MS NOW’s Mika Brzezinski appeared to cast doubt on a bombshell allegation of rape against Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, repeatedly pressing one of the journos who broke the story for “concrete evidence.”
She grilled Politico reporter Adam Wren over his report in which Platner’s ex-girlfriend Jenny Racicot accused the candidate of breaking into her home and raping her almost five years ago — instantly triggering calls from prominent Dems for Platner to exit the Maine race. He denied the allegations but indicated he was considering dropping out soon.
“My question to you, given the very high standards Politico has before they write something like this and publish it – what aspects of this story brought it to the level of publishable?” Brzezinski asked Monday night, noting there was no police report or legal filing about the rape allegation.
Wren replied that he and his colleague Jesssica Piper reviewed email exchanges between Racicot and her therapist, in whom she confided “in almost real-time;” talked to people who Racicot spoke to after the alleged rape; and spent a lot of time talking to Racicot across multiple interviews.
“We asked her why she didn’t file a police report and she described sort of the insular nature of where she lives in her corner of Maine that she shares with Graham Platner and she, you know, debated sort of how to handle this, and we found ultimately the number of corroborating pieces of evidence to support her story in a way that we could report it,” Wren added.
Brzezinski pressed: “So, what are some of those corroborating pieces of evidence? … Any conversations with Graham Platner at the time … do you have that? What do you have that actually connects this literally? Graham Platner to raping this victim?”
“Yeah, she reached out to him the day after via Instagram and essentially told him that, you know, she didn’t want to hear from him again,” Wren said.
Brzezinski jumped in: “But you were able to see those DMs [Direct Messages]?”
“She, uh, tried to recover those DMs. We were not able to review those DMs but she described them to us. We also – long before he was a political candidate – we saw her essentially explain to others that he was in her words ‘consensually careless,’” Wren said.
But Brzezinski pressed again: “Right, but were you able to see the interactions between Graham Platner and this alleged victim? Did you actually physically see them? Did she produce them for you?”
“She attempted to uncover them, but was unable to,” Wren said.
MS NOW co-anchor Willie Geist then questioned Wren about the timing of the story, noting that it was published exactly one week from the deadline when Platner would have to drop out of the race in order for Dems to select a new candidate to take his place.
Wren said Racicot “wanted Maine voters to sort of have the full story here.”
At the end of the interview, Brzezinski again leaned into Wren for more concrete evidence that helped Politico publish the story.
“So Adam, in closing, obviously this is a huge political bombshell story, a story that might – probably will – lead to the end of Graham Platner’s campaign, and I’m going back to the decision to publish, and I’m curious what concrete evidence … took this story beyond Graham Platner saying this was consensual, Jenny Racicot saying this was not consensual?” Brzezinski asked.
“What took it over the edge and had you and your editors decide to publish, of course, kind of an earthquake in Democratic politics? What was the piece of evidence or pieces of evidence that made you sure of this?” she added.
Wren repeated that Racicot had confided in several people about the alleged rape long before Platner was a political candidate and shared screenshots of messages and emails with the reporters.
Brzezinski cut him off, saying, “Right, well those are the things I said. What is the actual – is there evidence between her and him, evidence of a crime? Because he’s being accused of rape. What put this over the edge? Because he says he didn’t and he has people on his side who say he didn’t. She says I did and I’m trying – what’s the throughline?”
Wren repeated that he and his colleague interviewed Racicot multiple times and spoke to people she had confided in soon after the alleged incident, saying: “Politico stands by our reporting.”
Platner is facing a July 13 deadline to drop out of the race to give Dems time to nominate a replacement to face GOP Sen. Susan Collins on the ballot in November – in a key state for control of the Senate.
Since the report was published, Platner has cleared his campaign schedule and is reportedly considering next steps – while Dems like New York Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand quickly took back their endorsements and urged him to exit the race.
