Democrat candidate for United States Senator from Maine Graham Platner accused media outlets that had reported on his alleged “sexting” scandal as “journalistic malpractice.”
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, he specifically called out the The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and The New York Times (NYT), which had reported on the scandal on Saturday.
“The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times ran stories without any evidence besides the gossip from a former staffer…I’m sorry, that’s frankly journalistic malpractice,” Platner stated.
According to reporting by both outlets, Platner’s wife had told the campaign about messages she had discovered of her husband “sexting” with multiple women, despite the couple having been married since 2023.
Current and former officials working on Platner’s campaign had confirmed the exchanges, according to the NYT. One current official reportedly said the conduct had stopped before the launch of his Senate campaign.
A former campaign senior aide, Genevieve McDonald, claimed that Gertner had reached out in 2025 about her husband’s alleged behavior, the NYT reported.
Per media reports, Gertner talking about feeling betrayed by an unnamed campaign staffer in a statement provided by the Platner campaign.
“I trusted this person with the most private chapter of our lives — the early days of our marriage before any campaign was on our mind — and I am deeply hurt by her betrayal and the invasion of our privacy,” Gertner said.
In a Saturday video statement posted to Platner’s social media campaign account, Gertner said she found the willingness to spread gossip “shameful.”
“It makes me really angry, disappointed. And I find it really shameful that there’s a group of media outlets and people who are willing to spread gossip instead of talking about real issues that Graham is running on,” she said.
Hellbound and Down 