Jodi Kantor Says Platner Allegations Not 'Classic' MeToo Claims, Acknowledges One Physical Line Crossed
The New York Times reporter discussed the coverage of the Maine Senate candidate’s former girlfriends in a CNN interview. Kantor compared the reported incidents to other political controversies.
New York PostJodi Kantor said the allegations against Graham Platner reported by the New York Times last week were not like classic abuse allegations. She made the comments in a CNN interview on Wednesday. Kantor stated the accusations were not classic MeToo accusations.
She said the former girlfriends’ accounts were mostly made in the context of consensual relationships. “There are these, like, very sensational texts about sex. There are allegations from former girlfriends that are not — the way my colleagues reported them were not like classic abuse allegations,” Kantor said.
She added that the accounts were mostly like “being his boyfriend gave me a view into him and I did not like what I saw. His character was scary. He had this Nazi tattoo. ” Kantor acknowledged there was one allegation of crossing a line physically.
She said the accusations against Platner were pretty different from those faced by President Trump. Kantor referenced the Access Hollywood tape in relation to President Trump. She said gender-related accusations get bundled together but are actually very different.
The New York Times cited three of Platner’s former girlfriends in its report. Lyndsay Fifield, who dated Platner from 2013 to 2015, told the Times that Platner regularly grabbed her by the shoulders, sometimes hard enough to leave marks. Fifield told the Times that Platner yanked her out of a cab by her wrist after an argument.
She also said he twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a bedroom, held the door closed, and told her to remain there until she was calm. Fifield accused New York Times reporters Lisa Lerer and Katie Glueck of twisting her account. She claims the Times spiked allegations of sexual assault made against Platner by other women and refused to include accounts from her friends corroborating her story.
