Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner's controversies deepen amid new abuse allegations
Fox News' Alexis McAdams provides details on the latest allegations against Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner. Former Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway weighs in as Democrats dodge questions on the accusations that Platner has denied.
EXCLUSIVE — Tara Reade, who came forward with a sexual assault accusation against Joe Biden during the 2020 election cycle, said her experience with The New York Times mirrors that of a woman who alleged abusive behavior in a Times report Thursday against Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner.
"This is all what I went through ... This is all my same experience," Reade told Fox News Digital in an interview Friday.
Lyndsey Fifield, an ex-girlfriend of Platner's who spoke to the Times about her relationship with the candidate, took to X on Friday to call out The Times for the story it ran and what she claimed it did and did not include.
"After the story went up I began to ask them … wait, where are the stories from the other women? Where are their accusations of sexual assault? Why am I the focus? Why are there 11 paragraphs dedicated to detailing my work history (more than has been published about Graham’s by far)?" Fifield wrote. "Why does it say 'nobody could corroborate' when I offered them sources that COULD corroborate?"
Maine Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner was accused of abusive behavior by ex-girlfriend Lyndsey Fifield. (Sofia Aldinio/Bloomberg)
Reade called it "déjà vu" after she came forward in 2020 with an accusation that Biden had once digitally penetrated her when she was a staffer in his Senate office in 1993. Reade had previously accused Biden of unwanted touching but later made her more serious charge.
"I told multiple family members and friends about what Biden did to me through the years. They downplayed that or left it out. When my friends would give direct quotes, they wouldn't put it in the story," Reade said.
New York Times reporter Lisa Lerer, one of the two journalists who authored the Platner story, led the paper's coverage of Reade when she came forward with her assault claim in the spring of 2020.
Biden flatly denied the allegations, and he went on to win the presidency.
In Lerer's report, she wrote, "While five people have said Ms. Reade shared all or part of her account of sexual harassment with them around the time she says it happened, corroboration of the assault charge is shakier."
Like Fifield, Reade said she was assured that her claims would be part of a broader story that included accusations from other women — several had come forward in 2019 to accuse Biden of inappropriate touching, although none as serious as Reade's allegation. She also said she was told by Lerer not to speak to other reporters, specifically Ronan Farrow, known for his bombshell reporting on Harvey Weinstein and other powerful figures accused of sexual misconduct.
"She called yelling at me when she thought I was talking to Ronan Farrow," Reade said.
TARA READE'S TIMELINE: FROM 1990S BIDEN STAFFER TO CENTER OF POLITICAL FIRESTORM
New York Times reporter Lisa Lerer, who co-authored the Graham Platner story, is facing scrutiny by both a Graham Platner accuser and the accuser who spoke with her against Joe Biden in 2020. (Jeff Wheeler/The Minnesota Star Tribune via Getty Images)
Reade identified with how the Platner story dedicated substantial ink to Fifield's professional history in conservative politics, saying Lerer combed through both her work and personal life.
"She literally went over every single relationship I had, called my high school boyfriend from when I was 15 years old. And my high school boyfriend defended me," Reade recalled.
Reade also related to Fifield's claim that Lerer's story included an "out of context quote" from a friend of hers jokingly telling her she shouldn't call her ex.
"That's what my family called me crying about. They would take quotes out of context," Reade said.
Reade's account received extensive attention, and most legacy outlets offered critical coverage of her and her background. A Politico report at the time described Reade in its headline as "manipulative" and "deceitful" based on interviews with some of her past acquaintances. Other outlets at the time interviewed past Biden staffers from his Senate days who said they hadn't witnessed untoward behavior.
In 2020, Tara Reade accused then-presidential candidate Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her when she worked in his U.S. Senate office in 1993. (Darin Hayes Photography/Alex Wong/Getty Images)
In her 2020 memoir, "Left Out: When the Truth Doesn't Fit In," Reade recalled her early interactions with Lerer, leaving the impression she was "nice and normal sounding" and that she "always came off as reasonable and cajoling." But in the end, Reade said Lerer used her disarming personality to her advantage.
Speaking with Fox News Digital, the Biden accuser claimed Lerer played politics in an attempt to discredit people like her and Fifield.
"They try to get your trust to open up in a very dishonest way, like they're not doing what they say they're going to do," Reade told Fox News Digital, saying the story was biased and about why she shouldn't be believed. "I didn't know I would have a whole, just basically a hit piece on me."
A spokesperson for The New York Times told Fox News Digital, "We published accounts provided by several women who were in romantic relationships with Graham Platner. Our story accurately presents each of these accounts as told to our reporters and according to our standards. We stand by our reporting of the accounts from Ms. Fifield and the other women, who provided a revealing look at the behavior of a major candidate for the U.S. Senate."
Lerer did not respond to a request for comment.
'HE HATED WOMEN': EXPLOSIVE ABUSE, NEW NAZI TATTOO ALLEGATIONS FROM EXES ROCK PLATNER'S CAMPAIGN
Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, pictured with his wife Amy Gertner. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
The Times' report included Fifield's accusation of domestic abuse, where she stated Platner "twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a bedroom and held the door closed from the other side so she couldn’t get out, telling her to remain there until she ‘calmed down.’"
According to the report, Fifield said she fell asleep and left the next morning.
However, Fifield slammed the Times for what she said the report ultimately omitted, writing, "It dawned on me that this really was a set-up all along. The journalists I trusted who convinced me to share a story I never wanted to tell methodically delayed and twisted this into a gift to the Platner campaign. Violating the trust of his victims. Shattering the trust I placed in them with the most vulnerable story of my life."
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Platner denied the abuse allegations, telling MS NOW host Chris Hayes on Thursday, "There are some allegations in this piece that I just want to be kind of unequivocal about are simply not true. Anything alleging physicality, anything alleging that I knew what my tattoo was, these are the statements of someone who’s politically motivated in this piece."
