Bernie Sanders snapped back at reporters Monday while defending embattled Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, brushing off newly reported sexting allegations as a private marriage issue rather than a reason to abandon one of the left’s most closely watched 2026 contenders.
The Vermont independent made clear he is not rethinking his endorsement of Platner, a progressive Marine Corps veteran whose campaign has been battered by a string of personal and political controversies.
“He’s prepared to take on the big-money interests. He believes that health care is a human right, not a privilege,” Sanders told reporters.
Then came the question of Platner’s marriage. “Now, does he have problems in his marriage? Well, you’re going to have to ask his wife Amy,” Sanders said. “My understanding is that they’ve had problems in their marriage, they’re getting through that.”
The senator argued voters were more concerned about policy than the candidate’s private life.
Bernie Sanders is sticking by Platner: “I don't know all the details but my understanding is his wife is supporting him. And maybe rather than worrying about Graham Platner's marriage, worry about what's happening to the working families in this country.” H/t @alanhe @elliskkim pic.twitter.com/QAsEl0nFsS
— Caitlin Huey-Burns (@CHueyBurns) June 1, 2026
“But I think what the people of this country and the people of Maine are interested in is how we’re going to have a government that represents all of us, addresses the many crises that we face, not the marriage problems of a candidate,” he said.
Sanders appeared to grow irritated when a reporter asked whether Platner’s “moral failings” could undermine the senator’s broader goals on health care and income inequality.
“Moral failings – have you talked to his wife? Why don’t you find out by his marriage by talking – his wife has made a statement,” Sanders said.
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“His wife is his family,” he added before cutting off the interview.
The latest controversy erupted after The Wall Street Journal reported that Platner sent sexual messages to multiple women while married.
His wife, Amy Gertner, told the outlet that she found messages between Platner and other women in 2025 that included sexually explicit images.
Still, Gertner publicly defended her husband and described their relationship as repaired.
“We did the hard work that marriage requires. We went to counseling. We were honest with each other in ways that weren’t easy. And we came through it, not in spite of how much we’ve been through, but because of how much we love each other and the life we’ve built. Our marriage today is stronger than ever before,” she told the Journal.
A message from my wife Amy: pic.twitter.com/dbDqjssevp
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) May 30, 2026
“I know who Graham is. I know the man I married and the husband he has been to me on the best and the worst days of my life. That hasn’t changed, and it won’t,” Gertner added.
Platner’s campaign also released a video message from Gertner on X, where she criticized media coverage of the scandal and praised him.
“Graham and I have a great marriage. Being married is hard. Being newly married is hard,” she said in the video.
Platner also went after the press on Sunday, accusing major outlets of focusing on gossip instead of his policy message.
“It’s no surprise to me that the establishment media outlets are just gonna run gossip instead of wanting to talk about the things that actually matter in this race, which are the material realities that the Mainers are working with,” Platner told WMTW, ABC’s Portland affiliate.
“These people are gonna try to make this race about anything but what it’s supposed to be about, which is policy. They never want to talk about policy,” he said. “Amy and I have a very loving and very happy marriage. They would very much like to try to rip that apart.”
Platner accused The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times of “journalistic malpractice,” claiming they published stories about the messages based only on “gossip from a former staffer.”
“We pushed back on it, they won it, they did it anyways,” he said.
The campaign fallout also reached cable news. Platner reportedly canceled an interview with MS NOW as the latest allegations surfaced.
“[Platner’s team] came to us and wanted to come on. They pulled out. I think we saw why yesterday as these stories came out,” host Eugene Daniels said, according to Mediaite.
Daniels noted that Platner had previously told The New York Times he had no more personal scandals to get ahead of.
Despite the fresh allegations, Sanders is not the only high-profile Democrat standing by him.
Sen. Chris Murphy defended Platner during a Sunday appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“Graham Platner is somebody who served our country, he’s served his community; he’s also made mistakes and he’s admitted that,” Murphy said.
Murphy framed the race as a moral contrast between a military veteran and a Trump-supporting Republican.
“Character also involves standing up to people who are bankrupting and corrupting this country,” he said. “And this race is going to be a contrast between somebody who has put his life on the line for this country, against somebody who is literally empowering the moral hollowing-out of our nation from the White House.”
Platner is scheduled to meet with Senate Democrats on Tuesday, according to NewsNation. A campaign official described the meeting as “longstanding.”
Platner is the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination in Maine. If he wins the June 9 primary, he will face five-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November.
On Monday, Platner’s campaign attacked Collins over her stock portfolio and net worth, saying she is worth up to $9.6 million and earns $342,520 annually from investments while Platner’s main income comes from his oyster farm.
Two-term Maine Gov. Janet Mills, who had been backed by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, suspended active campaigning in April but noted she remains on the ballot.
“People have the impression that I ‘withdrew’ or ‘dropped out,’ but I simply suspended active campaigning. I am still on the ballot,” Mills commented.
The sexting scandal is not Platner’s first campaign controversy.
Last fall, reports surfaced about past Reddit posts in which Platner dismissed sexual assault concerns for women in the military and made demeaning comments about Black people, rural white people and police officers.
Platner later disavowed the comments and pointed to struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in the Marines in Afghanistan and Iraq.
He also had to explain a tattoo that resembled a Nazi symbol, saying last year that he got it during a night of drinking with fellow Marines in Croatia and had it covered after learning what it resembled.
Of course Bernie does the Commie has nothing else