Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner cited his combat deployments and struggling in the aftermath when confronted during an interview that aired Sunday about his past social media posts about sexual assault.

“I wonder, though, if you think how damaging this thing might be politically, because, I read those posts and, you know, they’re bad. Those posts are terrible,” CNN’s Manu Raju said.

Gov. Janet Mills, who is running against Platner in the Democratic Senate primary, launched an ad campaign against him that features women reacting to comments he made over a decade ago on Reddit about rape. The Mills campaign highlights Graham’s comments, as an actor in a voice that resembles the candidate, reads snippets of them aloud. Among the comments is one from 2013, which Platner later deleted, that people concerned about rape should not “get so f—ed up they wind up having sex with someone they don’t mean to.”

Platner said he regretted the posts when pressed by Raju.

U.S. senatorial candidate from Maine Graham Platner speaks at a town hall at the Leavitt Theater on October 22, 2025, in Ogunquit, Maine. (Sophie Park/Getty Images)

‘THE VIEW’ LADIES SLAM MAINE SENATE CANDIDATE OVER NAZI SYMBOL TATTOO, SAYING IT’S ‘NOT JUST A WHOOPSIE’

“Oh, of course… Yes, deeply. But, I was at a time in my life where I was really struggling after I’d come back from my combat deployments,” Platner told Raju. “I was very isolated, very alone, very disillusioned, very angry. And I think like a lot of people, I went on the internet to find some form of community or serotonin boost.”

He added he was able to reconnect with his community and said he wouldn’t have got to this point without the struggles in his past.

“After many years of kind of being back in society, reconnecting with my community, reconnecting with, frankly, like, the great state of Maine, that has allowed me to really become the person I am today, which I’m very proud of. But I don’t get to be who I am today without the struggles that I had to go through,” Platner added.

Platner also told Raju that he spoke about the posts in October and has allowed the people of Maine to ask him about them directly.

Senate candidate Graham Platner of Maine, left, and two-term Gov. Jane Mills are facing off in the state’s Democratic Senate primary. (Sophie Park/Getty Images; Scott Eisen/Getty Images)

GRAHAM PLATNER CLAIMS VOTERS CONCERNED OVER TRANS ATHLETES ARE ‘MANIPULATED BY BILLIONAIRES’

“I have gone all over the state of Maine and allowed people to ask me about it all directly, for months now. And it is, I think for a lot of folks in the state, to see this get kind of dragged back up, months and months after we’d already talked about it,” he said.

He added, “I will just say, the feedback we have received statewide is that people find all of this to be everything they hate about politics. And I think that that’s, politically in the state of Maine, that is more damaging than the fact that people can understand that I, as a person, have transformed over time and changed, which actually I think a lot of folks can identify with.”

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Platner has also faced backlash over a tattoo that is widely viewed as a Nazi symbol.

He announced in October that he covered up the tattoo.

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Platner is endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. The primary election will be June 9.

The eventual Democratic nominee will go on to face incumbent Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who has held the seat since 1997.

Former U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe spoke out in support of the Iranian women’s soccer team amid the players’ trials and tribulations over the last few weeks while competing in Australia.

The Iranian women’s soccer team was in Australia earlier this month to compete in the Women’s Asian Cup. Players were seen refusing to sing their country’s national anthem as the U.S. and Israel launched a joint military campaign on the Iranian regime. The players were dubbed “wartime traitors” by an Iranian broadcaster for their decisions during the tournament.

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Retired United States soccer player Megan Rapinoe looks on before a SheBelieves Cup match against Colombia at Sports Illustrated Stadium on March 7, 2026 in Harrison, New Jersey.  (Brad Smith/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images)

Australian officials then raced to try to get the players asylum in the country. At least two players stayed in Australia while the rest of the team made it back to Iran.

Rapinoe praised the “bravery and courage” of the women.

“I’m just thinking about this in the context of, like, the immense pressure that these young adults and these young women are under to make a decision like this,” she said on the “A Touch More” podcast. “Like, the incredible courage and bravery it would take knowing what that could potentially mean for their family back home. The bravery and courage to protest the national anthem, basically in protest of the Iranian regime and not singing the national anthem during a match. The stress and uncertainty they’re facing – their family, their loved ones. What does that all mean for back home?

“I, of course, fully support their decisions to seek asylum and seek a better life and to try to escape an incredibly oppressive regime in that situation. I don’t know what’s going on with them and why some of them left and however that is. I hope the ones that returned home have done so under their own free will and choice and that their families are safe, that they’re safe and their friends are safe. I hope the ones that have chosen to stay feel a sense of peace and hope about a potential for a new life in Australia or otherwise.

Iran players react during their national anthem ahead of the Women’s Asian Cup soccer match between Iran and the Philippines in Robina, Australia, Sunday, March 8, 2026.  (Dave Hunt/AAP Image via AP)

IRAN WRESTLING CHAMPION SPEAKS OUT AGAINST COUNTRY’S TREATMENT OF FEMALE ATHLETES AMID SOCCER PLAYER CONCERNS

Rapinoe added that she was “in awe of their courage.”

The former U.S. soccer star faced scrutiny for not speaking out as the saga was unfolding in the country. Piers Morgan was among those who labeled Rapinoe as “hypocritical.”

“The silence over this from Rapinoe, and so many supposed ‘feminists’ like her, is so telling, damning, and hypocritical,” he wrote in a social media post. “They’d rather campaign for biological men to wreck women’s sport than campaign for these heroic young sportswomen to help save their lives.” 

She didn’t address her critics in her latest podcast episode with Sue Bird.

Initially, seven of the Iranian women’s soccer players accepted asylum but turned around and declined the opportunity at the last minute. Two players who stayed were seen training with one of the country’s premier clubs last week.

The Australian government faced criticism for not working fast enough to get to the players.

“We ended up with an outcome that is certainly far from ideal,” Graham Thom, an advocacy coordinator for the Refugee Council of Australia, told The Associated Press.

FILE – Iran players pose for a team photo ahead of the Women’s Asian Cup soccer match between Iran and the Philippines in Robina, Australia on Sunday, March 8, 2026.  (Dave Hunt/AAPImage via AP,File)

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“Hopefully the two who are remaining get the protection they need, but we just hope that those who have returned are also safe.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s plans to deport Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia from the U.S. to a third country — stopping, for now, the government’s stated plans to swiftly remove him to the West African nation of Liberia.

The temporary order from U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis keeps in place two previous orders she issued blocking the Trump administration’s efforts to deport Abrego Garcia from the U.S. for a second time to a third country. It comes just days after ICE Director Todd Lyons asked Xinis to dissolve her injunction, citing what he said were the government’s plans to swiftly remove Abrego Garcia to Liberia. 

Lyons told the court Friday that DHS had decided to “disregard” Abrego’s request to be removed to the third country of Costa Rica, citing his failure to cite the country as his preferred country of removal during a 2019 hearing before an immigration judge. 

ABREGO GARCIA REMAINS IN US FOR NOW AS JUDGE TAKES CASE UNDER ADVISEMENT

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, right, and his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, attend a prayer vigil before he enters a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office on Aug. 25, 2025, in Baltimore, Maryland. ( Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“Neither the statute nor the regulations permit an alien to designate a country of removal beyond the initial opportunity granted in removal proceedings,” Lyons said. “If, as here, an alien were permitted to designate a country of removal years after the conclusion of removal proceedings, an alien could avoid ever being removed by endlessly designating new countries of removal,” he added. 

Lyons also cited negotiations the U.S. and Liberia allegedly engaged in regarding Abrego Garcia’s removal, and argued that abandoning those negotiations could “cast doubt on the diplomatic reliability of the United States.”

Abrego Garcia’s status has been at the center of a legal and political maelstrom since March, when he was deported to his home country of El Salvador, in violation of a 2019 court order and in what Trump officials acknowledge was an “administrative error.” 

Xinis ordered last year that Abrego Garcia be “immediately” returned to the U.S., kicking off a 12-month saga that has spanned two continents, multiple U.S. courts, and countless headlines in the U.S. and internationally.

Last month, she issued a preliminary injunction that blocked DHS from immediately re-detaining Abrego Garcia and deporting him to a third country, including Uganda, Ghana, Eswatini and Liberia, which the administration previously identified to the court as possible removal options. 

She ruled then that the Trump administration had failed to provide the court with “good reason to believe” that they plan to remove him to a third country in the “reasonably foreseeable future,” citing a lack of assurances from the countries the government identified for removal that they would accept Abrego Garcia into their country, and assurances that they would not refoul, or return him, to his home country of El Salvador. An immigration judge in 2019 agreed to block his removal back to the country, citing threats of persecution from local gangs. 

The Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the new updates in the case. 

The temporary stay comes as Trump officials have been sharply critical of Xinis and other federal judges presiding over deportation cages, whom they have repeatedly accused of overstepping their authorities and acting as “activist” judges.

The Department of Homeland Security has stressed that Abrego Garcia had been living in the U.S. illegally and have blasted news reports describing him as a “Maryland man.” They have also cited what they alleged are his ties to the MS-13 gang, which lawyers for Abrego Garcia have denied.

US JUDGE VOWS TO RULE ‘SOON’ ON ABREGO GARCIA’S FATE AFTER MARATHON HEARING
 

A woman is seen holding a photo of Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia in front of the U.S. District Court in Nashville. A judge ordered Trump officials to testify in court in January to weigh Abrego’s motion to dismiss on the grounds of ‘vindictive’ prosecution. (Getty Images )

Lawyers for Kilmar Abrego Garcia blasted the Trump administration’s revived effort to deport the Salvadoran migrant to the third country of Liberia, telling Fox News Digital on Monday that they viewed the new removal effort as hypocritical, and at odds with the government’s own arguments in seeking to block his removal to Costa Rica.

Trump officials are “talking out of both sides of their mouth,” Abrego Garcia’s lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, told Fox News Digital in a statement.

“On the one hand, Mr. Abrego Garcia forfeited his right to designate Costa Rica as a country of removal seven years ago, but on the other hand, they claim the right to designate Liberia as a country of removal seven years later,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said. 

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“It’s one or the other, they can’t have it both ways,” he added.

This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.

On Monday, a sensation spread in Chandauli village of Kharela police station area in Mahoba, Uttar Pradesh, when a bloody game was played due to old rivalry. Here the bullies launched a deadly attack on the father and son. In this premeditated attack, the son was brutally shot and killed, while the father who came to intervene was left bleeding. The police have registered a case and started searching for the accused.

After the incident, panic spread in the entire village, police arrived on information and controlled the situation. The father has been admitted to the hospital in a critical condition. While the son’s body has been sent for post-mortem. Heavy police force has been deployed in the village.

What is the whole matter?

According to the information, 60-year-old Mangal Singh and his son Narendra were attacked by the bullies of the village when, as part of a well-planned conspiracy, Narendra was called to a puncture shop outside the village. Then he along with his companions attacked him with sticks, sticks and axe. Meanwhile, when father Mangal Singh passed by and saw his son lying bleeding on the ground, he could not control himself. He took a stick and fought against the attackers to save the piece of his heart. But the brutality of the attackers crossed all limits. They suddenly started firing, in which Narendra got shot.

The son died in agony in front of his father’s eyes, while the father was also killed with an ax and an axe. The accused fled from the spot after committing the crime. The deceased’s wife Archana has cried and pleaded for justice and demanded strictest action against the accused.

Heavy police force present

Considering the sensitivity of the incident, Additional Superintendent of Police Vandana Singh reached the spot with heavy police force. Force of four police stations has been deployed in the village. According to the police, in this bloody conflict between two ethnic groups, one has died and the other is undergoing treatment. A case has been registered in the matter on the basis of the complaint and special teams are being formed and raids are being conducted to arrest the accused.