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PORTLAND, Maine — Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner used a profane insult against Sen. John Fetterman during a Sunday town hall in southern Maine, escalating his feud with the Pennsylvania Democrat just two days before Maine’s Senate primary.
The Senate really is a place of, it’s a lot about relationships, and I I don’t want to go down there and simply be nonfunctional,” Platner said in response to a question from a supporter about who he is looking forward to working with in Washington, D.C., if elected in November.
“I mean, as you can all probably tell, we got a lot of criticisms about the way this government functions. But in order for us to make it functional, we’re going to have to do stuff. And you can’t just go down there and be John Fetterman and just and just kind of just sort of be an a–hole.”
Platner added, “He’s said mean things about me, I’m allowed to say that.”
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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)
Platner and Fetterman have been going after each other in recent days with the Pennsylvania Democratic senator calling out the Maine progressive over his history of inflammatory remarks while challenging him to release messages linked to a Kik account that has become a flashpoint in his campaign.
“This is a guy that had a problem with me, how I dress, but he seemed to have no problem posing in a towel at a disgusting website that consistently had serious problems about that kinds of depravity,” Fetterman, who has faced strong criticism from within his own party over his strident support for Israel, told Fox News host Sean Hannity.
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The Democrat later challenged Platner to make public messages he allegedly exchanged with women on the platform.
“Let me make a deal. I’ll tell P-Hustle, I’ll wear a suit every day, if he releases all those texts and messages that he’s had… [with] the dozen women,” he continued, referencing Platner’s username on the platform.
Over the weekend, Platner posted on X that “John Fetterman seems to genuinely think that the reason no one likes him is because he refuses to wear a suit.”
“It’s not the hoodie, dude. It’s because you’ve become a stooge for AIPAC and the Republican Party.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Fetterman’s office for comment.
Platner was not asked by the audience, nor did he bring up on his own, the various criticisms he has faced in recent months ranging from a Nazi tattoo, to deleted Reddit posts trashing the military, to sexual messages sent to other women during his marriage, to an explosive New York Times report where an accuser alleged that Platner exhibited “toxic” traits and was physically abusive toward her.
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Sen. Bernie Sanders and Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner stand together during a “Fighting Oligarchy” tour stop at the Collins Center for the Arts on the University of Maine campus in Orono, Maine last weekend. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
“I am very much just some random guy from Sullivan, Maine,” Platner told the raucous crowd of supporters shortly before receiving a standing ovation for claiming in November “we are going to beat Susan Collins.”
Platner’s message to voters focused strongly on wealth inequality and painted a picture of a Congress that is beholden to the powerful as opposed to the voters.
“We must understand that we have entered a new phase in the American political story,” Platner said. “We have entered an era that I think looks a lot more like the 1880s or the 1930s or the 1960s than the last 40 years. We have entered an age of a politics of power, and we need to start acting like it.”
Platner, widely believed to be the presumptive Democratic nominee for Senate, heads into a Tuesday night primary election where Democratic Gov. Janet Mills and former senior government official David Costello are on the ballot.
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If victorious, Platner will square off against incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November.
Fox News Digital’s Taylor Penley contributed to this report.
