. What could the other side possibly use against us? So she revealed it. So Washington Post New York Times are the first to report that, in fact, that had happened. So he then Ropes puts out a statement essentially confirming those reports.
00:07:31
Speaker 3: Yes, his statement was this Amy and I went through something hard because of me. We did the work, and I'm grateful for her every hour of every day. 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. This campaign is about the ideas that will move main forward and past a broken politics of the past. Our opponents want politics to be empty of content and empty of actual check and beating. That is exactly what our movement is about.
00:08:03
Speaker 1: You need to say more than that we went through something hard because of me, We did the work, grateful war every day and moved on.
00:08:09
Speaker 3: Look, I don't know, and I think the voters will be the ones to decide. Look, this is a big question It's always been a question how much of a politician's private life gets to should remain private? Should we care whether or not a candidate has cheated on their spouse?
00:08:27
Speaker 2: Does that matter?
00:08:28
Speaker 3: Historically we look at great politicians, great leaders, great presidents, and many of them perhaps weren't faithful to their spouses. Should that matter? Should we be privy? Should we force someone to explain the details. And he wasn't even accused of cheating in the traditional sense, but being on that particular website is of concern. And just seeing him shirtless in a towel as his profile picture, that's a little disturbing too. And I think that that is something voters will absolutely consider, regardless of him saying that they don't care.
00:09:03
Speaker 2: I do think they care.
00:09:04
Speaker 1: Well, is it just isn't that bottom line though? Right if the voters, you all get to decide. Yeah, it's up to y'all. You can stomach it, don't stomach it, have a problem with it, don't have a problem with it. I'm I'm okay. It's still sometimes ropes feels like some kind of a violation. This is something that he went through with his wife. They went through it together, and they got through it together when folks business like that starts getting thrown out for the sake of scandal and from politics.
00:09:32
Speaker 3: Look, obviously this is exactly the stuff that opponents use to try and discredit you and question your values, question your morality, all of that. I do think it's strange though, because from everything I read, this kick profile is an active profile, which is also a little strange.
00:09:50
Speaker 1: But they also claimed his campaign that he deleted the thing ten years ago, like he doesn't even have the app, like it was just something that's out there. No matter what you think, we know what his wife thinks.
00:10:02
Speaker 3: Rogues.
00:10:02
Speaker 1: This has to go a long way, does it not, Not just the fact that they're married, but his wife is speaking out, speaking up, defending him and defending their marriage.
00:10:11
Speaker 3: I think it'll go a long way with a lot of female voters perhaps, But like I said, a lot of people are trying to say that it looks like a hostage video. That shameful of him to force his wife to front this instead of him coming out on a video he had her do it, but she didn't say he made her do it. It seemed to me watching it and listening to it that she chose to do it.
00:10:34
Speaker 1: It was gonna be my next question, what your impression was. She's just walking down the street, and at one point Robe she actually said, this is like my twentieth take. Yeah, So, I mean, it seemed like she was just winging it. She said. Even in there, she said, I'm going a little long. I hope my people can edit this or something. It didn't seem like it was edited.
00:10:50
Speaker 3: It didn't seem edit it at all. She just kind of thought maybe they'd have to because it was so long.
00:10:55
Speaker 1: So it was. It was a five minutes of Amy Girtner is her name. They were made in twenty twenty three, but here is just one excerpt. Listen to her here explaining her frustration about what's going on again. You'll hear some you can hear of making footsteps, I think in the gravel that's in the background, if you hear any noise. But here she is Graham Plattner's wife.
00:11:15
Speaker 4: This is very hard to do, but.
00:11:20
Speaker 5: I just really wanted to make sure that everyone knows that Graham and I have a great marriage. Being married is hard, Being newly married is hard. Being newly married and going through infertility is hard. Being newly married, going through infertility and a Senate campaign is hard.
00:11:47
Speaker 4: I don't even know if I have the right words to describe what we've been going through.
00:11:52
Speaker 6: But our marriage counselor helps, My personal counselor helps, Graham's personal counselor helps, and.
00:12:03
Speaker 4: We work on our mental health every day.
00:12:08
Speaker 6: No marriage is perfect, and I don't want a perfect marriage.
00:12:16
Speaker 4: I want my marriage, and I want to be married to Graham.
00:12:20
Speaker 3: Look, I think she sounded sincere. That's just my honest reaction to her. And I watched the whole video. She seemed sincere.
00:12:28
Speaker 1: She did to me as well. It didn't seem like it was a speech or she was trying to hit particular notes necessarily. She sounded sincere to me, and it sounded. Look, she did add in there that he had been in combat and mentioned that he had gone through some things, and I guess there was a suggestion there that he has struggled mightily. Yes, yeah, that he has struggled, and she almost I don't know, does she go as far as making some kind of connection to some of his behavior and things they've gone through today.
00:12:55
Speaker 3: She said he witnessed like incredible violence and he struggled with that, And I do think she was explaining perhaps some of his behavior based on trauma.
00:13:06
Speaker 1: Yes, well, this wasn't This hasn't been his only controversy, Robes, This is probably not. Probably this is the third major scandal essentially with this guy. The other two had to do with tattoos and tipping black people. We'll explain you.
00:13:25
Speaker 3: Stay here, Welcome back, everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ. We're talking about a senate candidate from Maine, Graham Platner. Didn't know his name honestly before this weekend, but a lot of people are talking about him now. And if you go online and just look at any major news site, you're gonna see his name and his face everywhere. And his wife, Amy, actually put out a video we just played it for you over the weekend, defending these sexting I don't want to say claims that the fact that he sexted several women early on in their marriage and that is the latest controversy.
00:14:08
Speaker 2: But there's certainly some of the pictures.
00:14:10
Speaker 1: I've only seen the one.
00:14:11
Speaker 2: I've seen the towel picture.
00:14:13
Speaker 1: But that's the only Okay, that's the only one.
00:14:14
Speaker 3: That's the only one I've seen him in a towel, and the toilet. Oh yeah, you know what well, so so I pointed it out to TJ. I said, if you're going to do like a sexy profile pick and you're sexting women, maybe you should not take your selfie in the mirror where you can see your toilet right behind you with the lid up.
00:14:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was an.
00:14:35
Speaker 3: Extra ew ew. And in that profile pick you could see a lot of tattoos. And I say that because his tattoos, and specifically one tattoo that I believe he is now covered up recently, because he claims he didn't realize that this tattoo he said he got when he was drunk one night as a marine was actually a Nazis.
00:15:00
Speaker 2: Bowl or not a swastika, but of the Nazi He had.
00:15:05
Speaker 1: The skull and bones. He said he didn't know when he got it, but but yeah, ropes, he kept it there for a long time, almost twenty years, and then just recently covered it up. That suggested to a lot of people like, come home, bro, Yes, now you want to do it, because it's come out. And he says for twenty years he didn't know what it was. What a drunken night, That's what he said.
00:15:26
Speaker 2: A drunken night.
00:15:28
Speaker 3: You know, got a tattoo, just like so many people can relate to, and he just didn't know that it was and can be viewed as a Nazi symbol.
00:15:37
Speaker 1: It was in Croatia. We've we've been talking about going. We better be careful.
00:15:40
Speaker 3: Let's not go visit the tattoo store in Croatia.
00:15:43
Speaker 2: But he also was.
00:15:47
Speaker 3: Very active in some chat rooms, and this also might be part of what his wife Amy was referring to when she talked about he had a lot of anger issues, a lot of PTSD, He experienced.
00:15:58
Speaker 2: A lot of violence.
00:15:59
Speaker 3: He was a bartender for a while as well, and he was making all sorts of comments and they were very negative about black folks, about women, about sexual assault victims. It was very broie. That's a kind way to say it, but just it was did He talked about how he struggled with like masculine, uber masculinity.
00:16:24
Speaker 2: Whatever however he wanted to describe it.
00:16:26
Speaker 3: He was offensive as hell, used the R word in some of his posts when he didn't like what people said.
00:16:31
Speaker 2: But he had a big thing about.
00:16:32
Speaker 3: How because as a bartender, he said black people never tip.
00:16:35
Speaker 2: That was his racist comment.
00:16:38
Speaker 1: Because we don't like crappy bartenders.
00:16:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe your bartending skills were lacking, dude, Maybe it was you, not them.
00:16:44
Speaker 1: I said a skinny marguerite in here.
00:16:47
Speaker 2: Okay, oh my goodness, that's the constant. Yeah, I'm sure there's a little spit added to that.
00:16:53
Speaker 3: But no. He so he made some comments about how yes he was based, and then he said, you know, women, stop drinking so much, stop dressing so provocatively. I basically blaming sexual assault victims for putting themselves in the position to become sexual assault victims.
00:17:12
Speaker 1: So he's acknowledged and apologized for some of this stuff. He's acknowledged, talked about the tattoo. He's acknowledged now and talked about this third thing. But rogues, how much aren't they talking about ridding? Are they getting people out of Congress who have scandals and backgrounds? So the Democrats now want to vote one in and supporting him being voted in. We have to stop short though, Robes. His wife is standing by them. Yeah, voters are standing by them right now, at least according to the latest polling. There's no judgment anybody else needs to have to have. You can have an opinion about it. But robes this is it's unfortunate. But is this a disqualifying incident? Are you disqualified if you sexted a woman outside of your marriage? Voters, you can.
00:17:59
Speaker 3: Feel Look and he is apologizing, says his wife has forgiven him.
00:18:05
Speaker 4: Look.
00:18:05
Speaker 2: And I know I did see this, and I hated seeing this on X It's such an awful forum. People just say the worst things to one another. But they were actually taking.
00:18:13
Speaker 3: Out the fact that she said he's in therapy. We're in therapy. I'm in therapy, and threw that at them and said, why do we want a mentally unstable person in the halls of Congress?
00:18:23
Speaker 2: And I just think that's the opposite way to look at this.
00:18:25
Speaker 3: I actually thought that was one of the brighter spots that at least he was willing to talk about it, willing to get help and is in treatment to acknowledge them of his shortcomings and perhaps how he misplaced anger and put it in the wrong place. And I think that should be commended and applauded, not made fun of or used against you.
00:18:43
Speaker 1: I'm applauded and even encouraged in Washington, Sweet, I don't think I've heard any I can't remember I'm sure I can't either any member of Congress anybody talking about in a present, I would want my president an hour two hours a week sitting down with some I.
00:19:00
Speaker 3: Would very much like to think that most members of Congress actually maybe had a moment to reflect, to talk to somebody who could work through any feelings. I think that's actually a beautiful thing.
00:19:11
Speaker 1: But God, Hakeem Jeffries and Speaker Johnson should do couples there.
00:19:18
Speaker 2: That would be amazing.
00:19:19
Speaker 3: But right now, look, this is I think these numbers were before this sexting issue blew up over the weekend and his wife made that video. But as of right now, Platner is leading Susan Collins by nearly eight points. That's fairly significant. So it will be interesting to see what this weekend meant for those polling numbers and if maybe his wife's video helped or hurt. Unclear right now, but I would have to lean despite all the crap you see on X as a woman hearing her, I thought she seemed kind and real and sweet, and it softened me when I heard her speak. So I don't know if that's how it will land.
00:20:03
Speaker 1: Way to put it robe she is someone you she didn't get herself dulled up. No, it's no beautiful backdrop. She was just walking robe. She knows she look like the wife of an oyster farmer.
00:20:15
Speaker 2: She looked like a maner. Exactly.
00:20:16
Speaker 3: If you've ever been to Maine, it's funny the people there, they're they're not They're the opposite of la. You don't see a lot of filler and botox and makeup and you know.
00:20:27
Speaker 2: Hair extensions.
00:20:28
Speaker 3: And no, these are like ll Bean uh Patagonia, like people who love the land and uh love the landscape and don't mind the harsh weather. These are maners. And yeah, so he is like an oyster farmer. Can you get more Maine than that? So look and look the Democrats at this point, now that they're standing behind somebody, they've been pointing the finger in terms of like any sort of scandal like now, look, it does not discriminate. Humans are humans, whether they're Republicans or Democrats.
00:20:59
Speaker 2: And you know, here you go.
00:21:00
Speaker 1: But we've already heard people are trying to well, this scandle isn't as bad as that, Like what's the cap on a scandal like that? One's too far? Like that's too much. He sext it, but was he fully naked in the picture, Like we're breaking it down to which one is which. But there's a lot at stake because if you take away the Senate from President Trump in his last two years and his ability to get anything through there, woo is the right response. Folks all appreciate you. This is one again. Platner is the name. You'll see it plenty. You appreciate your spending some time with us. My dear Amy Robot hom TJ. Holmes talks him
Speaker 1: Hey, the folks, it is Monday, June first, and she is standing by her man, and in doing so, she might be saving Democrats hopes of retaking the Senate. And with that, Welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Platner.
00:00:18
Speaker 2: Platner.
00:00:18
Speaker 1: It's not a guy a lot of people know, but if you've been wondering, folks, Platner has been trending a lot this week.
00:00:24
Speaker 2: It's that last name, Graham.
00:00:26
Speaker 3: Graham Platner is his name, and he is the presumptive Democrat nominee for Senate in a state that literally could shift the balance of power in the Senate. And he's going up against or will be going up against a name you do know, if you follow politics at all for the past three decades, I would say Senator Susan Collins with that very distinctive shaky voice.
00:00:53
Speaker 2: She is someone you know.
00:00:54
Speaker 3: You don't know a lot of main politicians perhaps, but she stands out among them. And she's in trouble. She's in trouble, and now he's in trouble, and.
00:01:05
Speaker 1: He's in trouble.
00:01:06
Speaker 2: What's a voter to do?
00:01:07
Speaker 4: Well?
00:01:08
Speaker 1: So they're going to have to decide between a scandal written candidate and a really three decade serving senator and Susan Collins Robes. He Graham Platner. Look, we didn't. I wasn't keeping up with the name before the scandals.
00:01:25
Speaker 2: Wasn't either.
00:01:26
Speaker 1: Okay, so he's had a couple of scandals, but the latest one we mentioned here is wife has now gotten involved in She's put out a five minute video defending him Robes and this is as crazy as it sounds, a sexting scandal. This isn't a sex scandal or even a cheating scandal that we know up to this point, but it's being referred to as a sexting scandal. Yeah.
00:01:48
Speaker 3: I guess it depends on what your definition of cheating is, but certainly this rose to a whole new level when Graham Plattner's wife, Amy Yes, made this what was at four and a half five minute long video walking along their main property basically defending her husband. And look, I'm not sure collectively how main voters are taking her video, but man, when you go on X, because what happened was Graham Platner posted this video on his X account and I was reading through the comments and they are awful because in her defense of her husband. Basically, everyone's just picking apart everything she's saying and saying she looks like a hostage, and pointing fingers at the fact that she's acknowledging that she's in therapy. He's in therapy. They have a marriage counselor. And it's just one of those moments when you say something. Sometimes it's worse than saying nothing at all. What's it's you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't. But this guy has a lot of troubling past issues that are now coming back, as they often do when you run for a national platform.
00:02:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is a big, big deal. Fifty three forty seven is the split right now in the Senate. I believe there are seven seats that are considered upper grabs. Maine is one of them, and he is ahead in polls there. So Democrats really think they got something here. You throw in Paxton down there that bumped Cornyn out in Texas. He's a shaky candidate in a lot of ways, so they're really looking Democrats and think they have a shot. So they are right now standing by their man in Maine right now. He is a former marine, He is a Oyster farmer up there, but he has really gained some steam up there in a state Robes that votes Democratic, but in the presidential election. But Susan Collins, Republican has been holding on to that seat for a long time.
00:03:52
Speaker 2: She's been holding onto that seat for a long time.
00:03:54
Speaker 3: She nearly lost it in twenty twenty, and in fact, going into the election last time, it showed that she was behind in that race as well, but ended up pulling out ahead and re or at least winning her seat or keeping her seat. But this time the polls are even worse for her. She looks even further behind Platner at this point. So there's a lot of uncertainty because they don't know whether or not the polls can be trusted.
00:04:21
Speaker 2: They weren't.
00:04:22
Speaker 3: They weren't trust They weren't something they could trust, at least in twenty twenty. They're wondering just how far off these polls may be this time around.
00:04:29
Speaker 1: And we will let you hear in a second reminder her in her own words part of this video that she did put out. But the current controversy has to do with Robes allegations. No excuse me, he admitted he's admitted this that he sent text message, explicit messages photos I guess to women outside of his marriage on a dating app.
00:04:54
Speaker 3: Have that right, Yes, but there was a dating app. Flip made a lot of yeah, because it's this it's not your typical dating app. It's not like he was on you know, I don't know e Harmony exactly. He was on this this site called Kick. I actually I carefully looked it up because I didn't want to have any weird thing on my on my computer. But then I just kind of googled what is Kick just to maybe get around downloading this in any way.
00:05:28
Speaker 2: But the problem with this.
00:05:29
Speaker 3: Website that he was on is that there's it's anonymous, and it's one on one chatting and you you don't have to have any verification. So historically the platform Kick, this site has raised eyebrows because they say children can be on there, there can be adult interactions with minors. So it's just it's not a website that you would want a political candidate or somebody who's running for a major office to potentially be on, because why do you need to be on an anonymous messaging site that doesn't verify age or verify anything.
00:06:02
Speaker 1: Even the person you're taking. You don't have to reveal yourself to the person you're talking to. Now you don't know who you're talking correct.
00:06:08
Speaker 3: Okay, so that's why this is a shady dating platform.
00:06:12
Speaker 2: Maybe that might be the better way to put it.
00:06:14
Speaker 1: Okay, you did completely write in questioning how I character Wright.
00:06:17
Speaker 2: So it was like a dating site.
00:06:18
Speaker 1: I don't know it's completely correct by getting that straight.
00:06:22
Speaker 3: Part of the defense by both Graham Plattner and his wife Amy was that well, this happened early on in their marriage.
00:06:29
Speaker 2: But interestingly they've only even married since.
00:06:31
Speaker 3: Twenty twenty three, so I don't know how you'd want you to find her early. But she discovered, according to her, these text or sext messages that occurred, she found them in twenty twenty five, so just a year ago, like spring of twenty twenty five, and when he announced his candidacy or right before he was about to be endorsed right by Bernie Sanders, she decided to go to one of his aids and just say, hey, want to make you aware I did find some sexting from my husband. We have been through therapy because of it. We're good now. But in case this comes up. I wanted to flag it.
00:07:07
Speaker 1: She did exactly what she was supposed to do. And what they want her to do is they do their opposition research all the time. What could the other side possibly use against us? So she revealed it. So Washington Post New York Times are the first to report that, in fact, that had happened. So he then Ropes puts out a statement essentially confirming those reports.
00:07:31
Speaker 3: Yes, his statement was this Amy and I went through something hard because of me. We did the work, and I'm grateful for her every hour of every day. 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. This campaign is about the ideas that will move main forward and past a broken politics of the past. Our opponents want politics to be empty of content and empty of actual check and beating. That is exactly what our movement is about.
00:08:03
Speaker 1: You need to say more than that we went through something hard because of me, We did the work, grateful war every day and moved on.
00:08:09
Speaker 3: Look, I don't know, and I think the voters will be the ones to decide. Look, this is a big question It's always been a question how much of a politician's private life gets to should remain private? Should we care whether or not a candidate has cheated on their spouse?
00:08:27
Speaker 2: Does that matter?
00:08:28
Speaker 3: Historically we look at great politicians, great leaders, great presidents, and many of them perhaps weren't faithful to their spouses. Should that matter? Should we be privy? Should we force someone to explain the details. And he wasn't even accused of cheating in the traditional sense, but being on that particular website is of concern. And just seeing him shirtless in a towel as his profile picture, that's a little disturbing too. And I think that that is something voters will absolutely consider, regardless of him saying that they don't care.
00:09:03
Speaker 2: I do think they care.
00:09:04
Speaker 1: Well, is it just isn't that bottom line though? Right if the voters, you all get to decide. Yeah, it's up to y'all. You can stomach it, don't stomach it, have a problem with it, don't have a problem with it. I'm I'm okay. It's still sometimes ropes feels like some kind of a violation. This is something that he went through with his wife. They went through it together, and they got through it together when folks business like that starts getting thrown out for the sake of scandal and from politics.
00:09:32
Speaker 3: Look, obviously this is exactly the stuff that opponents use to try and discredit you and question your values, question your morality, all of that. I do think it's strange though, because from everything I read, this kick profile is an active profile, which is also a little strange.
00:09:50
Speaker 1: But they also claimed his campaign that he deleted the thing ten years ago, like he doesn't even have the app, like it was just something that's out there. No matter what you think, we know what his wife thinks.
00:10:02
Speaker 3: Rogues.
00:10:02
Speaker 1: This has to go a long way, does it not, Not just the fact that they're married, but his wife is speaking out, speaking up, defending him and defending their marriage.
00:10:11
Speaker 3: I think it'll go a long way with a lot of female voters perhaps, But like I said, a lot of people are trying to say that it looks like a hostage video. That shameful of him to force his wife to front this instead of him coming out on a video he had her do it, but she didn't say he made her do it. It seemed to me watching it and listening to it that she chose to do it.
00:10:34
Speaker 1: It was gonna be my next question, what your impression was. She's just walking down the street, and at one point Robe she actually said, this is like my twentieth take. Yeah, So, I mean, it seemed like she was just winging it. She said. Even in there, she said, I'm going a little long. I hope my people can edit this or something. It didn't seem like it was edited.
00:10:50
Speaker 3: It didn't seem edit it at all. She just kind of thought maybe they'd have to because it was so long.
00:10:55
Speaker 1: So it was. It was a five minutes of Amy Girtner is her name. They were made in twenty twenty three, but here is just one excerpt. Listen to her here explaining her frustration about what's going on again. You'll hear some you can hear of making footsteps, I think in the gravel that's in the background, if you hear any noise. But here she is Graham Plattner's wife.
00:11:15
Speaker 4: This is very hard to do, but.
00:11:20
Speaker 5: I just really wanted to make sure that everyone knows that Graham and I have a great marriage. Being married is hard, Being newly married is hard. Being newly married and going through infertility is hard. Being newly married, going through infertility and a Senate campaign is hard.
00:11:47
Speaker 4: I don't even know if I have the right words to describe what we've been going through.
00:11:52
Speaker 6: But our marriage counselor helps, My personal counselor helps, Graham's personal counselor helps, and.
00:12:03
Speaker 4: We work on our mental health every day.
00:12:08
Speaker 6: No marriage is perfect, and I don't want a perfect marriage.
00:12:16
Speaker 4: I want my marriage, and I want to be married to Graham.
00:12:20
Speaker 3: Look, I think she sounded sincere. That's just my honest reaction to her. And I watched the whole video. She seemed sincere.
00:12:28
Speaker 1: She did to me as well. It didn't seem like it was a speech or she was trying to hit particular notes necessarily. She sounded sincere to me, and it sounded. Look, she did add in there that he had been in combat and mentioned that he had gone through some things, and I guess there was a suggestion there that he has struggled mightily. Yes, yeah, that he has struggled, and she almost I don't know, does she go as far as making some kind of connection to some of his behavior and things they've gone through today.
00:12:55
Speaker 3: She said he witnessed like incredible violence and he struggled with that, And I do think she was explaining perhaps some of his behavior based on trauma.
00:13:06
Speaker 1: Yes, well, this wasn't This hasn't been his only controversy, Robes, This is probably not. Probably this is the third major scandal essentially with this guy. The other two had to do with tattoos and tipping black people. We'll explain you.
00:13:25
Speaker 3: Stay here, Welcome back, everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ. We're talking about a senate candidate from Maine, Graham Platner. Didn't know his name honestly before this weekend, but a lot of people are talking about him now. And if you go online and just look at any major news site, you're gonna see his name and his face everywhere. And his wife, Amy, actually put out a video we just played it for you over the weekend, defending these sexting I don't want to say claims that the fact that he sexted several women early on in their marriage and that is the latest controversy.
00:14:08
Speaker 2: But there's certainly some of the pictures.
00:14:10
Speaker 1: I've only seen the one.
00:14:11
Speaker 2: I've seen the towel picture.
00:14:13
Speaker 1: But that's the only Okay, that's the only one.
00:14:14
Speaker 3: That's the only one I've seen him in a towel, and the toilet. Oh yeah, you know what well, so so I pointed it out to TJ. I said, if you're going to do like a sexy profile pick and you're sexting women, maybe you should not take your selfie in the mirror where you can see your toilet right behind you with the lid up.
00:14:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was an.
00:14:35
Speaker 3: Extra ew ew. And in that profile pick you could see a lot of tattoos. And I say that because his tattoos, and specifically one tattoo that I believe he is now covered up recently, because he claims he didn't realize that this tattoo he said he got when he was drunk one night as a marine was actually a Nazis.
00:15:00
Speaker 2: Bowl or not a swastika, but of the Nazi He had.
00:15:05
Speaker 1: The skull and bones. He said he didn't know when he got it, but but yeah, ropes, he kept it there for a long time, almost twenty years, and then just recently covered it up. That suggested to a lot of people like, come home, bro, Yes, now you want to do it, because it's come out. And he says for twenty years he didn't know what it was. What a drunken night, That's what he said.
00:15:26
Speaker 2: A drunken night.
00:15:28
Speaker 3: You know, got a tattoo, just like so many people can relate to, and he just didn't know that it was and can be viewed as a Nazi symbol.
00:15:37
Speaker 1: It was in Croatia. We've we've been talking about going. We better be careful.
00:15:40
Speaker 3: Let's not go visit the tattoo store in Croatia.
00:15:43
Speaker 2: But he also was.
00:15:47
Speaker 3: Very active in some chat rooms, and this also might be part of what his wife Amy was referring to when she talked about he had a lot of anger issues, a lot of PTSD, He experienced.
00:15:58
Speaker 2: A lot of violence.
00:15:59
Speaker 3: He was a bartender for a while as well, and he was making all sorts of comments and they were very negative about black folks, about women, about sexual assault victims. It was very broie. That's a kind way to say it, but just it was did He talked about how he struggled with like masculine, uber masculinity.
00:16:24
Speaker 2: Whatever however he wanted to describe it.
00:16:26
Speaker 3: He was offensive as hell, used the R word in some of his posts when he didn't like what people said.
00:16:31
Speaker 2: But he had a big thing about.
00:16:32
Speaker 3: How because as a bartender, he said black people never tip.
00:16:35
Speaker 2: That was his racist comment.
00:16:38
Speaker 1: Because we don't like crappy bartenders.
00:16:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe your bartending skills were lacking, dude, Maybe it was you, not them.
00:16:44
Speaker 1: I said a skinny marguerite in here.
00:16:47
Speaker 2: Okay, oh my goodness, that's the constant. Yeah, I'm sure there's a little spit added to that.
00:16:53
Speaker 3: But no. He so he made some comments about how yes he was based, and then he said, you know, women, stop drinking so much, stop dressing so provocatively. I basically blaming sexual assault victims for putting themselves in the position to become sexual assault victims.
00:17:12
Speaker 1: So he's acknowledged and apologized for some of this stuff. He's acknowledged, talked about the tattoo. He's acknowledged now and talked about this third thing. But rogues, how much aren't they talking about ridding? Are they getting people out of Congress who have scandals and backgrounds? So the Democrats now want to vote one in and supporting him being voted in. We have to stop short though, Robes. His wife is standing by them. Yeah, voters are standing by them right now, at least according to the latest polling. There's no judgment anybody else needs to have to have. You can have an opinion about it. But robes this is it's unfortunate. But is this a disqualifying incident? Are you disqualified if you sexted a woman outside of your marriage? Voters, you can.
00:17:59
Speaker 3: Feel Look and he is apologizing, says his wife has forgiven him.
00:18:05
Speaker 4: Look.
00:18:05
Speaker 2: And I know I did see this, and I hated seeing this on X It's such an awful forum. People just say the worst things to one another. But they were actually taking.
00:18:13
Speaker 3: Out the fact that she said he's in therapy. We're in therapy. I'm in therapy, and threw that at them and said, why do we want a mentally unstable person in the halls of Congress?
00:18:23
Speaker 2: And I just think that's the opposite way to look at this.
00:18:25
Speaker 3: I actually thought that was one of the brighter spots that at least he was willing to talk about it, willing to get help and is in treatment to acknowledge them of his shortcomings and perhaps how he misplaced anger and put it in the wrong place. And I think that should be commended and applauded, not made fun of or used against you.
00:18:43
Speaker 1: I'm applauded and even encouraged in Washington, Sweet, I don't think I've heard any I can't remember I'm sure I can't either any member of Congress anybody talking about in a present, I would want my president an hour two hours a week sitting down with some I.
00:19:00
Speaker 3: Would very much like to think that most members of Congress actually maybe had a moment to reflect, to talk to somebody who could work through any feelings. I think that's actually a beautiful thing.
00:19:11
Speaker 1: But God, Hakeem Jeffries and Speaker Johnson should do couples there.
00:19:18
Speaker 2: That would be amazing.
00:19:19
Speaker 3: But right now, look, this is I think these numbers were before this sexting issue blew up over the weekend and his wife made that video. But as of right now, Platner is leading Susan Collins by nearly eight points. That's fairly significant. So it will be interesting to see what this weekend meant for those polling numbers and if maybe his wife's video helped or hurt. Unclear right now, but I would have to lean despite all the crap you see on X as a woman hearing her, I thought she seemed kind and real and sweet, and it softened me when I heard her speak. So I don't know if that's how it will land.
00:20:03
Speaker 1: Way to put it robe she is someone you she didn't get herself dulled up. No, it's no beautiful backdrop. She was just walking robe. She knows she look like the wife of an oyster farmer.
00:20:15
Speaker 2: She looked like a maner. Exactly.
00:20:16
Speaker 3: If you've ever been to Maine, it's funny the people there, they're they're not They're the opposite of la. You don't see a lot of filler and botox and makeup and you know.
00:20:27
Speaker 2: Hair extensions.
00:20:28
Speaker 3: And no, these are like ll Bean uh Patagonia, like people who love the land and uh love the landscape and don't mind the harsh weather. These are maners. And yeah, so he is like an oyster farmer. Can you get more Maine than that? So look and look the Democrats at this point, now that they're standing behind somebody, they've been pointing the finger in terms of like any sort of scandal like now, look, it does not discriminate. Humans are humans, whether they're Republicans or Democrats.
00:20:59
Speaker 2: And you know, here you go.
00:21:00
Speaker 1: But we've already heard people are trying to well, this scandle isn't as bad as that, Like what's the cap on a scandal like that? One's too far? Like that's too much. He sext it, but was he fully naked in the picture, Like we're breaking it down to which one is which. But there's a lot at stake because if you take away the Senate from President Trump in his last two years and his ability to get anything through there, woo is the right response. Folks all appreciate you. This is one again. Platner is the name. You'll see it plenty. You appreciate your spending some time with us. My dear Amy Robot hom TJ. Holmes talks him