Platner’s three-day vetting job comes back to haunt Dems as rape allegation rocks Senate bid
Democratic operatives reportedly commissioned a brief, low-cost background check on Graham Platner before launching his Senate campaign, a decision that appears to be backfiring as new allegations and controversies engulf the candidate and Democrats call on him to drop out.
Candidate vetting, which has become standard practice in high-stakes elections, is a process that often takes several weeks and tens of thousands of dollars to properly complete. Democratic strategist and top Platner staffer Dan Moraff, however, paid just $6,250 for a background check on Platner that took only three days, sources familiar told the Wall Street Journal.
Vetting processes are undertaken to help ensure prospective elected officials don’t have personal baggage that could, if discovered, derail their candidacy.
HOW GRAHAM PLATNER'S CAMPAIGN UNRAVELED: FROM REDDIT POSTS TO RAPE ALLEGATION
Platner faces a rape allegation from one former girlfriend and separate allegations of abusive behavior from another, all of which he denies. The Maine Senate hopeful has also faced scrutiny over a Nazi-linked tattoo that he got during his time in the Marine Corps, as well as over sexually explicit texts he sent to other women while he was married.
While these issues didn’t come up in the brief risk-assessment memo produced for Platner’s campaign, some controversial items that have since been reported did, the Wall Street Journal reported.
"The firm sent us a thing and it had some of the posts, but it didn’t have all of them," Moraff told the Wall Street Journal, referencing Platner’s now-deleted Reddit posts.
Using the since-deleted Reddit account, Platner denigrated members of the United States armed forces, going as far as to state that one wounded veteran deserved to die due to his conduct under fire. He also made comments alluding to familiarity with prostitution and hard drugs, as well as expressing support for political violence and socialism.
Platner has since apologized for the posts, attributing them to psychological trauma incurred during his time in the military as well as the gruff culture he became accustomed to while serving as an infantryman.
When asked by the Wall Street Journal what he thought when initially shown the posts, Moraff said that he told Platner "none of this will or should stop you from becoming a US senator."
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"If what the voters wanted were people who were grown in vats and had never done or said anything that they might regret their entire lives, we’d have a very different country," Moraff continued. "Part of our thesis here is that people do not want their candidates grown in vats. They want people who are real human beings and they want people who do not look and sound like the lab grown people who’ve been leading this country off a cliff."
A Platner campaign official told the Wall Street Journal that they didn’t have the resources to pay for a more thorough vetting of Platner, claiming that even a more robust background check would not have turned up any additional useful information about him. The background check did not include interviews or require Platner to fill out a questionnaire, according to The Wall Street Journal.
While a number of prominent Democrats have rescinded their endorsements of Platner, he has so far resisted calls to drop out of the race. If Platner ends his campaign before July 13, Democrats could find someone to replace him on the ballot.
"So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality it will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins," Platner said in a video denying the rape allegation against him on Monday. "Those were the goals when we launched this campaign, and they remain my goals today."
The New York Post reported Tuesday, citing sources, that Platner was refusing to drop out unless he could help choose his replacement.
The Platner campaign did not respond to a request for comment when reached by Fox News Digital on Tuesday.