Fox’s Clay Travis Argues No Candidate Should Drop Out ‘Because of Sexual Assault Allegations’ — Amid Furor Over Platner

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OutKick founder and Fox News contributor Clay Travis argued that no political candidate should be forced to drop out of a race due to sexual assault allegations.

The political landscape has been rocked by the recent allegations against Graham Platner, the Democrat running for a U.S. Senate seat in Maine. Platner’s campaign was largely defined by controversy, as old social media posts, his tattoo, and past relationships have come under immense scrutiny.

In June, The New York Times published a story in which Platner was accused of displaying abusive behavior by women who dated him. A month later, Politico released its own bombshell report accusing the candidate of sexual assault. Platner released a video denying the allegations, but lawmakers across the spectrum have called for him to drop out of the race.

Travis, however, felt there was no need for Platner to drop out until formal charges were filed.

“No candidate, Democrat or Republican, should drop out of races because of sexual assault allegations,” Travis tweeted Wednesday afternoon. “It’s easy to make these up, if you’re charged with crimes, that’s different. But allegations shouldn’t end anything. Let voters decide if they believe them or not.”

As it turns out, that tweet was actually a continuation of thoughts from hours earlier. That morning, Travis argued in a thread of tweets that Platner had “all the leverage here.”

“He’s the Democrat senate nominee,” Travis said. “They can’t take that from him. He’s not a senator now so if he loses he’s still not a senator. Unless Democrats pay him millions of dollars, why would he step down?”

Travis clarified that he disagreed with Platner on “almost everything,” but he didn’t like the “move to force out a nominee the party picked in a contested primary hundreds of thousands voted in.”

“Platner has ALL the leverage and denies these allegations,” he said in another tweet. “Stay in the race.”

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