Collins Calls 6-Term Maine Rival Platner Unfit as Scandals Tighten Senate Race
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Jun 22
Collins Calls 6-Term Maine Rival Platner Unfit as Scandals Tighten Senate Race
3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Jun 22
Summary
Susan Collins used her first national interview since Graham Platner’s nomination to cast the Democrat as the opposite of her “steady leadership” in Maine’s closely watched Senate contest.
Collins said Platner’s record would once have been disqualifying, citing abuse allegations, a chest tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol, ridicule of a Purple Heart recipient and what she called poor treatment of women and hostility to law enforcement.
Platner, a military veteran and oyster farmer, has linked parts of his past behavior to undiagnosed PTSD after four tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, saying he self-medicated with alcohol during a dark period.
The race remains tight in left-leaning Maine even after the controversies, with Collins seeking a sixth six-year term and national Democrats including Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren backing Platner.