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Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski thoroughly grilled Politico journalist Adam Wren on “what concrete evidence” made him “sure” that his bombshell report on allegations that Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner raped a woman in 2021 was “publishable.”
The exclusive published on Monday, a week before the Maine deadline for replacing Platner, detailed allegations from 41-year-old Maine resident Jenny Racicot, who said she was involved in an on-and-off relationship with Platner for more than two years before accusing him of assault.
The report described her account of the “not consensual” sexual encounter, during which she claimed Platner entered her home “uninvited” and drunk.
In an interview with CNN on Monday night, Racicot said her reasons for coming forward were not politically motivated.
Platner, meanwhile, denied the allegations in a video address but said he was pausing his Senate campaign to “reflect on the best path forward.”
In the wake of that announcement, however, several prominent Democrats who had previously endorsed his candidacy – including Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Senator Rubén Gallego (D-AZ) – have since withdrawn their support.
When Wren appeared on Morning Joe on Tuesday morning, Brzezinski opened by noting there’s no police report of the incident and interrogating Wren on the “high standards” that would make the story “publishable.”
“So my question to you, given the very high standards Politico has before, they write something like this and publish it, what aspects of this story brought it to the level of publishable?” she asked.
“Yeah, you’re correct here, Mika, there is no police report in this case,” Wren said. “We spent a lot of time talking to Jenny, you know, asking her for corroborating evidence. She shared that she had confided to a number of people, including her therapist in almost real-time. And we reviewed email exchanges between she and her therapist, referring to what she called the sexual assault and her therapist sort of acknowledging that this had happened to her.”
He continued: “We talked to people who she confided in. In the months after this happened. We asked her why she didn’t file a police report, and she described sort of the insular nature of where she lives and her corner of Maine that she shares with Graham Platner. And she, you know, debated sort of how to handle this. And we found ultimately the number of corroborating pieces of evidence to support her story in a way that we could report it.”
“So what are some of those corroborating pieces of evidence?” Brzezinski asked. So you’ve got conversations with her therapist and people who she confided in any, any conversations with Graham Platner at the time of it where she said – because apparently as part of this story, she says she even confirmed to him that this was not consent. Do you have that? What do you have that actually connects this literally: Graham Platner to raping this victim?”
Wren said that the woman had allegedly reached out to Platner after the incident via direct message on Instagram and that Politico had reviewed messages she sent to others.
“But you were able to see those DMs?” the co-host pressed.
Wren said: “She tried to recover those DMs. We did not… we were not able to review those DMs, but she described them to us. We also, long before he was a political candidate, we saw her essentially explain to others that he was, quote, in her words, consensually careless, end quote. And –”
“Right, but were you able to see the interactions between Graham Platner and this alleged victim?” Brzezinski cut in. “Did you actually physically see them? Did she produce them for you?”
“She attempted to uncover them. She, uh, but was unable to,” Wren replied.
After co-hosts Willie Geist and Jonathan Lemire took over questioning Wren, Brzezinski rounded on the topic one more time.
“So, Adam, in closing, obviously this is a huge political bombshell story, a story that might, probably will, lead to the end of Graham Platner’s campaign. And I’m just going back to the decision to publish. And I’m curious what concrete evidence – you have conversations with therapists, conversation with friends – but what took this story beyond Graham Platner saying this was consensual, Jenny Racicot saying this was not consensual?” she asked.
She continued: “What took it over the edge and had you and your editors decide to publish, of course, kind of an earthquake in Democratic politics? What was the piece of evidence or pieces of evidence that made you sure of this story?”
“Yeah. I mean, long before he was a political candidate, long before much of the country knew his name, Jenny, in her telling, had confided in a number of people,” Wren said. “We saw screenshots that she shared of messages relaying this account to others. We viewed an email response from her therapist to her acknowledging that they had talked about-”
“Those are the things I said, but those aren’t –” Brzezinski interrupted. “Look, what is the actual… Is there evidence between her and him? Evidence of a crime? Because he’s being accused of rape. So what put this over the edge?”
As Wren stuttered in response, the co-host added: “Because he says he didn’t and he has people on his side who say he didn’t. She says he did. I’m trying, what’s the through line? What ties this together and gives you the evidence to bring this story to the point of publishable?”
“Yeah. You know, we interviewed her, you know, three separate times. Her story stayed consistent across those times. You know, we talked to people who she had spoken with contemporaneously about these attacks and all of those stories lined up and checked out,” he said. “And ultimately, you know, Politico stands by our reporting and we talked to, you know, people who corroborated her story, largely.”
Directing people to the story, Brzezinski thanked Wren and ended the interview.
Watch above via MS NOW.
The post Mika Brzezinski Grills Politico Reporter Behind Platner Bombshell for ‘Concrete’ Rape ‘Evidence’: ‘What’s the Throughline?’ first appeared on Mediaite.
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