Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner (D) accused The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal of “journalistic malpractice” Sunday after they published stories that his wife, Amy Gertner, told campaign officials he had sexted multiple women.

The Wall Street Journal cited “anonymous sources, reporting, “Amy Gertner, who married Platner in 2024, told the campaign about messages she had found early in their marriage in the spring of 2025. In late August, as some aides were conducting opposition research on their own candidate, Gertner disclosed the texts to a campaign aide to make sure they didn’t pose a risk to her husband’s nascent campaign.”

The Times cited Genevieve McDonald, a former state legislator who was the Platner campaign’s political director.

Platner had some choice words for McDonald, as well as the outlets, during a TV interview with a local ABC affiliate.

“It’s no surprise to me that the establishment media outlets are just gonna run gossip instead of wanting to talk about the things that actually matter in this race, which are the material realities that the Mainers are working with,” Platner told WMTV in Maine.

“These people are gonna try to make this race about anything but what it’s supposed to be about, which is policy. They never want to talk about policy,” he continued. “Amy and I have a very loving and very happy marriage. They would very much like to try to rip that apart.”

Platner then denied the stories were factual.

“But the stories are true, right? About the texts?” a reporter asked.

“No, no, this is the amazing part,” Planter answered. “The Wall Street Journal and New York Times ran stories without any evidence besides the gossip from a former staffer. I’m sorry that’s, frankly, journalistic malpractice. We pushed back on it, they won it, they did it anyways.”

“So, are you confirming that the messages did not exist?” the reporter asked.

“I’m confirming that what Genevieve McDonald said in The New York Times is not true,” Platner said.

“So, you never met with her about uncomfortable — for lack of a better word — “sexting messages,” as the campaign was going?” the reporter asked.

“We talked about things in Amy and I’s marriage that we’ve gone through over the years,” Platner said. “We talked about that because that’s our marriage and we discussed it with the campaign. What Genevieve McDonald claims isn’t true.”

Platner has already been under fire for having a now-covered Nazi-coded tattoo, making misogynistic and racist Reddit posts, and having a Kik account featuring a photo of him topless in a towel.

Watch the clip above via WMTW on YouTube.

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