Platner Denies Reports About Sexually-Explicit Texts

Graham Platner (D) “struck a defiant posture on Sunday in response to reports that he had sent sexual messages to women outside his marriage, accusing a former aide of false claims and news outlets of ‘journalistic malpractice,’” the New York Times reports.

Asked by reporters whether they were true, he said: “No. This is the amazing part. The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times ran stories without any evidence besides the gossip from a former staffer. I’m sorry, that’s — that’s frankly journalistic malpractice. We pushed back on it.”

CNN: “CNN has not independently confirmed the existence of the text messages. CNN did verify that an account on the messaging app Kik appears to belong to Platner. The account, under the username ‘phustle0331,’ features a profile photo showing Platner shirtless in a bathroom with a towel on his waist and uses a handle similar to ones on his since-deleted Reddit account and a now-deleted Instagram account.”