When Lyndsey Fifield talked to The New York Times about the years she dated Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner of Maine, she wanted to tell it all. It did not turn out that way.
The New York Times reported that Platner “regularly grabbed her by the shoulders — sometimes hard enough to leave marks — and, on one occasion, yanked her out of a cab by her wrist after an argument when she wanted to stay in the car.”
Fifield dated Platner between 2013 and 2015 and recalled that when Platner drank, his rough side emerged.
“During one argument, she recalled, he 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 was ‘calm,’” the Times reported, noting she left the next morning after falling asleep in the room.
She further noted that he spoke with glee about raping anyone who burglarized his apartment, sharpened an ax while watching TV, and bragged that he had a Nazi SS tattoo on his chest long before that emerged as an issue in his Senate campaign.
But in its pattern of watering down her allegations and not delivering on its promises, she realized that what superficially was a Times hit piece on Platner had very little punch, she posted on X.
Anyone who has ever extracted themselves from a relationship with a narcissistic abuser knows it isn’t clean or easy.
I cringe remembering how many times I tried to play the “cool girl” or fawn in response to what was clearly abusive, coercively controlling behavior by Graham.…
— Lyndsey Fifield (@lyndseyfifield) June 5, 2026
“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,” she posted.
“Violating the trust of his victims. Shattering the trust I placed in them with the most vulnerable story of my life,” she wrote.
She said she spoke to the Times reporters despite misgivings.
“I bucked all advice from my friends (and resisted my conservative bias) and decided to fully trust the Times journalists,” she wrote.
Anyone who has ever extracted themselves from a relationship with a narcissistic abuser knows it isn’t clean or easy.
I cringe remembering how many times I tried to play the “cool girl” or fawn in response to what was clearly abusive, coercively controlling behavior by Graham.…
— Lyndsey Fifield (@lyndseyfifield) June 5, 2026
Then she read the story.
“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)? Why does it say ‘nobody could corroborate’ when I offered them sources that COULD corroborate? Why did they include an out of context quote from a friend joking ‘do not call Graham after I called off my wedding? (Because she knew I would never),” she posted.
Would you trust The New York Times with an exclusive interview about a Democrat running for office?
“Where were the screenshots they’d said they would use? Or the mention that I’d supported local democrats and that most of my family (and husband) are liberal? The editors said it was too much, they explained. The Times also failed to include any mention that I DID confide in multiple friends through the years that Graham had been abusive — long before he was running for office. Those friends confirm they told the Times so,” she said.
She noted that “the day I saw him announce he was running I wanted to make sure people knew he had a Nazi tattoo — and I was terrified he would find out it was me. But of course he knew it was me,” she posted on X
She said when she was approached by the Times, reporters told her, “there are other women. Women terrified to tell their stories, too, and you need to band together. WE will help you. We will protect you. Men can’t keep getting away with this.”
She said the reporters “connected me to two of the other victims so we wouldn’t feel so alone. I insisted to each of them that I trusted the NYT journalists and that we were doing the right thing despite their (sadly very accurate) sense that something was wrong.”
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