EXCERPT:
PLATNER: "Hey everyone, it's Graham Platner here. I think, as many of you know, over the past couple days I have faced some very serious allegations, and I just want to make it clear, this is all false. The things that have been claimed did not happen. It's not real.
It has placed an immense amount of weight on me as I think about what needs to happen now. Amy and I are regular people. We were not looking for this experience. We were not looking to get into politics. We had no desire to run for office. I just want you to think about, like, what you would do as a regular person in a position where a much larger world, large forces were working against you personally to accuse you of the worst thing that a person could do, and it was not remotely true. I learned about this through press inquiries with no time to truly respond, no time for investigations, before a corporate media system and the political establishment got to act as judge, jury and executioner. Accusations are supposed to be the beginning of things, not the end. I think it's really important to understand why this is happening in the timeline, why this is happening right now. Much like October, when the first attack started, much like the news that was created the week before the primary, there is a reason that this is happening now. I only have until July 13th until I am officially the nominee. This was the last week to try to get me off of the ballot, and that's why this is occurring. It's not the false allegations, though, that have brought us to where we are. It's the fact that they are being used by the political establishment to put structural pressure on us. We live in a political system that is not built for normal people. It is a system that is built structurally to make sure that movements like ours cannot flourish, that if they begin to succeed, they can be crushed.”
