{"id":256286,"date":"2026-06-05T12:20:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T12:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/256286\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T12:20:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T12:20:16","slug":"graham-platner-accuser-lyndsey-fifield-slams-ny-times-for-watering-down-story-as-gift-to-democrat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/256286\/","title":{"rendered":"Graham Platner accuser Lyndsey Fifield slams NY Times for watering down story as ‘gift’ to Democrat"},"content":{"rendered":"

A woman who accused Maine Democratic Senate hopeful Graham Platner of physical abuse<\/a> in a New York Times story published Thursday rounded on the Gray Lady early Friday, claiming the paper\u2019s reporters \u201cmethodically delayed and twisted\u201d her account into \u201ca gift to the Platner campaign\u201d \u2014 including spiking allegations of sexual assault against him.<\/p>\n

Lyndsey Fifield described her interactions with reporters Lisa Lerer and Katie Glueck in a pair of lengthy X posts<\/a> Friday morning, saying she had \u201cbucked all advice from my friends (and resisted my conservative bias) and decided to fully trust the Times journalists.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey connected me to two of the other victims so we wouldn\u2019t feel so alone,\u201d she wrote. \u201cI insisted to each of them that I trusted the NYT journalists and that we were doing the right thing despite their (sadly very accurate) sense that something was wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner during a campaign event at the Veterans of Foreign Wars on May 17, 2026. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Graham Platner with a Nazi-affiliated tattoo seen on his chest. Pod Save America<\/p>\n

Between being interviewed and the publication of the story online Thursday, Fifield claimed, the reporters \u201ckept coming back to us saying the editors needed more. I needed to go on the record (okay). We need more screenshots (okay). I met every bench mark they set, eager to provide more sources or evidence as needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the story went up I began to ask them \u2026 wait, where are the stories from the other women? Where are their accusations of sexual assault? Why am I the focus? Why are there 11 paragraphs dedicated to detailing my work history (more than has been published about Graham\u2019s by far)?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy does it say \u2018nobody could corroborate\u2019 when I offered them sources that COULD corroborate? \u2026 Where were the screenshots they\u2019d said they would use? \u2026 The editors said it was too much, they explained.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to Fifield, the Times story quoted another Platner ex, Jenny Racicot, as saying without elaborating that he \u201cdoes not respect women,\u201d while a third woman, who was quoted anonymously, said \u2014 again, without elaborating \u2014 that she was \u201ccollateral damage to the world that is his.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lyndsey Fifield is seen in a May 2026 Instagram photo. Instagram\/@lyndseyfifield<\/p>\n

Fifield, whose account made up the bulk of the story, dated Platner from approximately 2013 to 2015<\/a> and told the Times that the Marine veteran \u201cregularly grabbed her by the shoulders \u2014 sometimes hard enough to leave marks \u2014 and, on one occasion, yanked her out of a cab by her wrist after an argument when she wanted to stay in the car.\u201d<\/p>\n

During another incident, she said, \u201che twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a bedroom and held the door closed from the other side so she couldn\u2019t get out, telling her to remain there until she was \u2018calm.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Times also failed to include any mention that I DID confide in multiple friends through the years that Graham had been abusive \u2014 long before he was running for office. Those friends confirm they told the Times so,\u201d Fifield wrote.<\/p>\n

Platner, now 41, was also prone to displays of misogyny<\/a>, according to Fifield, even referring to women as \u201chatchet wounds\u201d in tasteless reference to their anatomy.<\/p>\n

The New York Times story published June 4, 2026. New York Times<\/p>\n

Graham Platner showed off the Nazi-affiliated tattoo he got covered up. Instagram \/ Graham for Maine<\/p>\n

\u201cIt dawned on me that this really was a set up all along,\u201d she concluded. \u201cThe journalists I trusted who convinced me to share a story I never wanted to tell methodically delayed and twisted this into a gift to the Platner campaign. Violating the trust of his victims. Shattering the trust I placed in them with the most vulnerable story of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Platner responded to the article in an interview<\/a> on MS NOW Thursday night, calling Fifield\u2019s claims \u201cpolitically motivated\u201d and \u201cjust not true.\u201d<\/p>\n

The presumptive Democratic nominee did admit to sexting multiple women following his 2023 marriage<\/a> to Amy Gertner<\/a>, telling host Chris Hayes that the couple \u201cdealt with it very, very early in our relationship, and so that\u2019s when it stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n

As recently as this week, Platner had an account on the chat and hookup app Kik<\/a>, featuring a profile picture of what appeared to him clad in just a towel.<\/p>\n

A Times spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman who accused Maine Democratic Senate hopeful Graham Platner of physical abuse in a New York Times…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2132,416,12827,5315,46937,9,11,10,87,855,58],"class_list":["post-256286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-democrats","tag-elections","tag-graham-platner","tag-maine","tag-midterm-elections-2026","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-politics","tag-senate","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}