{"id":613607,"date":"2026-06-05T15:09:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T15:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=613607"},"modified":"2026-06-05T15:09:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T15:09:10","slug":"platners-ex-says-she-was-set-up-by-ny-times-turning-her-story-into-a-gift-for-his-campaign-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=613607","title":{"rendered":"Platner\u2019s ex says she was \u2018set up\u2019 by NY Times, turning her story into a \u2018gift\u2019 for his campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

Lyndsey Fifield has made two big mistakes in her life that she may be having second thoughts about today. Her first mistake was getting into a relationship with Graham Platner, the Democratic Senate candidate in Maine, and her second mistake was trusting The New York Times.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the media in America continues to offer little to counter beliefs that it\u2019s little more than an extension of the Democratic Party campaign apparatus.<\/p>\n

Platner\u2019s ex-girlfriend took to X on Friday to detail her relationship with the \u201cnarcissistic abuser,\u201d and then offered her take on how the Times betrayed her \u2014 Fifield dated Platner between 2013 and 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who has ever extracted themselves from a relationship with a narcissistic abuser knows it isn\u2019t clean or easy. I cringe remembering how many times I tried to play the \u2018cool girl\u2019 or fawn in response to what was clearly abusive, coercively controlling behavior by Graham,\u201d Fifield wrote. \u201cI also know how dangerous it is to become the target of a narcissist \u2014 so even long after our relationship ended I continued to be upbeat any time he reached out, though I would also immediately shut down any attempts on his part to initiate flirting or romanticizing of the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Anyone who has ever extracted themselves from a relationship with a narcissistic abuser knows it isn\u2019t clean or easy.<\/p>\n

I cringe remembering how many times I tried to play the \u201ccool girl\u201d or fawn in response to what was clearly abusive, coercively controlling behavior by Graham.\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 Lyndsey Fifield (@lyndseyfifield) June 5, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cYes, the day I saw him announce he was running I wanted to make sure people knew he had a Nazi tattoo \u2014 and I was terrified he would find out it was me. But of course he knew it was me,\u201d she continued. \u201cWhat\u2019s ironic is I absolutely never would have shared my story if he hadn\u2019t been relentlessly attacking my character behind the scenes for months once the tattoo story came out. I tried to signal that I wasn\u2019t the source and stayed completely silent about him on social media even as most of my friends posted regularly about what a bad person he is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fifield explains that to her surprise, the NY Times reached out and, despite her reluctance, encouraged her to share her story to help other women. The paper even connected her to two other \u201cvictims,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then in early April the New York Times came to me. I asked how they got my number. I said I was not interested in sharing my story. They said but wait\u2014there are other women. Women terrified to tell their stories, too, and you need to band together,\u201d she said. \u201cWE will help you. We will protect you. Men can\u2019t keep getting away with this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Writing that she \u201ctold them my story\u2026\u00a0 let them take pictures of my diary pages [and] sent them screenshots of messages and gave them phone numbers and contacts,\u201d Fifield said the process \u201cwas excruciating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weeks dragged by, and she said the newspaper kept coming back for more information before realizing that when the story went to print, it was focused on her alone.<\/p>\n

\n

I bucked all advice from my friends (and resisted my conservative bias) and decided to fully trust the Times journalists.<\/p>\n

As they left my home they asked that I not talk to any other outlets and I insisted then and repeatedly over the following weeks that I would keep my word\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 Lyndsey Fifield (@lyndseyfifield) June 5, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cAfter the story went up I began to ask them \u2026 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\u2019s by far)? Why does it say \u201cnobody could corroborate\u201d when I offered them sources that COULD corroborate?\u201d Fifield wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy did they include an out of context quote from a friend joking \u2018do not call Graham\u2019 after I called off my wedding? (Because she knew I would never). Where were the screenshots they\u2019d said they would use? Or the mention that I\u2019d supported local democrats and that most of my family (and husband) are liberal? The editors said it was too much, they explained,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n

And she came to realize that the betrayal gets worse, that she was \u201cset up all along.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Times also failed to include any mention that I DID confide in multiple friends through the years that Graham had been abusive \u2014 long before he was running for office. Those friends confirm they told the Times so,\u201d Fifield said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt 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. Violating the trust of his victims. Shattering the trust I placed in them with the most vulnerable story of my life,\u201d she concluded. \u201cAnd at the end of my call with them I reluctantly accepted their insistence that this was still a powerful story and that I had done a brave thing. And I thanked them for all the hard work they had put into it.<\/p>\n

\u201cStill fawning after all these years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Platner is a walking disaster, but Democrat voters are showing once again that there is no bar too low for them when it comes to a candidate with a D next to his name.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lyndsey Fifield has made two big mistakes in her life that she may be having second thoughts about today. Her first mistake was getting into a relationship with Graham Platner, the Democratic Senate candidate in Maine, and her second mistake was trusting The New York Times. Meanwhile, the media in America continues to offer little… Continue reading Platner\u2019s ex says she was \u2018set up\u2019 by NY Times, turning her story into a \u2018gift\u2019 for his campaign<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":613585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-613607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economic-empowerment","category-national-security","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=613607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/613585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=613607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=613607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=613607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}