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Graham Platner campaign manager resigns after controversial posts online resurface

Graham Platner campaign manager resigns after controversial posts online resurface

Photo: 560 WGAN Newsradio


The campaign director for rising Maine Democratic superstar Graham Platner has resigned after the resurfacing of controversial social media posts.

The Portland Press Herald reports that Genevieve McDonald resigned from her post as campaign director yesterday, saying that the views expressed weren’t values she could stand behind.

“The words we choose to use online reflect who we are and what we stand for. While I am empathetic to Graham’s experiences and respect his personal journey and growth, I cannot overlook the volume and nature of his past comments, many of which were made as an adult, not as a young man.” McDonald said in her resignation letter.

Posts made by the senate candidate years ago on Reddit resurfaced this past week, and included controversial takes on a range of topics from police to sexual assault in the military.

“Rape is a real thing,” he wrote in a post back in 2013. “If you’re so worried about it to buy Kevlar underwear you’d think you might not get blacked out f*cked up around people you aren’t comfortable with.”

Platner defended himself by saying that he made those comments while he was going through a dark period in his life after returning home from serving in the Marines in Afghanistan.

“I felt immensely disillusioned. I felt immensely angry, and very lonely and isolated. And I spent a long time searching,” Platner told CBS 13. “I found solace on frankly getting in fights on the internet, because I was alone.”

The source of the leaks is currently unknown.

To read the original Portland Press Herald article, click here.

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