Fox News reports that Maine Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner repeatedly attacked a Republican lawmaker on Reddit for infidelity years before his own campaign confirmed that he had sent sexually explicit messages to women other than his wife early in his marriage. The report highlights an apparent inconsistency between his past public condemnations of cheating and his personal conduct, and comes as Platner faces mounting pressure, including calls from Democratic figures and Senator Bernie Sanders, to withdraw from the race amid multiple controversies and a sexual assault allegation reported by Politico.

According to the article, on four occasions between 2018 and 2019 Platner claimed that former GOP Representative Duncan Hunter had confided to him, while Platner worked as a bartender in Washington DC, that he was sleeping with women who were not his wife; Platner called Hunter a "garbage person" and a "real piece of sh-t". The explicit messaging claims were first raised by Genevieve McDonald, Platner's former political director, who said his wife told her he had exchanged messages with up to 12 women, though the campaign said the figure was as many as six and that the exchanges were not ongoing. Platner's wife defended him in a statement, describing the disclosures as a betrayal of confidence and an invasion of the couple's privacy during the early days of their marriage.