Graham Platner's wife campaign video statement responding to infidelity allegations widely panned by critics
Graham Platner's wife Amy Gertner came out to defend her husband's Senate campaign Saturday, but X reactions to the five-minute video are rebuking it as damage control that did not dispute recent allegations against the Maine Democrat.
"So it makes me really angry, disappointed, and I find it really shameful that there's a group of media outlets and people who are willing to spread gossip, instead of talking about real issues that Graham is running on — like healthcare and education and childcare," Gertner said hours after the Wall Street Journal reported that Platner exchanged sexual text messages with several women after he and Gertner were married.
"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."
The wife speaking for her husband after the surfacing of allegations against him – and not the candidate himself – was seized on by critics and social media users replying to the video post.
"Graham Platner admitted to sexually explicit text messages with over a dozen women and having an account on a ‘predator paradise’ child exploitation app, then had his wife – a victim of his deviant actions – defend it," National Republican Senatorial Committee press secretary Samantha Cantrell told Fox News Digital on Sunday.
Fox News Digital reached out to Platner's campaign for a response but they did not immediately respond.
"It looks and sounds like a hostage video," one X user responded to the video. "Blink twice if you need rescuing, Amy."
The controversy comes as Platner, a progressive oyster farmer and military veteran running to unseat moderate incumbent Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has drawn support from national Democrats, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who previously praised him by saying, "That’s my kind of man."
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"I don't even know if I have the right words to describe what we've been going through, but our marriage counselor helps, my personal counselor helps, Graham's personal counselor helps, and we work on our mental health every day," Gertner added.
"No marriage is perfect, and I don’t want a perfect marriage. I want my marriage, and I want to be married to Graham."
But X users rebuked the use of the wife to defend the Senate campaign.
"It’s not your wife’s job to defend your infidelity, creep," writer Emily Zanotti wrote on X.
"The big problem here is that this story only covers what exists out there: potentially dozens of emails, text messages, and videos Platner sent to who-knows-how-many women, which the campaign is now praying aren’t next to be leaked," she added in another post.
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Another X user, who is a self-proclaimed 2028 Kamala Harris for president supporter, denounced the fact a campaign "has forced his wife to make a #hostage video," urging "Amy, please reach out to .@MEStatePolice so they can remove his firearms from your home."
"Shame on Graham for putting her in this position," another poster wrote on X.
Despite the blowback, Gertner did stress they have "a great marriage."
But critics note the video did little to answer allegations surrounding the Democrat Senate hopeful, particularly with the admission of mental health and infidelity struggles in a still-new marriage.
"I have incredible empathy for a woman who’s just had a miscarriage having to make a video defending her husband’s infidelities," Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts wrote on X. "But a man so damaged by combat – according to him and his family – that he’s said and done destructive things for decades needs to recover, not run for Senate."
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Gertner's video statement confirmed the mental health questions and notably did not deny the reporting.
"I knew the man that I married is wonderful and dynamic and probably a genius," Gertner said. "I knew the man that I married had been through an immense amount of violent active combat. He's been in therapy for years. I just I admire the f--- out of him.
"So when there are news articles about our marriage, it's just extra sh----. Can I say that online? I hope I can."
Earlier Saturday, Platner’s campaign confirmed the controversial text exchanges to Politico following a report from The Wall Street Journal that noted a former campaign aide seeking to get ahead of opposition research leaked the damning allegations.
"They’re trying to make this woman a scapegoat when she was clearly the canary in a coal mine," Watts added in another X post, sharing a Facebook message from alleged whistleblower Genevieve McDonald, who rebuked those defending Platner's campaign: "We cannot be this painfully stupid."
"So I think I'm feeling angry today, and I don't normally make public statements, but it's really important for me to tell all of you out there — especially people who are voting in Maine — that I think it's shameful behavior to spend time and energy and resources on negative ads and negative stories on Graham when all he's trying to do is improve the lives of people who work for a living," Gertner added.
The irony of rebuking "attacks" was not lost on critics.
"Have you read your husband’s campaign attacks, press releases and X posts?" former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell wrote on X, replying to the campaign video post. "You think you all get a free ride to brutally attack others and not get criticized yourself?"
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"Put on your big girl pants – he’s running for 1 of the 100 Senate seats," he added.
Among the "attack" posts noted by Grenell was one from the same Platner campaign X account earlier in the day.
"Susan Collins is spineless and corrupt," the campaign post read. "And in 157 days, we will defeat her."
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Among the reactions to Gertner's video post were shock that infidelity in their marriage allegedly happened so quickly after she admittedly "got married in 2023."
Also, critics noted the scripted and rehearsed reaction video where she admitted that "this is like my 20th take."
After the withdrawal of Maine Democrat Gov. Janet Mills from the primary, Platner is his party's presumptive nominee in Maine’s Senate race before the June 9 primary.
Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass., is the most prominent Democrat publicly pushing back, calling Platner’s Nazi-linked tattoo (Totenkopf/SS Death’s Head) "personally disqualifying" and urging Maine voters to reject him.
Collins is in a vulnerable seat in the closely held Republican Senate majority 53-47, having served for 29 years since Jan. 3, 1997. Democrats have long targeted Collins for a potential Senate seat flip, particularly because of her checkered voting past that historically has not been a rubber stamp for President Donald Trump's agenda.