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Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, addressed her closely-watched race against scandal-plagued Democratic candidate Graham Platner, calling him the “antithesis” of the steady leadership she has provided Maine.
“I never expected to have an opponent like Graham Platner,” Collins said in her first national interview since Platner’s nomination. “He is very different from me. He’s the antithesis of the steady leadership that I provide and Washington that has delivered real results for the state of Maine and for our nation.”
Platner, a military veteran and oyster farmer, has spent much of his campaign on the defensive as multiple scandals have rocked his candidacy, including a chest tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol and abuse allegations from former girlfriends.
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Collins’ race against Platner has become one of the most watched in the midterm cycle as top Democrats, including progressive champions Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., have thrown their support behind the controversial candidate.
Platner is pushing an economically populist agenda, taking aim at corporate interests and advocating for the working class during his campaign.
Collins, who is running for a sixth six-year term in the U.S. Senate, remains in a tight race with Platner in left-leaning Maine, despite his resurfaced controversies.
“There have been numerous controversies. He often denies them only to be contradicted by others who say what he told them,” Collins told Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum on “The Story.”
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“To me, one of the most appalling is his making fun of a Purple Heart recipient who had been wounded by the Taliban, lying on the war field, and he ridicules this individual. And another example, it’s his treatment of women in general, and also his opposition to law enforcement. On all those issues, we could not be more different.”
In response to the scandals, Platner has opened up about his battle with post-traumatic stress disorder from his four tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq.
He said he’s “been open about what was a very dark period of my life where I struggled with undiagnosed PTSD, too often self-medicated with alcohol, and was a far from perfect boyfriend.”
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Collins, the Republican incumbent, revealed whether she believes Platner’s controversies disqualify him from running.
“I would have said in a different time that any one of these would have been disqualifying for someone to be a candidate to serve our country and the state of Maine in the United States Senate, whether they were Democrat or Republican,” the senator said.
During Platner’s nomination acceptance speech during the primary, he accused Collins of being “just as spineless and corrupt as the establishment she now serves.”
Collins argued that constituents do not want someone who engages in “angry rhetoric” representing them in Washington and said their senator should have proper “character.”
“In the end, this comes down to whether you want a candidate who will go to Washington, engage in angry rhetoric every day, but not get anything done, versus my service to the people of Maine, where I have delivered real results to the people of Maine,” Collins said.
“I believe that the people of Maine want steady leadership,” she continued. “They want independence, and they want someone who cares deeply about the state and our country and has the character to serve.”
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