Graham Platner formally withdraws from Maine Senate race after sexual assault allegation – US politics live

The Maine secretary of state’s office issued a statement on Friday confirming that “a formal notice has been received from U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner” making his withdrawal from the race official.

The office was careful to point out that Platner had not formally withdrawn by simply posting his letter on social media earlier, but said that he is now no longer a candidate, setting off a rush to replace him on the November ballot. One of the declared candidates is Maine’s current secretary of state, Shenna Bellows.

“A public declaration is not an official withdrawal, and a candidate must formally withdraw in writing to the Elections office, including signature,” the office explained.

The statement continued:

Because the candidate officially withdrew before 5 p.m. of the 2^nd Monday in July (July 13, 2026), his name will not appear on the ballot, and his political party may replace him. The deadline for the party to name a replacement is the 4^th Monday in July (July 27, 2026). Maine Statute does not address how a replacement candidate may be chosen by a party, only that the candidate filling the vacancy must be a ‘qualified person.’ Announcements about how a replacement candidate will be chosen or when that candidate will be announced will come from the political party.

Graham Platner just posted a copy of a letter on social media which says: “I write to formally withdraw my candidacy for United States Senate.”

The rest of the letter which is signed by the candidate who was accused of sexual assault, reads:

On June 9th, 156,084 Mainers voted for a new kind of politics. One that is representative of people down here in the real world – not billionaires, oligarchs, or the political establishment. Mainers voted for Medicare for All; to ban billionaires from buying elections; and for an end to taxpayer-funded genocide and forever wars. They voted for time and dignity; for strong unions and jobs they can raise families on; for the hope of buying a home; for the chance to retire with grace.

People are desperate for change. For this broken system to be righted. For the American experiment to be furthered. Over the past eleven months, thousands and thousands of Mainers poured their hearts, time, and talent into a movement to deliver that vision. I will be forever grateful to them.

And in submitting this letter today, I seek to further the movement we have built together and the future we believe in.

My name may have been on the ballot, but that ballot line belongs to the people of Maine. As such, please consider this notice as my official withdrawal from consideration for this office.

F*ck ICE. Free Palestine. Up the Hearts.

Solidarity forever,

Graham Platner

Although Platner’s letter was addressed “To Whom It May Concern”, the Maine secretary of state’s office confirmed to the Associated Press that it had received the letter on Friday, making the withdrawal official.

Congressional Democrats released an investigative report on Friday that accuses the Trump administration of misusing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), by diverting staff and resources away from disaster response to support immigration enforcement operations.

The report found that the administration used Fema staff to support the work of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection(CBP) operations by carrying out administrative duties, like hiring new immigration officers, and working at detention centers.

Among the key findings of the investigation, Democrats said, was that Department of Homeland Security leadership “relied on FEMA to serve as the backbone of large-scale immigration enforcement and detention operations and that FEMA’s delayed response to the Texas flooding resulted in demonstrable harm to disaster survivors.”

“After the Trump administration hollowed out a third of FEMA’s workforce, it put disaster professionals to work as the ‘operational backbone’ of its cruel mass deportation agenda, likely in violation of federal law,” Greg Stanton, an Arizona congressman who directed the investigation, said of the report’s findings.

“We’re in the middle of a dangerous and destructive hurricane and wildfire season. The stakes couldn’t be higher,” Stanton added. “Every FEMA employee detailed to ICE and CBP should be recalled immediately, and Congress must put real penalties in the law so no future administration can raid this life-saving agency again.”

“While communities across the country are struggling to prepare for more severe and frequent natural disasters, the Trump administration is using FEMA employees and funding for its large-scale, brutal immigration enforcement operations,” Rick Larsen, a Washington congressman who is the senior Democrat on a House subcommittee on emergency management, added.

We also have new pictures coming through of the the giant new helipad that Donald Trump confirmed a few days ago is being built on the White House South Lawn.

The granite helipad will accommodate the presidential helicopter Marine One and is being paid for by a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin.

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday:

We’re building a helipad, a beautiful helipad, and it’s got the seal of the White House on it, in granite, in carved granite. It’s really a beautiful thing.

He added that Sikorsky Aircraft would pay for the project. “It’s about $5 or $6m. They’re paying the full cost,” he said.

The United States has issued new Iran-related ⁠sanctions following Iran’s resumption of attacks on international shipping in the strait ⁠of Hormuz, the ⁠treasury department ​said today.

The latest sanctions target Iranian financial facilitator Ali Ansari, who the treasury department described as a “key financier” who “oversees a sprawling global network of assets benefitting Iran’s leader – Mojtaba Khamenei – and other regime elites.”

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign ‌Assets Control (OFAC) also targeted key Iranian exchange houses that it said moved billions of dollars ​annually on behalf of sanctioned Iranian banks, using layers of shell companies to obscure the government’s illicit financial activity.

Earlier today, Donald Trump once again declared that the US-Iran memorandum of understanding is “over”, before adding that talks with Tehran would continue.

The White House is making security-focused upgrades to its front door, CNN reports citing an official, in a project that is expected to take several months.

The changes, which CNN’s sources said have long been advocated by the Secret Service, are aimed at fortifying the White House entrance at the north portico, which has recently been obscured by scaffolding and a tarp as workers repair the exterior columns at Donald Trump’s request.

The North Portico fortifications are expected to be complete by approximately mid-September, the White House official told CNN.

It comes amid a heightened focus on boosting presidential security after Trump has been the target of multiple assassination attempts, including April’s shocking shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner and an alleged plot to attack last month’s UFC fight on the White House South Lawn.

Earlier, we brought you the Washington Post’s report that the Trump administration plans to erect new permanent fences outside the White House, in addition to previously reported plans to build new permanent fencing around Lafayette Square, the public park across from the White House.

Earlier we reported that Donald Trump has been accused of trying to “rig” November’s midterm elections after he fired the last three members of an independent federal commission.

Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP civil rights organization, said in response to Trump’s move:

Donald Trump knows that in November voters will reject everything he stands for. The economy is devastating, he’s starting endless wars resulting in Americans dying, and his paramilitary ICE police force is terrorizing our communities. Trump is terrified of the sacred power we all hold as voters, and that’s why he wants to rig this election.

Mr President, your plan will fail miserably. If you think the American people will allow fascism, you are gravely mistaken. The NAACP will do everything in our power to send people to the polls and make their voices heard.

A White House official has told NBC News that Donald Trump will allow the bipartisan housing bill to become law.

The bill, which Trump has said he will not sign in protest over Congress’s failure to pass his restrictive voting bill, is set to become law at midnight anyway – unless the president vetoes it. His announcement earlier had left it unclear as to whether he planned to use that veto.

Further to our earlier post that four ⁠US senators have said they’ve reached agreement with the Trump administration to move ⁠forward with updated ⁠legislation ​on Russia sanctions, we now have this statement from Richard Blumenthal, Lindsey ​Graham, Jeanne Shaheen and Roger ‌Wicker.

We are proud to announce that we have reached an agreement with the Trump administration ⁠to move our updated Russia sanctions legislation forward. We are very pleased with this significant progress and expect ⁠to roll out the legislation very soon.

As Russia intensifies its slaughter of civilians, it is imperative ‌that the legislative and executive branches work together to create tools to exact a heavy price on those who buy Russian oil and natural gas, fueling the Putin war machine.

The White House did not immediately respond to ‌a Reuters request for comment.

Graham, ‌who met with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv today, said the agreement meant the legislation could move forward, ‌giving Trump fresh tools to help end the war, which is now in its fifth year.

“We’ve reached an agreement with the White House on a version of the Russian sanctions bill that they will support. It means it’s going to become law,” he told reporters, wrapping up his tenth visit to Kyiv.

The legislation, which Graham has been working on with fellow Republicans and Democrats for months, ​would impose sanctions on countries doing business with Russia, including buyers of its energy exports, over Moscow’s failure to negotiate a peace deal to end its war in Ukraine.

On Wednesday, ​Trump said ​that he and Zelenskyy had developed a “very good” relationship, and both Moscow and Kyiv wanted to end the war that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Crews are – again – draining the reflecting pool in Washington DC as Trump’s efforts to revamp the waterway continue, despite missing his initial Fourth of July goal.

Trump had suggested his renovations would last a century. But, within weeks of the project’s June completion, the water was hit by an algae bloom and pieces of the new coating appeared to be peeling off the bottom.

Trump has blamed the peeling on vandals. Critics say it’s from shoddy repair work.

Late on Thursday, Donald Trump ousted members of a bipartisan federal election commission who resisted his efforts to require voters to show proof of US citizenship before registering. Here’s what we know so far:

• The White House on Friday confirmed Trump’s action against members of the Election Assistance Commission to the Associated Press. This commission distributes federal grants to states, oversees the testing of voting systems and maintains the national voter registration form. “The President, and head of the Executive Branch, reserves the right to remove individuals that may not be totally aligned with the important task of securing America’s elections and ensuring every legal vote is counted. The Slaughter decision gives the President precedence to do so,” said a White House statement to AP.

• The move is not expected to have a major effect on the November midterms. But it is just the latest instance of Trump trying to exert influence over US elections. It marks the first test of his expanded executive powers that stem from a recent US supreme court ruling.

• Backlash has been swift, with voting rights advocates and Democratic lawmakers decrying the move. Chuck Schumer, Senate minority leader, called Trump’s move “a brazen attempt to seize control of our elections before a single vote is cast” and said Senate Democrats will fight this move.

• The Bipartisan Policy Center, a think tank that promotes bipartisanship, noted that the Election Assistance Commission often has operated without a quorum, leaving it unable to exercise its full authority, but Trump’s move is still “unprecedented”.

• Democrats who run elections in their states are concerned over how the firings of Election Assistance Commissioners could affect their jobs and in turn, the voters. But, they emphasized, their offices are prepared and ready to administer elections regardless.

Four ⁠US senators said ⁠they ⁠reached ​agreement ‌with ‌the Trump administration to move ‌forward with ​updated legislation ⁠on Russia ​sanctions, Reuters reported.

We’ll share more lines on this as we see them.

Two transgender girls – who were the first to challenge Trump’s executive order, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” – have withdrawn their New Hampshire lawsuit after a recent US supreme court ruling upheld state bans on transgender athletes in girls’ sports and their own personal hardships, their lawyer said.

“This case was always about two courageous young girls who simply wanted the same opportunities as their peers to participate in school life,” their lawyer, Chris Erchull of GLAD Law, said in a statement on Thursday. “Their willingness to stand up to extraordinary hostility made clear the human cost of laws that target transgender youth.”

Donald Trump has said that he’s “left instructions” for the United States to bomb Iran if it assassinates him.

The president told the New York Post in a phone interview today:

I’ve been on their list for a long time. That’s what we’re dealing with … The only thing is, I’ve left instructions — if anything happens, to just literally bomb them at levels that they’ve never seen before.

Trump made similar comments in early February, telling reporters: “I’ve left instructions. If they do it, they get obliterated. There won’t be anything left.”

The Post asked Trump about reports, which the Guardian has not verified, that Israel notified the US this week that Iran had devised a new plan to assassinate him.

“No, no. Israel came up with nothing. No, no,” the president said. “I’ve been No. 1 [on Iran’s kill list] for a long time, and it’s the way life is, you know.”

“I hope you’ll miss me,” he added.

Trump has previously been the target of alleged assassination plots by Iran, including during his 2024 presidential campaign.

A Pakistani man, Asif Merchant, was convicted in May for plotting to kill Trump and other prominent US politicians two years ago at the behest of Iran in retaliation for the killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Suleimani in 2020, during Trump’s first term as president.

Tensions have been supercharged this week with the week-long funeral proceedings for Iran’s former supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who was assassinated by the US and Israel on 28 February. Huge banners reading “kill Trump” and “hey Trump, we will kill you” could be seen among the crowds of mourners.

A judge is set to determine whether the case against Tyler James Robinson, the man charged with murdering Charlie Kirk, will advance to trial, as a five-day preliminary hearing comes to a close today.

The US district judge Tony Graf is expected to sift through the evidence presented by the state and Robinson’s defense team in the coming weeks before issuing a ruling.

This week’s legal proceedings also marked the first time Kirk’s widow, Erika, and his parents were present in the courtroom with the man prosecutors claim killed Kirk last year.

Kirk, a prominent far-right political figure, was known for galvanizing young conservatives with his college-targeted advocacy group Turning Point USA. He was on tour and staging one of his marquee events at Utah Valley University on 10 September 2025, where he would spar rhetorically with ideological foes, when he was shot in the neck.

The court heard critical evidence about forensic testing that linked Robinson’s DNA to the firearm prosecutors say was used to kill Kirk, in addition to video footage allegedly showing him entering the campus and climbing on to a rooftop perch.

Portions of an investigatory interview with Robinson’s former roommate and romantic partner Lance Twiggs were also played for the court. Twiggs recalled Robinson expressing remorse, saying he wished he “hadn’t done it”, a day after Kirk’s death.

Robinson’s defense strategy came into clearer view as his attorneys sought to cast doubt on the accuracy of the DNA testing. Questions still swirl over whether he will enter a guilty plea.

Graf reminded the defense, at times, to steer clear of the minutiae, as attorneys questioned witnesses.

“We don’t need to go 100 miles down a path where one mile is where probable cause may be. I invite you to refocus … I’m not trying to limit your theories or such but I need to hold to probable cause,” Graf said in court yesterday.

Here’s my colleague Chris Stein’s report:

Trump’s announcement that he is refusing to sign the bipartisan housing bill has fuelled fresh accusations that the president – whose personal wealth has ballooned by $2.2bn since returning to the White House – doesn’t care about the costs facing Americans.

To be fair, he’s said that himself several times. See: “I love the inflation” and “I don’t think about Americans’ finances” when it comes to negotiating with Iran.

Responding to Trump’s post, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer wrote on X: “His priorities couldn’t be clearer: higher cost for families and more power for himself.”

His House counterpart Hakeem Jeffries wrote on X: “Republicans would rather make it harder to vote than easier to afford a home. When people show you who they are, believe them.”

And Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren, a lead sponsor and co-author of the bill, also blasted the president’s refusal to sign the major legislation. She wrote on X:

Donald Trump cares so little about bringing down YOUR housing costs that he’s refusing to sign the biggest housing bill in 30 years. The good news: it’s going to become law anyway.

Earlier this morning, Donald Trump announced that ⁠he would not sign ⁠a major bipartisan housing affordability ​bill – but the measure can still become law without his signature.

“I will not sign the Housing Bill, which has been fully approved by Congress and sent to the White House, in ⁠PROTEST over the fact that the United States Senate is not capable of passing THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,” the president wrote on Truth Social.

The housing bill is set to become law at midnight if Trump doesn’t sign or veto it. It remains unclear if Trump plans to go as far as vetoing the bill.

House speaker Mike Johnson sent the bill to the White House on 29 June, several days after Trump abruptly canceled its signing ceremony in an bid to pressure lawmakers to pass his restrictive voting bill, which he was aware his party didn’t have the votes for.

Indeed, Trump has repeatedly diminished the housing bill’s importance, despite the cost-of-living consistently ranking as voters’ top concern – and polls finding many voters blame him for making matters worse – with the midterms a few months away. Last week he called it “a big yawn” compared to his voter ID legislation, on top of previously saying it was “of minor importance” in comparison.

The housing bill was a rare instance of bipartisan agreement on major legislation in ⁠a deeply divided Congress, and both parties are eager to use it to show voters they are tackling the cost-of-living ahead of November’s crucial midterms.

Johnson and other GOP leaders had previously expressed confidence that the president would sign it.

Donald Trump has said the United States had ⁠agreed to ⁠talks ​with Iran, claiming that Tehran asked to continue negotiations. The US president repeated yesterday’s emphasis that ⁠the June ceasefire was “over”.

“The Islamic Republic of ⁠Iran has asked us to continue ‘talks.’ We ​have agreed to ‌do so, ‌but the United States has stated to them, ‌in no uncertain terms, that the Cease Fire is OVER!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

There had been worries that the ceasefire was breaking down after the US and Iran traded tit-for-tat strikes this week. The US struck Iran’s southern coastal and eastern provinces and Iran retaliated by launching attacks on US military infrastructure in Gulf states. Iran also accused the US of striking near its sole civilian nuclear power plant in Bushehr province.

Tehran and Washington had signed a memorandum of understanding on 17 June aimed at extending the ceasefire and giving space for negotiations for a permanent truce.

Negotiations towards reaching a final deal had been intended to start after the conclusion on Thursday of former supreme leader Ali Khamenei’s seven-day funeral.