Michelle Goldberg Regrets Praising Graham Platner After 2021 Rape Allegation

3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Jul 7

Michelle Goldberg said she "deeply" regrets her earlier favorable New York Times column on Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, writing he now appears "significantly worse" than the online criticism she had dismissed.
The reversal followed former girlfriend Jenny Racicot's allegation that Platner raped her in 2021; she told CNN, "By definition? Yes, absolutely," after Politico detailed her account of forced sex. Platner denies it.
Racicot had appeared in a June New York Times report on allegations from women who dated Platner, but she had not then described the 2021 incident in detail.
Goldberg also said former Platner political director Genevieve McDonald, who quit as earlier scandals emerged, now looks less like a vindictive critic and more like someone Democrats failed to heed.
She framed the episode as a warning that Democrats' hunger for angry outsider candidates can weaken vetting and let unfit figures gain traction.