National Republican Senatorial Committee chair Tim Scott has accused The New York Times and senior Senate Democrats, including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, of colluding to delay publishing damaging allegations against Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner. Scott claims the newspaper sat on a story in June — a month before the latest allegation emerged — to give the party time to find a replacement candidate while holding onto political power. The accusation matters because it frames an intra-party controversy as evidence of coordination between the media and Democratic leadership, though no proof of such collusion is presented in the article.

Platner's candidacy has been steadily undermined by roughly a year of reports, beginning last autumn with unearthed footage of him dancing while intoxicated and displaying a chest tattoo featuring Nazi iconography, and culminating this week in an allegation that he raped his former girlfriend, Jenny Racicot. Scott specifically pointed to a June New York Times report in which several women who had relationships with Platner alleged he knew about the tattoo earlier than he had publicly admitted. The controversy has prompted figures including Bernie Sanders to call for Platner to drop out, and has raised questions over who might replace him on the ballot.