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Woman Who Dated Graham Platner Says He Raped Her in 2021; Democrats' Share of Primary Votes Cast; USA World Cup Dreams Dashed in 4-1 Loss to Belgium. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired July 07, 2026 - 09:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[09:30:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: The big question hanging over Maine this morning is will Graham Platner drop out of his highly contested Senate race as he now faces an allegation of rape. That allegation clearly too much for a growing number of Democrats now from Ro Khanna to Elizabeth Warren to the top Democrat in the Senate Chuck Schumer and just this morning Senator Jeanne Shaheen on our show now calling for Platner to get out of the race.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JEANNE SHAHEEN (D-NH): Well, I think in the context of all of the allegations against him and what has just surfaced, the accusation of rape that it's in the best interest of Democrats in Maine and in the country for him to get out of the race. And as I said, he should do that the sooner the better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Jenny Racicot is telling her story to CNN on camera, sitting down with CNN's Jake Tapper, laying out what she says happened that night back in 2021 when she says the Graham Platner showed up to her home uninvited and drunk and then forced himself on her. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Is there any way that he thought this was consensual or no, just because --?

JENNY RACICOT, GRAHAM PLATNER ACCUSER: I don't believe that you can think that that scenario is consensual. You have to you have to understand that that wasn't when somebody is repeatedly -- I mean, with somebody in the middle of it says, don't touch me like that's obviously not consensual.

TAPPER: Just to underline the point, you're not coming forward because you have any political motivation.

RACICOT: No, not at all. That was actually one of the huge reasons that I didn't come forward and still struggled like that was a huge moral conflict to feel like -- TAPPER: Because you'd like a Democrat to be in the Senate.

RACICOT: Yes. Yes. I like the things that he speaks about. They're important.

They're important to people. I'm one of those people.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: Graham Platner denies the allegation, though, also saying in his video statement that he is now considering the best path forward.

Joining us right now is Jessica Piper. She's part of the reporting team at Politico, who first broke this story. Jessica, thanks for coming in. Platner, it says, I think the terminology is taking the time to reflect on the best path forward.

What are you hearing from your sources about what that means for today? And do people in Maine think he will stick it out or want him to stick it out?

JESSICA PIPER, REPORTER, POLITICO: Well, ultimately, the decision here is in the hands of Graham Platner. He is the candidate who won the primary and he will decide whether he drops out before July 13th. But I'm hearing from many folks in Maine, all levels of the Democratic Party, who are strongly hoping he will drop out.

The Maine Democratic Party's leadership, who would be responsible for picking the next candidate if he were to drop out of the race, issued a statement last night saying he should step down and allow them to do that. And across many levels of the party, candidates who had endorsed him earlier this year, elected officials, many have no backtrack on that and are asking him to drop out.

[09:35:00]

BOLDUAN: I was looking, kind of comparing the statement, the video statement from Platner to the statement that the campaign had given you as part of your story, because it's a far cry from the initial statement that that you received. Because in the initial statement -- in the statement you received in your reporting, it suggested that Racicot was coached, that she's speaking publicly -- that the fact she's speaking publicly was coordinated.

And the statement even called it a desperate smear and not a coincidence that the story comes a week before the ballot deadline. And then you see that video statement that Platner gave. What do you think changed?

PIPER: You know, it's hard to say that the two came in relatively short succession. The statement in our story that you're referring to was not attributed to Platner himself, but to the campaign. So it's hard for me to say what went down in that small window of time.

But certainly, I think you see in his video statement that even as he continues to deny the allegations, you know, if he said they are false and that he, you know, any allegation of anything being nonconsensual is categorically untrue. But he seems to acknowledge some of the political reality, and he focuses on the goal of beating Susan Collins and sort of seems to leave the door open to realizing that he might not be the best person to do that.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Jessica, you spoke with Jenny Racicot, the way you described it was three interviews over a period of two weeks. And part of I think some of the most important -- and important aspect of all of this is why she felt compelled to come forward now and how she described that to you.

And because of what another woman had faced when she detailed her story in The New York Times, the attacks that that woman faced because of her ties to the Republican Party. And the complicated conflicted feelings that Jenny herself has, as she told Jake Tapper, she even understands why people want someone like Graham Platner in office. Can you talk to me more about what Jenny told you about why she's coming forward now, the public reaction that compelled her to do so, and what all kind of she was struggling with around that?

PIPER: Absolutely. Jenny is someone who had been contacted by the media before. Her name had surfaced in a Facebook group as someone who had dated Graham in the past, so reporters had been at her door and on her phone for a while.

She chose to come forward now, she told us, you know, she had spoken to The New York Times, and she had sort of hoped that people would read between the lines with what she had told them. She had told them that Graham Platner had shown up at her home drunk, and it was very unsettling.

But she wanted to leave the story there at the time. She said she didn't want to be known as a rape victim, and she was hoping that people would understand, kind of get the gist of where she was going, and that that would be enough. And by some other reaction to that story, and how a lot of the reaction to that story also focused on allegations made by another woman, Lindsey Fifield, and many of Platner's allies accused her of being politically motivated because of her ties to Republican politics, Jenny told us, you know, she felt like her story got, her word was read over, right?

It simply wasn't getting the attention. People weren't really focusing on her claims. And so she took some time, she considered it further, and she decided that she wanted to come forward publicly, and so she spoke with us.

BOLDUAN: Well, it is important reporting, and how you've handled it so delicately is important as well. Jessica, thank you so much for coming in. I appreciate your time --Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, ahead. This was rough. The U.S. suffering an ugly loss to Belgium. It was a decisive loss after days of controversy. Where does the U.S. men's national team go from here?

And the debate over artificial intelligence on the big screen. Its back again as a fully a ii actress gets a feature film of her own that she stars in.

[09:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, a little bit less than four months to go until the midterm elections. Where is the energy as we stand here today? With us now, CNN Chief Data Analyst, Harry Enten.

One way to tell where the energy is, is by figuring out who actually has been voting. And there's a story there.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: There's absolutely a story, Mr. Berman. You know, we're about halfway through the primary season so far, and this is perhaps the best sign for Democrats, because when people are going out there to vote, they're voting Democrat to a historic degree. Take a look here.

Dem share of the primary votes cast. You know, right now we're talking about 57 percent. My goodness gracious.

That is up 10 points from 2022, when Democrats were casting just 47 percent of the primary ballots. Republicans were casting the majority. And this 57 percent is actually higher, higher than what Democrats were casting back in 2018, when, of course, they went back to take back the House of Representatives, when it's 54 percent.

This is a historically strong position for Democrats. The energy is on the Democratic side of the aisle.

BERMAN: This was a big year for Democrats.

ENTEN: Huge year for Democrats.

BERMAN: And the percentage this year, even higher. OK, I call this next graph of the Enten special here. What happens when one party is turning up in bigger numbers than the other in the midterms?

ENTEN: You know, there are two Enten specials. One is Popeyes, followed by Carvel. The other is this slide.

And take a look here. OK. National primary turnout edge by party.

[09:45:00]

Dems went on to win the U.S. House in the midterm. Look at this. Every single cycle since 2006, Dems had the primary edge. They took back the House.

2010, GOP had the primary edge. They took back the House. 2014, GOP had the primary edge. They held onto the House.

2018, Dems had the primary edge in terms of votes cast. They went back to take back the House. And in 2022, the GOP had the edge in primary votes cast, and they went back to take back the House. When your side comes out and votes more in the primary, it forecasts very good fortunes come the fall in midterm elections. When more of you turn out, you take back the House or hold onto the House.

BERMAN: All right, and we're seeing some sort of signs of the impact this is already having in some of the key states we're looking at.

ENTEN: You know, if Democrats want to take back the United States Senate, they're going to have to win in states that Donald Trump won in 2024. But they may get a key boost in turnout. So in the six key GOP-held Senate seats, we spoke about them last week, Alaska, Iowa, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas, Trump's 2024 margin, on average in those states, he won it by eight.

But according to The Times, in terms of likely general election voters, his edge is actually only going to be half that, four points. So this energy, this turnout energy that we're seeing in the primary will likely, at least as forecasted to, in fact, hold towards the fall and make those red states a little bit more pink than red.

BERMAN: They're starting, Democrats are, further along in the race than they were before in terms of turnout there. All right, Harry, in terms of the House of Representatives, what are the prediction markets saying at this point?

ENTEN: Yes, so Democrats took a little bit of a hit after those SCOTUS decisions right back in May. Their low point was 73 percent on May 17th. But look at where we are now.

Democrats' chances have, in fact, have risen significantly, up much closer, if not past 80 percent at this point. So what we're seeing is that enthusiasm that the Democrats have look like it's going to hold towards the fall as well.

BERMAN: Harry Enten, thank you very much.

ENTEN: Thank you, my friend.

BERMAN: A lot of news this morning. We'll be right back.

[09:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: The AI creation known as Tilly Norwood is apparently set to make a feature film debut now. To put a finer point on this, Norwood is not real. She is entirely AI and will now star in a film called "Misaligned", which is described as a comedy, drama and coming of age story infused with existential AI chaos. I guess that should just be called all of our lives today. That is according to Deadline. The whole viral saga around Tilly Norwood has sparked backlash for months now in Hollywood.

A London-based production company called Particle Six, which created her, says that their goal is to show what is possible with AI -- J.B.

BERMAN: I hope AI critics pan the performance of the AI actress. That would be very meta. No pun intended there.

All right, the U.S. is out of the World Cup, and it was not close. They were crushed by Belgium. This all followed the controversy of President Trump's involvement in reversing the suspension of a star U.S. player. Didn't help. Maybe even helped fuel Belgium some. After the win, a cheeky Twitter post from the Belgian team, they wrote, "overturn this."

BRIANA SCURRY, FORMER USWNT GOALKEEPER: Yikes.

With us now, former U.S. women's national team goalkeeper and legend, Briana Scurry. She's a FIFA World Cup champ, two-time Olympic gold medalist, also the author of the book "My Greatest Save."

Don't know how you'd single out your greatest save because you had so many fantastic ones. Thanks for being with us. Look, to my untrained eye last night, everything went wrong, but you probably are watching with a slightly different vision.

What was it? I mean, what was it that made the U.S. play so poorly?

SCURRY: Oh, my goodness. Great to be with you, John. It's a few things.

First of all, Belgium was mad. OK, let's be clear. Belgium was mad, and they showed it.

They came out from the first minute, the first whistle, and were just getting after us. And we struggled. We struggled a lot.

And then, of course, they got the first blow with the first goal, unfortunately a little bit soft. We came back, and we got a goal, and then it just all fell apart.

I feel like the situation with the red card really did fuel them, and they felt they had something to prove. And the best way to make that right for them is to win, and they won with great force and ferocity. And also, I was a little disappointed in our boys.

I mean, they had a fantastic run this World Cup, but unfortunately, last night's performance, in my mind, they just didn't have the fight in them. And it was really unfortunate because the opportunity was so big. The stage is the biggest it's going to get.

And all of this country was behind them, and everybody was watching. And so I was a little disappointed, actually a lot disappointed in the performance and the way they went out.

BERMAN: Look, you know, if the U.S. team that played against Paraguay a month ago was on that field, I think they could have won. I mean, a version of this U.S. team, I think, maybe has more talent than the Belgian team, but it just didn't happen last night. And it does sound like you think the whole Balogun red card reversal was a factor.

SCURRY: I definitely do think it's a factor. I mean, it's one thing to get our player back, which I was thrilled about, but it's another thing when something like that, unfortunately, adds fuel to the fire of the other team. And you always take that risk, right?

[09:55:00]

And so the best way for us to have handled that was to just go out there and be happy that we had our top player and our full team and go out and fight and battle them for it. But it didn't seem like we did that.

And it's really sad because, you know, a couple of games, you know, it was England and Mexico. That game was very feisty, very fiery.

I mean, England had 10 men. They were into Azteca and they just dominated. They just fought them.

And we didn't have that same viciousness, in my opinion. And that's the thing that you can control. You may not be able to control the fact that the other team is angry and that they have more talented players, but you can control your own effort and your own way that you decide to go out of a tournament.

And I just was really disappointed in the performance today.

BERMAN: Just 20 seconds left. What happens now for these players?

SCURRY: Well, you know, they can hold their heads up high with the way they went around things up until last night. They have to regroup, you know, deal with the consequences and obviously go back to their club teams and try to be better next time. The opportunity was huge, but they can be happy and proud that America did get behind them, that they did have a great showing up until last night, and that this tournament has been an incredible success for this country, for Mexico and Canada as well.

So it has been a wonderful event, but unfortunately, a very unfortunate ending for Team USA.

BERMAN: Indeed. A little more wins than we've ever had at a World Cup for the men's team but didn't go out the way we wanted. Briana Scurry, great to see you. Thank you for sharing your unique insight into all of this.

SIDNER: It was hard, but we did it. We got farther than ever before. Thank you so much for joining us.

This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL, "THE SITUATION ROOM," up next.

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