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Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., broke with fellow Democrats on Tuesday and refused to defend embattled Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner.
Platner has emerged as one of the party’s fastest-rising political figures, attracting national attention for his populist message and outsider image as he seeks to flip a Republican-held seat.
But his rise has been accompanied by mounting scrutiny over his past conduct, including sexually explicit online messages, offensive social media posts, a Nazi-linked tattoo controversy and turmoil within his campaign.
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Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner has campaigned on progressive economic policies focused on taxing billionaires and lowering costs for working-class Americans. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Platner, a Marine veteran and oyster farmer, has defended himself against the criticism and continues to enjoy support from prominent Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., however, made clear he is not among those coming to Platner’s defense.
“I really would encourage ‘P Hustle’ to answer basic questions,” Fetterman told Fox News Digital, using Platner’s former online alias used on Reddit and Kik accounts.
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Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner called Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., a profanity during a town hall event in Portland, Maine, on Sunday night. (Graeme Sloan/Getty Images ; Scott Eisen/Getty Images)
Fetterman pointed to Platner’s long-running presence on Kik, a messaging app that has faced scrutiny over the years because of its anonymous features and safety concerns, as well as explicit photos Platner allegedly shared online.
“I mean he was dropping dick pics for a decade and he was on Kik for a decade, and you have that picture of him in the towel that he posted up there,” Fetterman said.
Fetterman went on to question whether Platner had adequate safeguards in place while using Kik, arguing the candidate has yet to fully address concerns about his activity on the messaging app.
“What was your safeguards to make sure that you weren’t interacting with underage people? Everyone was adults. So he refuses to answer those questions and if that’s the kind of people that Maine wants to vote for that’s entirely up to them, but “P Hustle” has a lot of serious questions and concerns about his judgment, but also his ethics too,” Fetterman said.
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The Marine veteran and oyster farmer has defended himself against the criticism and retained the support of prominent Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. (Getty Images)
When asked about allegations from former partners, Fetterman suggested the controversies surrounding Platner have become so numerous that it’s hard to keep track of them all.
“You know, candidates have baggage. In his case, he is baggage that incidentally might be a candidate,” he said.
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The Democrat said Platner’s mounting controversies leave him with little to defend.
“I’ll be the one Democrat to refuse to defend that mess,” Fetterman added.
