{"id":1898,"date":"2026-07-08T21:31:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T16:31:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=1898"},"modified":"2026-07-08T21:31:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T16:31:21","slug":"debbie-dingell-admits-dems-made-mistake-with-platner-accuser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=1898","title":{"rendered":"Debbie Dingell Admits Dems Made Mistake with Platner Accuser"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"post-body\">\n<p>Rep. <strong>Debbie Dingell<\/strong> (D-MI) admitted on Fox News that it was a mistake for Democrats not to believe one of <strong>Graham Platner\u2019s<\/strong> accusers because of her conservative politics.<\/p>\n<p>Dingell joined <strong>Dana Perino<\/strong> on Fox News\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/tag\/americas-newsroom\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>America\u2019s Newsroom<\/em><\/a> and during a discussion on the state of Platner\u2019s campaign for Maine Senate, Perino asked Dingell about <strong>Lyndsey Fifield<\/strong>, an ex-girlfriend of Platner\u2019s who has accused him of misconduct, including physical abuse.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo you think the Democrats made a mistake in not believing <strong>Lyndsey Fifield<\/strong>, the conservative who brought the concerns to <em>The New York Times<\/em> in the first place?\u201d Perino asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes. I didn\u2019t sleep the other night. I have written an op-ed that I may get somebody to [publish] about when will we actually believe those who come forward. We have made progress but we haven\u2019t changed,\u201d Dingell said.<\/p>\n<p>Fifield <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/news\/by-design-conservative-platner-accuser-slams-ny-times-and-dems-for-not-taking-her-allegations-seriously\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">slammed<\/a> <em>The New York Times<\/em> this week following a report the outlet dropped on alleged misconduct by Platner in previous relationships. Fifield, who describes herself as conservative and has worked Republican campaigns, accused the outlet of emphasizing her political leanings over her accusations and of not corroborating her stories despite being offered sources.<\/p>\n<p>Platner is facing mounting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/news\/maine-dem-leader-blasts-platner-teams-attempt-to-put-their-thumb-on-the-scale-of-race-as-pressure-mounts-to-drop-out\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pressure<\/a> from fellow Democrats to drop his campaign after a new spate of sexual assault accusations, though he remains in the race to take on Sen.<strong> Susan Collins<\/strong> (R-ME).<\/p>\n<p>Fifield has accused Platner of getting physical during their relationship and sometimes leaving bruises on her arms, as well as removing condoms during intercourse without consent. Platner has denied wrongdoing and ever getting physical with her.<\/p>\n<p>Fifield faced some backlash from critics who cast doubt on her story, but she\u2019s since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/tv\/platner-accuser-gets-emotional-on-cnn-discussing-exs-dead-eyes-and-alleged-abuse-like-looking-at-a-pit-bull\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">spoken out<\/a> more since another ex-girlfriend of Platner\u2019s, <strong>Jenny Racicot<\/strong>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/politics\/breaking-graham-platner-accused-of-sexual-assault-in-explosive-politico-report\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">came forward<\/a> to Politico and others to accuse Platner of sexually assaulting her, which the Senate candidate also denies.<\/p>\n<p>Dingell told CNN this week that she was \u201cyelled at\u201d by some fellow Democrats for refusing to back Platner. She also claimed she\u2019s been told there <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/tv\/house-democrat-tells-cnn-shes-been-told-there-are-more-graham-platner-stories-coming-after-rape-accusation\/\">could be more bombshells<\/a> about the candidate\u2019s personal life dropping in the future.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cQuite frankly, I am told that there are more. I do talk \u2014 this is a community that I work in, and there are other credible reports that people have told me of,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Watch above via Fox News.<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JasonJournoDC\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jason Cohen<\/a> contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>New: The Mediaite One-Sheet &#8220;Newsletter of Newsletters&#8221;<\/strong><br \/>Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/subscribe\">Subscribe now!<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\nn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\nn.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\nt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\ndocument,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) admitted on Fox News that it was a mistake for Democrats not to believe one of Graham Platner\u2019s accusers because of her conservative politics. Dingell joined Dana Perino on Fox News\u2019 America\u2019s Newsroom and during a discussion on the state of Platner\u2019s campaign for Maine Senate, Perino asked Dingell about Lyndsey&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/dingell-2.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsweek-trending"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}