Graham Platner dropped from Labor Day rally speaker schedule

Former Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner was pulled as a speaker from a Labor Day event in Maine that was supposed to mark one of his first major public appearances since ending his campaign for Congress.Platner was set to speak Monday at the rally organized by Hancock County Activists and Acadia Action Peacemakers, which have been behind the nationwide anti-Trump “No Kings” protests. The rally is taking place in Ellsworth, near his hometown of Sullivan.Event organizers told the Associated Press on Wednesday that Platner had been scrapped as a speaker after being urged to do so by Jenny Racicot, an ex-girlfriend who had accused Platner of raping her. Lyndsey Fifield, another ex-girlfriend of Platner’s, also pushed organizers to drop him after she accused the ex-Senate candidate of toxic behavior and emotional abuse. “Graham is not speaking,” Carol Leonard of Hancock County Activists said, adding that Platner will instead lead a veterans’ march after the rally. “The media frenzy got just too insane, and we became concerned about safety.”Platner has said he is not guilty of the rape, sexual, or domestic abuse claims brought by his ex-girlfriends, which ultimately forced him to suspend his campaign in Maine for the Senate. After he dropped out of the race against Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), Racicot and Fifield continued the pressure campaign against Platner, pressing the Labor Day event organizers to withdraw him as a speaker from the pro-union event.“While Graham’s behavior is disappointing, it’s hardly surprising,” Racicot and Fifield said in a joint statement. “What is surprising is that there are people who are still willing to give him a platform despite his refusal to take any accountability for his actions.”Cheyenne Hunt, executive director of Reckoning Action, also called on organizers to withdraw Platner’s invitation, according to WMTW. GOP ANXIETY GROWS THAT TRUMP MIDTERM MONEY WILL BE SPENT TOO LATE — OR NOT AT ALL“Continuing to give Graham Platner a bully pulpit is irresponsible, reckless, and antithetical to the direction we should be headed as Democrats,” Hunt said in a statement. “We call on the Hancock County Activists to rescind his invitation to speak, and we call on Democrats everywhere to stand with survivors.”Platner was replaced by Troy Jackson at the top of the Democratic ticket. Jackson is now set to face Collins in November in one of the closest races in the country that could determine majority control of the Senate.