Succession fight under way as Bernie Sanders calls for Platner to drop out of Maine Senate race – US politics live

In a video statement posted online Wednesday night, Graham Platner , the Democratic nominee for the US Senate from Maine, said that he was dropping out of the race, while strongly denying sexual assault allegations, calling them “all false”.

“The things that have been claimed did not happen, it’s not real,” Platner said at the start in an 11-minute statement in which he went on to argue that the allegations had been made to drive him from the race before a deadline next week when it would have been too late to replace him on the November ballot.

Later in the statement, Platner suggested that he had been robbed by the party’s establishment and donors which withdrew crucial support before he had a chance to fight the allegations.

“We went toe to toe with one of the most entrenched political systems in the history of the world and we won,” Platner said of his victory in the Maine Democratic primary over the state’s governor, Janet Mills. “We beat them on June 9th in overwhelming numbers. We did it the right way: we built a campaign; we engaged in electoral politics; we motivated people; we banded together. We did it the way that we are told we are supposed to make change, and we won. And now they are not going to let us have it. Not if it’s me. And so we’re suspending campaign operations.”

“I want to make clear though: I intend to file my paperwork to withdraw,” he continued, before adding, after an abrupt cut in the video: “The process needs to assure that what comes next is reflective of the Mainers who on June 9th turned out and showed that they are desperate for a different kind of politics. It needs to be driven not from back rooms, but by the will of the people.”

“All we were asking for was health care, was to end the genocide, to use our taxpayer dollars at home to uplift our communities instead of aging war overseas,” he added. “We were asking for a fairer system. We were asking for an end to the corruption. The end to the money in politics. We were asking for real democracy and we did it the right way and we won. But now the ball is in the court of the Democratic establishment.”

He concluded by thanking his supporters and urging them to “keep fighting; we’re going to win some day.”