Democrat Graham Platner suspends campaign for key US Senate race after assault allegation | BBC News — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00But if we look at politics now in the
2. 0:02US, the Democratic candidate Graeme
3. 0:04Platner has suspended his campaign in
4. 0:07Maine's Senate race after days of
5. 0:10mounting pressure of allegations of rape
6. 0:12and sexual assault, which he has denied.
7. 0:16His exit allows Maine Democrats to
8. 0:18choose a replacement candidate to
9. 0:20challenge Republican Senator Susan
10. 0:22Collins in November. The race is seen as
11. 0:25crucial to Democrats hopes of regaining
12. 0:27control of the US Senate. Platner
13. 0:30announced his withdrawal in a video
14. 0:32posted to his social media accounts.
15. 0:35>> We believe that for the movement to
16. 0:37continue,
17. 0:42it can't be me.
18. 0:47And for that reason,
19. 0:55we are suspending campaign operations.
20. 1:02This is incredibly difficult because
21. 1:05I know that some will think it's an
22. 1:06admission of guilt and it most certainly
23. 1:08is not.
24. 1:10Well, our North America correspondent
25. 1:12Anthony Zurka has more on what led up to
26. 1:15this announcement.
27. 1:16>> It was uh a a gut-wrenching video. He
28. 1:19clearly was very emotional. He had to
29. 1:21pause multiple times as he was uh
30. 1:24delivering his remarks. It didn't even
31. 1:25seem like it was all that scripted. He
32. 1:28blamed the system. He denied that there
33. 1:30was any truth to the accusations being
34. 1:33made against him. But he said that it
35. 1:36was the system and the structures of the
36. 1:37system that were being denied to him
37. 1:40that forced him to announce his
38. 1:42suspending the campaign and his
39. 1:44withdrawal from this race. Of course
40. 1:47earlier this week multiple individuals
41. 1:49leaders in the Democratic party had
42. 1:50rescended their endorsements. But even
43. 1:52more importantly uh this the Democratic
44. 1:55committees that were funding his
45. 1:57campaign spending millions of dollars to
46. 1:59support him. All of that had been
47. 2:01frozen. So he would have had to fund
48. 2:03raise and finance on his own and with
49. 2:05his support collapsing nationally. That
50. 2:07would have been a very difficult task
51. 2:09essentially forcing his hand here. He
52. 2:10entered the race last August uh and
53. 2:13built a remarkable grassroots movement
54. 2:16uh in Maine. Over 15,000 volunteers in
55. 2:19that state. He campaigned in all of
56. 2:21their counties. He defeated the
57. 2:24incumbent uh Democratic governor who was
58. 2:27running against him. But from the very
59. 2:29beginning, there were also all of these
60. 2:30allegations, dogging him, allegations,
61. 2:33evidence uh of incendiary posts,
62. 2:36anti-woman, anti-gay posts he made on
63. 2:39social media. Uh there was a report
64. 2:42shortly before the Democratic primary
65. 2:45last month about him being uh verbally
66. 2:48and even physically intimidating during
67. 2:51uh his relationships with women over his
68. 2:54dating career. Uh there was a report
69. 2:56about after he got married in 2024 that
70. 2:59he was texting, sending text messages uh
71. 3:01to other women. And of course, he had a
72. 3:03Nazi themed tattoo on his chest that was
73. 3:07revealed. He since had it covered up and
74. 3:08said that he didn't know the origins of
75. 3:11the skull and crossbones on his chest.
76. 3:13He denies most of these uh most serious
77. 3:15allegations, but the the the social
78. 3:18media posts, the text ones he confirmed.
79. 3:22Anthony Zurka