Trump admin live updates: Graham Platner accuser tells CNN he apologized while raping her

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) Chairwoman Kirsten Gillibrand called on Graham Platner to “immediately withdraw” from the Maine Senate race Monday after the embattled Democratic candidate was accused of rape by an ex-girlfriend. 

 “The allegations reported today are incredibly disturbing – violence, abuse and sexual assault are absolutely unacceptable,” the New York Democrats said in a statement released by the DSCC.

“Graham Platner needs to immediately withdraw as the Democratic nominee for Senate and allow Maine Democrats the opportunity to choose a new candidate who can defeat Susan Collins,” Schumer and Gillibrand continued. 

The senators warned that Senate Democrats’ campaign and fundraising arm “will not invest in the Maine Senate race if Platner remains on the ballot.”

Maine resident Jenny Racicot claimed that she saw Graham Platner’s Nazi tattoo, but didn’t know what it was, according to CNN anchor Jake Tapper.

Tapper explained that a portion of his interview with Racicot was cut out due to timing concerns.

Other Platner accusers claimed to have seen the skull and crossbones tattoo.

Maine resident Jenny Racicot explained that at one point when Senate hopeful Graham Platner was allegedly raping her, she decided to stop resisting due to fears about her safety.

“I had recognized that he wasn’t listening to me. It wasn’t just that he wasn’t hearing me or whatnot,” she told CNN. “And then I recognized his level of intoxication. And I knew in that moment I wasn’t safe.”

“I don’t think I was safe to physically fight back. He’s big, he’s strong, and I just had to evaluate my safety and come up with the least worst outcome to the situation. And so I felt like complying for my safety was the least worst option.”

Racicot was crystal clear that she is alleging rape.

“By definition, yes, absolutely yes,” she said when asked if it was rape.

Maine resident Jenny Racicot stressed that she is not telling Pine Tree State residents how to vote despite her accusations that oyster farmer Graham Platner raped her.

“I’m not going to go as far as to say that,” she told CNN. “I’m just here to tell my story, to give a clearer picture of who he is and the type of past that he has. And, I just think it’s fair to the democratic process to let people know who they’re voting for.”

When asked about Democrats who may believe her but back Platner anyway, she replied that “I have friends who feel that way and that’s been a hard pill to swallow.”

“I understand that the state of our political environment is so much so that we need a lot of change, and he’s offering that change,” she added. “And, you know, I’m not mad at anyone who has voted for him all along. If he wasn’t who he was, I would be voting for him as well.”

Maine resident Jenny Racicot, who came forward with bombshell rape accusations against Graham Platner, alleged that he apologized to her during the horrifying encounter.

“It was this weird mix of like coming in and out of consciousness,” she told CNN during an on-camera interview about his drunkenness during the alleged rape. “And he just, he would apologize in those moments and then go back to doing what he was doing.”

Racicot recalled a deeply inebriated Platner having a “very specific look in his eyes” and how she “could smell alcohol.”

She defended her decision not to call the police. She then detailed how she cut him off afterward.

“I remember taking his arm and throwing it back at him, and I said, ‘Are you f–king serious, Graham? And he’s like, ‘What?’ And I’m like, ‘Do you not remember what happened last night?'” she recalled.

“I’m like, okay, ‘I need you to get dressed and leave and never talk to me again,'” she added. “He just got up and got dressed and left and didn’t seem concerned. He didn’t ask. … He didn’t ask me a single question.”

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) on Monday called on Graham Platner to end his Senate bid in Maine after a disturbing rape allegation was leveled against him.

“I’ve been very clear that sexual assault or violence against women is a red line,” Khanna wrote on X. “These allegations are very serious and credible.

“Graham Platner should drop out from the race. I am withdrawing my endorsement.”

Jenny Racicot, Platner’s ex-girlfriend, alleged in a Politico piece published Monday that the Maine Senate hopeful drunkenly broke into her home and raped her about five years ago.

Khanna notably stood by Platner after the New York Times last month reported accounts from several of the Democratic candidate’s exes who described enduring alleged physical and mental abuse from Platner.

Scandal-scarred Maine Senate hopeful Graham Platner revealed that he is reflecting on the viability of his campaign in the wake of the bombshell rape accusations against him reported by Politico.

“Regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful of the political reality it will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love,” Platner announced in a video.

Read more Rep. Ro Khanna — one of Graham Platner’s biggest congressional supporters — urges embattled candidate to end Maine Senate bid after rape allegation

Maine resident Jenny Racicot publicly alleged that Platner broke into her home and raped her almost five years ago.

She recounted how Platner entered her unlocked home — after she told him she didn’t want to see him and was “very drunk and wouldn’t take no for an answer” after telling him “No, don’t.”

Platner flatly denied that accusation as “troubling, serious and false.”

“Any accusation of non-consensual behavior is categorically false,” he said.

An ex-girlfriend of scandal-scarred Graham Platner said the Maine Senate hopeful broke into her home and raped her almost five years ago.

Maine resident Jenny Racicot came forward with the accusations to Politico and had correspondence with her therapist and a former date, whom she told about the incident, as corroboration.

She recalled how Platner entered her unlocked home — after she told him she didn’t want to see him. She said Platner was “very drunk and wouldn’t take no for an answer” after telling him “No, don’t.”

“And, the look on his face and realizing what was happening, I just realized that, like, I am in a situation where there’s no consent here,” she explained to Politico of the alleged assault.

Racicot was briefly featured in the bombshell New York Times story on Platner last month, but her sexual assault accusation against him was not mentioned in that piece.

Platner vehemently denied the accusations. He indefinitely postponed key campaign events ahead of the bombshell story as rumors swirled that it was coming.

“One of the reasons I didn’t come forward sooner was, the huge moral conflict that I had between supporting his politics, but not supporting him as a person,” Racicot told the outlet. “I just want the truth out there. I just want people to have a whole scope of who he is as a person.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said US officials may bring up FIFA’s decision to allow Folarin Balogun to play in tonight’s World Cup knockout game at the NATO summit getting underway Tuesday.

“It was a bad decision. They shouldn’t even be reviewing these things on slow motion, right?” Rubio told reporters during a meeting with his Chilean counterpart Monday. “They should review them live action. I think it was the right decision to reverse it.”

FIFA rejected Belgium’s appeal of its decision to suspend Balogun’s one-game ban following his red card against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the round of 32 last week.

“If you’re Belgium,” Rubio asked, “why would you want to play a game and win a match, and then you win this match, and then everyone will argue you didn’t really win it because their best player, leading scorer was not on the pitch during that – during the match?”

“So look, maybe they’re trying to get an international incident,” Rubio added. “I don’t know; maybe we’ll bring it up at NATO tomorrow when we’re there with the Belgians and everybody else. But I just hope the match will go on, everyone will be at full strength, and the winner will be the winner.

“If it’s Belgium – they have a very good team – they’ll move on and they can say they beat the US at full strength at home. And that could be a big victory, like what you saw [England] do last night on the road in Mexico in a very tough environment.”

President Trump revealed Monday that the new White House ballroom will also house a “tremendous military center.”

“That was supposed to be top secret, but it’s no longer top secret because whatever you do, you get sued,” Trump told attendees at a Rose Garden event touting his administration’s tax-advantaged investment accounts for babies born during his second term.

“It’s also able to hold the inauguration,” the president said of the under-construction ballroom.”We used the Capitol. And it’s a very small space; it’s not safe. They didn’t have drones in mind when they built it.”

The event space will be “bulletproof, drone-proof, missile-proof in many cases … and a big military component including on the roof, a drone port,” Trump added.

Rap megastar Nicki Minaj is in attendance at a White House Rose Garden event announcing the start of Trump Accounts, a new tax-advantaged investment plan for babies born during the 47th president’s term.

“#WhiteHouseBarbie,” the “Superbass” hitmaker said in an X post.

Minaj had joined Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent for a Trump Accounts event earlier this year after pledging six-figure investments of her own for children of “Barbz,” a nickname for her fans.

President Trump announced that his administration had purchased new helicopters to replace decades-old Marine One models, as well as a multimillion-dollar helipad on the South Lawn.

Sikorsky, which made the new S-76 choppers, will carve a granite helipad costing between $5 million and $6 million, the president noted.

“This one is a beauty. It’s got the seal of the White House; it’s beautiful, the eagle,” he said.

“For 50 years, we’ve been landing helicopters on grass. The grass is wet, soggy. The helicopters sometimes missed their little mark.

“Our other Marine Ones are about 40 years old. They’re all like Air Force One, you know, it’s time to make a change. And other presidents wouldn’t do that because they think it’s not good to make a change to luxury. But you got to do it.”

Read more Maine Dems can still dump embattled Graham Platner — as long as he beats a key deadline