this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2026
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Also, in the narrative, he was apparently black out drunk, so he conveniently has no recollection and cannot defend himself.
Like seriously, what are you supposed to do if this happens to you? Someone you used to date comes out of the woodwork and accuses you of rape, in a form you wouldn't even remember.
How are you supposed to react to such a thing? How would you react if someone showed up at your work, accusing you of rape, demanding you be fired without trial?
If you're black out drunk enough that this is a legitimate risk, there is already an underlying problem.
You're right that this will boil down to a he said/she said, but it's concerning this is the best candidate Maine could come up with just based on the facts that he can't refute.
What candidate isn't vulnerable to this type of charge though? Should you be fired from your job, immediately and without trial, if one of your exes comes out of the woodwork to accuse you of something?
People get drunk. The vast majority of the US population has been drunk at some point in their life. Most people could have such accusations leveled against them, and they would have no way of refuting it.
If there's evidence from multiple people and text messages and therapist notes all from before a run for a government position that indicates you have a problem with boundaries and sexual assault, yes.
Or maybe you prefer Platner's approach to talking to rape victims:
You are spreading misinformation. Please read the actual NYTimes and Politico articles carefully. There is one and only one piece of contemporary evidence - screenshots of facebook messages that could have been easily photoshopped. And the name of the person they were sent to was kept secret.
That's it. Literally everything else has either been deleted or is more recent. The therapist notes are recent.
Planter isn't gonna fuck you, bro. He's too into raping women while blackout drunk.
Just because you don't know the names of the friend and ex-boyfriend doesn't mean they are completely unknown or that they are not credible. Likewise, the therapist's notes are still evidence.
His quote speaks to how he views rape victims which is relevant.
You said:
I pointed out that in fact there is very little evidence contemporary to the alleged rape. You ignored this and instead replied, "but it's still evidence."
Here's what he wrote about a soldier convicted of raping and murdering a 14 year old Iraqi girl:
Again, Platner could release his side of the conversations. I wonder how much different his texts are from what his victim is saying about that night.
It is still evidence whether you want it to be or not.
Why would he have those messages if what he says is true? If Platner is telling the truth, then those messages never existed. You're demanding Platner produce something that, according to his side, never existed in the first place.
He doesn't deny the relationship with this woman.
You're confusing "all texts" with "specific and relevant texts."
Yes, Platner would have had texts with her. But the texts where she asked him not to come over, or accused him of rape, the actual damning stuff? None of that would exist if Platner is telling the truth.
Exactly, which means he could release his text history around the time of the alleged assault. If they were no damning texts between him and her around that time it would be evidence in his favor.
I think he should take her to court there are things that can prove his innocence. Warrants to get the cell phone pings of his location, the instagram data that was supposedly deleted can still be retrieved. The emails to the Therapist. He should also have other women in his life that he's dated speak on his character.
If Johnny Depp can win against Amber Heard I think he still has a chance.
The women he's dated have spoken on his character, it was pretty bad.
I dunno, this feels like how Republicans defend their own regardless of what comes out. I get you can like a guy's stances but at some point, if we want to be the party of good, we have to act like it.
Fine. Indict him for rape. Senators are not exempt from felony prosecution.
Sure, that's up to the victim etc.
And as far as I'm aware, being a felon doesn't make someone ineligible for running for Senate.
If he was convicted, and he didn't have the honor to step down, the Senate would vote to kick him out at that point. The Senate has routinely voted to kick people out convicted of serious felonies. And he would be replaced with another Democrat anyway. Plus the establishment dems would be happy to see him go.
If he's convicted, and if he doesn't step down, he would be kicked out of the Senate by a vote of 99-1.
So, if his victim doesn't feel comfortable undergoing the emotional toil of a legal battle about rape, that means he's good people?
Have you also lobbied and argued for folks who stepped down etc after the Epstein files as almost none of that has gone to court yet?
If you really internalize the foundational values of our democracy, yes. You do understand that we're not supposed to punish people without trial, right? If a victim doesn't want to come forward, I can understand why. But protecting victims is no excuse to dismantle the very foundations of justice.
To my knowledge, none of those accusations were made in an extremely opportune manner that demanded action be immediately taken without proper time to investigate them. And the people who were asked to step down are those who we have clear evidence of making damning emails with Epstein. That's the key thing - we have the actual damning emails. We have very little contemporary evidence here.
There's a different between legal punishment and consequences. Typically on the Left, we have this fight with the Right about free speech; yes, the government won't stop you from saying horrific things but those horrific statements still have consequences. Kanye for example, has committed (as far as I know) no crimes but I would be similarly uncomfortable were he running for Senate.
(I also think it's pretty funny that in the next paragraph, you're totally fine with people stepping down without a trial, even though you also claim that punishing people without a trial is a foundational value of American democracy.)
I think at the end of the day, it comes down to what you're willing to tolerate. Personally, I have many women and girls in my life whom I love and value so, I don't feel at all comfortable with an accused rapist running for Senate. I've known enough victims to have some sense of how horrific those situations are, why not everyone feels comfortable going to trial and why predators should be avoided. I didn't feel good about Platner after the piece came out a month ago detailing a bunch of disturbing behavior to women but hey, everyone has different values.
To each their own.
Nah Republicans are a different breed because they'll keep supporting even after the court of law has been applied to establish guilt. I'm asking for people to at least let him get to court. Also what sources do you have to show people speaking on his character?
Oh you have no idea about Platner's history at all but you're going this hard against his victim?
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/04/us/politics/platner-maine-senate-girlfriends-relationships.html
There are people seriously pushing here that because this woman is conservative she must be lying.
I believe her.
That's such a weird line, like she planned this out a decade before Platner got into politics?
It's just so depressing. I get that folks can love his positions but goddamn, I also thought we had standards.
There's some real conspiracy theory shit brewing here. Talk about the text messages being made up by Israel and whatnot. It's a little much considering the most believable part of this story is that a man got drunk and forced himself on the woman he was seeing at the time.
Ugh.
I guess, glass half full, it's nice to see the Right doesn't have a monopoly on "well, he's our guy so everything else is a rigged conspiracy."
Depressing AF.
When the leftists are yelling about how both sides are the same, they really aren't that far off. They just don't realize fellow progressives are included.
Why is it crazy?
Israel carried out an elaborately planned attack involving thousands of booby-trapped pagers that required setting up an entire secret production and logistic chain. Israel spycraft is so good that they literally stole the uranium they used to build their first nukes right out of US labs. They. Stole. Uranium. Weapons grade.
You're talking about a country with the best spies on the planet, and one that openly spends millions of dollars influencing US elections.
You're also talking about a country willing to accept massive collateral damage if it advances their interests. Those pagers for instance? They were smuggled in over years. Many ended up in pawn shops and later bought by random innocent people. Many innocent bystanders were harmed when Hezbollah members were blown up. You can't set off thousands of explosions in a country at random locations without hurting a lot of innocent people.
My point is that Israel has the means, motive, and opportunity to do this. Framing an innocent man for rape is not even on their radar in terms of acceptable levels of collateral damage.
Do I actually think it's an Israel conspiracy? I have no real evidence of that. But I also think it's ridiculous to just dismiss the idea out of hand. You can find numerous incidents of blackmail committed by Israel against American victims.
Like what?
To quote the sentences immediately after your quote:
We've already heard from other women in his life and y'all soundly rejected what they had to say.
Gonna call the victim's evidence weak and then posit that this will exonerate him? All the instagram data is her messages to him. If he didn't delete his side, he could produce them himself.
The evidence the victim has already produced is compelling.
Nope, I'm not. I dunno anything about this case, just that you were asking a question that was answered in the next sentence, which is usually a sign of someone acting in bad faith.
I firmly disagree. The ONLY evidence contemporary to the events that exists are screenshots of facebook messages that do not explicitly state that Platner raped her. Everything else is either recent or has been deleted. Read the original articles carefully, there's a lot of people spreading misinformation, recasting recent messages as older than they were described in the articles. I don't think you're doing that intentionally, but you should be aware you're spreading falsehoods.
Platner could release his side of the Instagram messages.
He could release his side of the text messages from the night in question as well for that matter.
According to his side, the damning messages don't exist. Yes, he dated her, so he would have had some messages from her, but that isn't in dispute. But if what he says is true, those messages won't exist.
How would you feel if someone falsely accused you of a crime, claimed you have non-existant evidence that damns you, and then demanded you produce this nonexistent evidence?
Again, I am not accusing the accuser of lying. I am not however willing to join a witch hunt that crucifies a man based on suspiciously timed accusations. But if Platner is telling the truth, that is the situation you are placing him in. You are demanding he produce damning evidence, evidence that he's claiming never existed.
The evidence is not non-existent.
His ex-girlfriend has just come forward about his habit of stealthing (taking condoms off during sex). His campaign is done.
That was the same ex-girlfriend who supported Kavanaugh and is literally a Republican political organizer. And she also waited to make this accusation at the most opportune time.
We have cases of politicians being falsely accused of sexual assault, where they were conclusively proven innocent. It does happen. Politics is an area extremely vulnerable to it. If you time it right, the accusations don't need to be good enough to hold up in court.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/pete-buttigieg-hit-fake-sexual-assault-allegations-can-he-sue-ncna1000501
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/alleged-victim-no-show-press-conference-claiming-mueller-sex-assaults-n929951
Exactly. I want to see him indicted and charged with rape. We aren't supposed to operate by witch hunts. We're supposed to operate by the rule of law. Republican lawlessness does not excuse Democratic lawlessness.
Rapists are very rarely convicted in court.
98% of perpetrators walk free.
For every 1000 sexual assaults, 50 reports lead to arrests, 28 cases lead to felony convictions, and only 25 perpetrators are sentenced to incarceration.
So by your numbers, there's a greater than fifty percent conviction rate once the thing actually goes to trial. And I see no reason this case can't go to trial, as the accuser has already taken the most difficult step of going public. The hardest part is just getting to the point of public accusation and trial. If the evidence is compelling as everyone here is saying, then there should be no problem convicting him.
Do some rapists go free? Yes. But even beyond sexism, that's simply a function of the foundations of our justice system. Most rape occurs in a setting where it's one person's word against the other. Hell, what starts as a private consensual act can turn into rape. (Not what's being alleged in this case.)
Have you forgotten the basic foundations of our justice system? Did you receive that poor of a civics education? Have you forgotten, "it's better for ten guilty men to go free than for one to be wrongfully punished?"
Well I actually believe that. I don't want to see anyone guilty go free. But I also don't want to see our country become a place where people can easily be falsely convicted of crimes based on little evidence. (And people still end up falsely convicted.) I want to see rape convictions be as successful as possible. But if you actually care about human rights and justice, you have to acknowledge that the conviction rate for rape is always going to be lower than other crimes. It's just the nature of the crime itself.
I grabbed the wrong part of your comment to quote, it's corrected now.
I doubt this woman gets a fair trial at this point to be honest.
Have the day you deserve after working so hard to discredit this woman.