{"id":2151,"date":"2026-03-17T18:55:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T18:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/?p=2151"},"modified":"2026-03-17T18:55:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T18:55:10","slug":"mills-platner-spar-attack-ad-intensification-maine-primary-131155917","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/?p=2151","title":{"rendered":"Mills and Platner spar over attack ad in intensification of Maine primary to face Susan Collins"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

PORTLAND, Maine — <\/span>The campaign of U.S. Senate hopeful Gov. Janet Mills<\/a> released an advertisement Tuesday criticizing comments posted online by her rival Graham Platner, in an intensification of their Maine Democratic primary battle.<\/p>\n

Mills and Platner are competing for the Democratic nomination<\/a> to take on Republican Sen. Susan Collins, whose seat is key for Democrats’ plans to take back the Senate.<\/p>\n

The Mills campaign released a video in which women read some of Platner’s old social media posts that were dismissive of sexual assault. A narrator in the ad says Platner once wrote on Reddit that people shouldn’t get so drunk \u201cthey wind up having sex with someone they don\u2019t mean to.\u201d <\/p>\n

The women conclude that he is \u201ca bully\u201d and there is \u201cno way\u201d they could vote for him. The video ends with a voiceover saying: \u201cGraham Platner: the closer you look, the worse it gets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Platner, an oyster farmer and U.S. Marine veteran from rural Maine, apologized for his deleted comments<\/a> months ago when they first resurfaced, and said he posted them while struggling with mental health issues after leaving the military. The comments showed him<\/a> endorsing political violence, dismissing rape in the military and criticizing police officers and rural America.<\/p>\n

Ben Chin, Platner’s campaign manager, described Mills’ ad as a \u201cdesperate attempt for relevance.”<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s why people hate politics and why not enough real people run for office: D.C. insiders who are so obsessed with their own power and threatened by someone who is building an actual movement of working people, that they launch a barrage of attacks to try to tear Graham down,” Chin said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The Mills campaign said in a statement that Platner’s comments show him \u201cminimizing sexual assault and blaming survivors.\u201d The campaign also sent out a statement with comments from several Maine women criticizing Platner.<\/p>\n

\u201cGraham Platner\u2019s comments aren\u2019t just disgusting or disturbing, they are disqualifying,\u201d said Peggy Schaffer of Vassalboro, a former vice chair of the Maine Democratic Party, in a statement distributed by the Mills campaign. \u201cThese comments make him unelectable in any general election.\u201d <\/p>\n

The race pits Mills, 78 and a Democratic stalwart who has the backing of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, against a much younger and far less experienced opponent who has filled town halls across the state with a populist message centered on the cost of housing and health care. Platner, 41, has picked up endorsements<\/a> from independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Democratic Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego.<\/p>\n

Platner has also faced questions about a skull-and-crossbones tattoo reminiscent of a Nazi symbol<\/a>. He has said he got the tattoo during a night of drinking and was unaware until recently that it was associated with Nazis. He has covered the tattoo with a different design.<\/p>\n

Mills took a jab at Platner earlier this month when she posted on social media that \u201cfor what it\u2019s worth, I don\u2019t have any tattoos.\u201d<\/p>\n

Platner released an ad of his own on Tuesday that features an endorsement from a Maine woman named Susan Collins who is unrelated to the Republican senator. She describes the senator as a \u201cD.C. insider\u201d and says Platner is a \u201cDemocrat with backbone.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Collins campaign declined to comment on the dueling ads, or the argument between her prospective opponents. Collins, 73, was elected in 1996 and has turned back numerous challenges from Democratic opponents over the years.<\/p>\n

The Democrats needs to net four seats<\/a> to retake the Senate majority, and they see a path to do so in Maine, North Carolina, Alaska and Ohio.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press reporter Kimberlee Kruesi in Providence, Rhode Island, contributed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PORTLAND, Maine — The campaign of U.S. Senate hopeful Gov. Janet Mills released an advertisement Tuesday criticizing comments posted online by her rival Graham Platner, in an intensification of their Maine Democratic primary battle. Mills and Platner are competing for the Democratic nomination to take on Republican Sen. Susan Collins, whose seat is key for<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[219,197,62,57,395,31],"tags":[751,29,324,27,107,750,38],"class_list":["post-2151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gear-gear-news-and-events","category-general","category-news","category-newsletters","category-security-security-news","category-us","tag-751","tag-article","tag-elections","tag-general-news","tag-politics","tag-tattoos-and-piercings","tag-u-s-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}