WASHINGTON — The first woman to publicly accuse disgraced former Maine Senate hopeful Graham Platner of abuse admonished skeptic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, venting that she was “horrified by the dismissive comments” he made about her allegations.
Whitehouse (D-RI), once a key champion of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s accusers, dubiously claimed that Fifield lacked corroboration and pointed to her past work in politics. He doubled down on that Wednesday.
“[Sen. Whitehouse], you rushed to publicly condemn me without bothering to get the facts right back in June,” Fifiled posted on X in response to the senator doubling down.
“You had over a month to reflect on that mistake, but instead of apologizing or even admitting you were wrong, you chose to double down. How truly pathetic.”
Fifield, who dated Platner from roughly 2013 to 2015, alleged that he once physically yanked her out of a cab and, at another time, twisted her arm behind her back and locked her in a room. Platner had vehemently denied all accusations of physical abuse.
Her accusations were featured in a bombshell New York Times story about Platner’s past relationship with women.
But Whitehouse stood by Platner until Jenny Racicot, who supported the horny oyster farmer’s far-left ideology, accused him of rape.
“When you’re looking at allegations … [you have] to evaluate things like whether there is corroboration, and with respect to the first accusation, there was none,” Whitehouse told CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper” on Wednesday.
CNN anchor Jake Tapper told the senator that there was corroboration and pointed to confidants of Fifield to whom she had conveyed her accusations against Platner at the time his alleged outbursts occurred.
“Whether there’s motive to mislead or fabricate. There was plenty,” Whitehouse added. “The woman was involved in basically a Koch-funded political operation and had specifically been involved in Maine political activities against Platner.”
Fifield previously worked for several conservative groups, such as the Heritage Foundation, and was part of the Independent Women’s Forum, some of which may have received funding from the Koch brothers at one point.
But there is no evidence she was involved with an active Koch operation or that she was actively involved in Maine “political activities against Platner,” despite joking in a private message about backing Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).
“I’ve never taken a dime from AIPAC or Koch. I shouldn’t need to say that,” Fifield shot back in response to Whitehouse. “My LinkedIn is public. I haven’t worked ‘in politics’ since the beginning of 2023, when I was digital marketing director for [Nikki Haley].”
“After having a miscarriage I made the difficult but correct decision to prioritize my family,” she added. “Since then, the only campaign I’ve waged has been against the kudzu vines creeping into my gardens, and the only lobbying I’ve done has been trying—so far in vain—to convince my husband to let me get chickens.”
Back in 2018, Fifield co-founded the group, Ladies for Kavanaugh. Whitehouse had been one of the most prominent Democrats championing the accusations made by Christine Blasey Ford and others against the future justice.
Notably, with Ford’s accusations, there wasn’t corroboration that she and Kavanaugh even met. Ford cited three witnesses other than her and Kavanaugh, she claimed, were present at the party where she alleged the future Supreme Court justice raped her.
None of them, including her friend, Leland Keyser, could recall the two ever meeting. Keyser couldn’t recall the party.
Ford was also a registered Democrat, but that didn’t appear to factor into Whitehouse’s calculus at the time.
Unlike with Ford’s accusations, there is proof that Fifield met with Platner, including images of the two together. She also had private messages with friends claiming he had a Nazi tattoo before his skull-and-crossbones ink became publicly known.
The Post contacted Whitehouse’s office for comment.
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