Category: Politics

NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani called on Graham Platner to end his campaign for Maine Senate on Tuesday, becoming one of the most prominent voices on the American left to urge the embattled candidate to step out of the race.

“I believe that it’s time for him to drop out of the race,” Mamdani told reporters at New York City Hall, adding that he believes a campaign termination is the “only appropriate response” for Platner in the wake of the latest sexual assault accusation against him.

POLITICO reported Monday that Jenny Racicot, a Maine resident, accused Platner of forcing her to have sex with him five years ago. He denied the allegation.

Asked by POLITICO if Mamdani is concerned that the Platner campaign collapse could have broader negative implications for the left, the democratic socialist mayor said: “I think the focus of today should be on the campaign coming to a close, and I think there will be many more days to have conversations about what it means beyond that.”

Mamdani never endorsed Platner’s campaign. But several of the mayor’s top aides, including strategist Morris Katz and press secretary Joe Calvello, have played leading roles on the progressive Maine oysterman’s Senate bid.

Since his upset mayoral election last year, Mamdani has emerged as one of the most influential voices on the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Mamdani’s thumb on the scale comes after a number of other high-profile Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, have already urged Platner to drop out of the race before a Monday deadline to replace him on November’s ballot.

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GORHAM, Maine — The dam has broken on Graham Platner’s candidacy.

Democratic leaders in Maine and Washington, along with a growing pack of Platner’s close supporters, abandoned his Senate campaign on Monday after POLITICO reported that a woman who dated him said he forced her to have sex with him. Platner called the allegation false.

Just hours after the story published, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called on Platner to “immediately withdraw” as the Democratic nominee in the Maine Senate race. The battleground contest is crucial for Democrats’ chances of winning the Senate in November.

Schumer was joined in that statement by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), the chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which said last week it was in the process of opening a joint fundraising committee with Platner. On Monday the committee said it would no longer invest in the race if he stays on the ballot.

Ken Martin, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, which had been fundraising with Platner, said Monday that it was “time for him to end his campaign.” Senate Majority PAC, the largest super PAC backing Senate Democrats, said it is “redirecting resources away from the Maine Senate race” following the latest allegations.

That meant the three biggest Democratic groups trying to flip the Senate — Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, their biggest super PAC, and the DNC itself — had all dropped their nominee in a must-win race.

A flood of Democratic senators joined Schumer and Gillibrand in condemning Platner. Some of his biggest backers — Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) — called on him to exit the race, as did Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). Another staunch supporter and potential 2028 presidential hopeful, Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego, withdrew his endorsement. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who had expressed support for Platner last month, said Monday he “cannot support his candidacy.”

Our Revolution, the progressive organization formed to continue the goals of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) 2016 presidential campaign, said it is withdrawing its endorsement and calling on Platner to drop out. Sanders himself has yet to comment on the news.

The money that would be crucial to Democrats’ hopes of flipping the seat also immediately dried up. Key outside groups organizing on his behalf, including VoteVets, which elevates former veterans as Democratic candidates, and the progressive good-governance group End Citizens United, rescinded their endorsements Monday.

The exodus of Democratic support marks a significant break from how the party has responded to the previous scandals and controversies that have dogged his campaign. Many Democrats defended Platner — or otherwise begrudgingly accepted the success of his campaign — even after his history of offensive online comments, his tattoo that resembled a Nazi symbol, and accusations of past mistreatment of women came to light.

Democrats who had hoped to nominate Maine Gov. Janet Mills coalesced behind Platner after she dropped out of the race, leaving Platner effectively uncontested in the primary, which he handily won last month.

Their reversals now come after 41-year-old Maine resident Jenny Racicot told POLITICO Platner entered her home uninvited in 2021 and forced himself on her without her consent. Platner denied the allegations.

But some Maine Democrats have begun to scramble in the wake of the report, amid the tidal wave of calls for Platner to leave the race: If he withdraws before next Monday, Maine law allows the state party to select his replacement.

Former Democratic gubernatorial candidates Troy Jackson, a Bernie Sanders-endorsed progressive, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and former public health official Nirav Shah are taking calls about replacing Platner, according to three people familiar with those conversations, granted anonymity to discuss sensitive discussions.

Maine Democratic nominee for governor Hannah Pingree also called for Platner to exit the race.

“Graham Platner tapped into something real — voters hungry for change showed up with real passion and energy,” Pingree said in a statement. That energy doesn’t have to go away. It needs a new candidate to carry it forward.

Following POLITICO’s reporting, Platner said he is “taking the time to reflect on the best path forward.” That’s left some Maine voters in limbo, including those who backed him throughout the myriad of scandals his campaign has already endured.

Platner’s campaign suspended a handful of events on Monday, forcing a campaign volunteer to explain to attendees that Platner wouldn’t be arriving.

Tracey Lewis, a 32-year-old from Standish, Maine, said she showed up to the canceled event because she wanted to hear how Platner would respond to POLITICO’s reporting.

“I was planning on coming anyway, but I was looking forward to hearing if anything about this new news would be discussed,” she said.

A handful of Maine voters like Lewis said in interviews Monday that they were willing to stick by Platner and hear him out — for now — even as some of Platner’s most vocal progressive supporters called for him to drop out, calling the latest allegations a “betrayal.”

Emma Vigeland, co-host of the popular progressive show The Majority Report, was one of the first prominent supporters to publicly break with Platner after the report. She told POLITICO in an interview the allegations were “credible and troubling and devastating.”

“It is incumbent upon all of us on the left to treat these allegations with the seriousness that requires and take the reporting seriously,” said Vigeland, who has campaigned for progressive candidates this year. “I do think that he should drop out.”

Vigeland said that her support had been for Platner’s platform, not him personally, and said there was “a sense of betrayal” because he had “promised that there was nothing new that was coming.”

Jordain Carney, Andrew Howard, Adam Wren and Erin Doherty contributed reporting.

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FIFA’s leading critic in the European Parliament told POLITICO that the decision to lift a key American player’s one-game suspension was the latest example of an “unbroken pattern” of nontransparent governance in world football’s governing body.

Last week, centrist Irish MEP Barry Andrews penned a letter urging FIFA to investigate its president, Gianni Infantino, over four public statements he made in support of U.S. President Donald Trump last year, which allegedly undermined the body’s political neutrality.

On Monday, after FIFA lifted the ban on American striker Folarin Balogun following a call from Trump to Infantino, POLITICO sat down with Andrews to discuss how the governing body’s latest decision adds fuel to his criticism.

FIFA did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Andrews’ latest rebuke, but Infantino released a statement Monday denying allegations that he influenced the decision to lift Balogun’s suspension.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What was your first reaction when you heard the news that Trump had got involved in Balogun’s case?

It confirms, in my view, that FIFA is a profoundly corrupt organization. Unfortunately, there’s a decadeslong litany of examples of how FIFA has corrupted sport at the highest level. It’s just a further chapter in that litany, unfortunately, and we need to figure out ways to try to put pressure on FIFA to reverse this decision.

MEP Petras Auštrevičius told POLITICO on Friday that FIFA is “not any longer a neutral sports organization.” Do you agree?

Is it not really a lawless organization? The decisions around awarding the World Cup to Qatar and Russia have been demonstrated to be the subject of massive bribery of officials in the executive committee of FIFA and also the confederations across the world. So, unfortunately, what we’re seeing with the recent example of Infantino just proves that this is an unbroken pattern over many decades. When Sepp Blatter was [FIFA president], he had no restraint on his politicization of the role, but Infantino, if it’s possible, is worse.

Blatter said this morning that “football must never become a playground for political power.”

If Blatter thinks it’s corrupt, we’re dealing with towering levels of malpractice.

What do you think the European response should be here?

There’s a lot of people who say “politics and sport don’t mix,” but we’re dealing with an organization that is so powerful. Therefore, we should make a very clear statement on it. There’s a limit on what we can do, but I think we have to be very explicit on denouncing what has happened in this situation since Sunday.

Are you going to be watching the U.S.-Belgium game tonight?

I’ll be watching it. I’m disappointed with everything about the way the U.S. has [conducted the World Cup]. It’s not the fault of the U.S. players, but you just can’t help yourself. You couldn’t imagine what would happen if the U.S. won the tournament.

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FIFA’s disciplinary committee, the body that lifted American striker Folarin Balogun’s one-game suspension ahead of Monday’s U.S.-Belgium game, defended its decision in a statement released hours before kickoff in Seattle — but didn’t explain the rationale for making it.

In the 13-paragraph statement, the committee explained the body’s rationale for reconsidering Balogun’s suspension. The review came after President Donald Trump called FIFA chief Gianni Infantino last week to call for the soccer boss to take another look at the decision, after Balogun received a red card against Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“Said suspension of the implementation was decided considering all of the specific circumstances surrounding the incident and evidence available,” the committee said, referring to the lifting of Balogun’s one-game ban. “The FIFA Disciplinary Committee (as any other FIFA judicial body) is independent as provided by the FIFA Statutes and the FIFA Disciplinary Code.”

The committee also argued that by not overturning Balogun’s red card entirely, but instead merely suspending his one-game ban, it had applied a “much more balanced measure.”

Soccer pundits had widely criticized the referee’s decision to send Balogun off during the last-32 encounter, but commentators, European politicians and soccer officials rounded on the move to let Balogun play against Belgium.

Earlier Monday, UEFA, European soccer’s governing body, said that FIFA’s decision “crossed a red line,” adding that it was “unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable.”

The committee fired back at UEFA in his statement, saying that previous instances of red cards being overturned in football leagues “belonging to UEFA-affiliated member associations” have “never raised concerns about crossing any ‘red line.’”

In the closest historical parallel, Brazilian star Garrincha received a red card in the 1962 World Cup, but had his suspension overturned and played in the final after the president of semifinal opponent Chile, Jorge Alessandri, lobbied FIFA to overturn the ban.

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American forward Folarin Balogun will start tonight for the USMNT against Belgium in the World Cup last-16 knockout match. Balogun was sent off in the previous round against Bosnia and Herzegovina and was due to serve a one-match suspension tonight — before world football governing body FIFA unusually lifted the ban following an effort from Trump administration officials.

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