Lyndsey Fifield

🏠♥️

[Lyndsey Fifield @lyndseyfifield]

This week I've heard from dozens of women who have been victims of domestic violence.

Many have remarked not just how much they relate to my story overall but how they, too, once qualified their abuse in the same way I did in my interview with the Times: Clarifying that Graham didn't break my arm, didn't ever punch or slap me.

I didn't realize that was what I was doing—I just didn't want to exaggerate. If anything I wanted to downplay his violence and the deep, lasting impact it has had on my life.

I also have felt I need to be clear that I was never, ever antagonistic, never picked a fight, and took great pains to try to keep him from becoming enraged.

My friends have pointed out that that's not normal. I shouldn't feel the need to insist to the public that I didn't do anything to deserve or provoke physical intimidation, control, or abuse. No one does.

I forgave Graham years ago and was glad to see that he had gotten sober and seemingly had gotten help for his mental health issues—I sincerely wished him well but when I realized I was not the only woman he had done this to, that he has a lifelong pattern of deep contempt for women, I realized he had suckered me once again.

And instead of support for coming forward, Jenny and I have been met with horrific smears, told it was “karma,” or that it wasn’t “that bad.”

So... yeah, that is actually pretty classic.

[Curtis Houck @CurtisHouck]

WATCH: New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor – who wrote many of the #MeToo stories – DEFENDS Graham Platner and DISMISSES the allegations against him by @LyndseyFifield and other ex-girlfriends because they were not “abuse” and women saying they just “did not like what” they saw from him...

“Well, let’s talk about what they may or may not be willing to overlook the accusations against Graham Platner are not classic MeToo accusations. They’re not about a boss and a young female employee being subjected to sexual advances. They’re — they were mostly made in the context of consensual relationships. There are these, like, very sensational texts about sex. There are allegations from former girlfriends that are not — the way my colleagues reported them were not like classic abuse allegations. They were mostly like being his boyfriend gave me a view into him and I did not like what I saw. His character was scary. He had this Nazi tattoo. Et cetera.”

“There was one allegation of crossing a line physically, but I think that means that these are pretty different accusations than, say, the one that — the ones that President Trump faced. And, of course, in the Access Hollywood tape, President Trump bragged about grabbing women against their will. And so I think it speaks to the kind of confusion of the long post MeToo moment in which, like, gender related accusations get bundled together. But they’re actually very different.”

[L A R R Y @LarryOConnor]

My friend, @lyndseyfifield, is a courageous woman and amazing mother. What the New York Times and Democrat politicians and political analysts did to her and said about her will forever be a black mark against them.

I am so proud of her.

[Audrey Fahlberg @AudreyFahlberg]

Everybody's focused on Lyndsey Fifield's experiences with Platner because she's a Republican. But here's what Jenny Racicot, a lifelong Democrat who dated Platner and spoke to the NYT about an "unsettling" experience she had with him years ago, has to say about him.

Speaking with @TheFP, Racicot explained that she is a supporter of Platner’s policies—but not who he is as a person.

“I had good memories with him, but also, there’s a side of him that I had an experience with that caused me to cut off all contact and to not support him as a person,” she said. “It was eating me alive to see somebody that I know to be one way publicly portray themselves a different way.” W/@FrannieBlock:
https://t.co/ClDG4hRaL8

[Lyndsey Fifield @lyndseyfifield]

Thankful for @TheFP actually contacting sources I gave NYT and verifying I did, in fact, have friends who knew about Graham’s abuse/corroborated everything.

I never would’ve spoken out if NYT hadn’t convinced me—but even after their betrayal I’m confident I did the right thing.

[The Free Press @TheFP]

Lyndsey Fifield told ‘The New York Times’ Graham Platner emotionally abused her and became physical multiple times. So why is she under attack? Frannie Block and Audrey Fahlberg report. https://t.co/CX7DpfI0WU

[Lyndsey Fifield @lyndseyfifield]

@exjon @willcollier God forgive me Jon I thought you meant 3 more hours *on earth* and began weeping — brother you gotta be more specific ❤️

[jimtreacher.substack.com @jtLOL]

A free one today. You're welcome. 🎧

https://t.co/rFPyZerH0U

[Lyndsey Fifield @lyndseyfifield]

Last year, I watched a woman sacrifice her career to stand on principle and warn the public about a dangerous man.

Genevieve has been relentlessly attacked—but she kept her honor and her soul. She has inspired me to stay strong through this storm.

https://t.co/tpECKPlYsK

[Lyndsey Fifield @lyndseyfifield]

@hollysmcbride We probably agree on more than you think. Thank you so much for this encouragement.

[Lyndsey Fifield @lyndseyfifield]

@AndrewCFollett @KFILE They also didn’t reach out to the witness I gave them who knew about it with screenshots of texts between us talking about their guns (and much more) in 2013.

No wonder nothing was “corroborated!”

Cannot wait for everything to come out and for the other women to be heard.

[Lyndsey Fifield @lyndseyfifield]

@piggy_political It’s coming

[Lyndsey Fifield @lyndseyfifield]

If you're gonna dig through my old tweets let's do it properly.

[Lyndsey Fifield @lyndseyfifield]

Hipster wonk tweet: I've been hating Roy Moore since way before any of you.

[Lyndsey Fifield @lyndseyfifield]

@PitmasterMark69 @aelfred_D I contain multitudes!!

[Mary Katharine Ham @mkhammer]

I’m very open to people weighing the possible motivations and actual evidence of any charge (even when it's a friend). I know people don't have the benefit of knowing Lyndsey and having heard about Graham for years from her, as I did.

A problem during the #metoo era was no one seemed to be using any kind of standard of evaluation that was consistent, which seems important in media. I created one for myself: When I was asked to opine in public on various allegations and wanted to do so responsibly, I had a rubric for considering credibility on a spectrum (and also tried not to be rude and dismissive out the gate of almost anything, with Swetnick testing that with sheer audacity).

— a named accuser
— evidence the two people knew each other and had been in the same place at the same time at the time of alleged event
— contemporaneous reports, though not necessarily to police. Diary entries, conversations with friends, etc.
— a demonstrated M.O. from the accused

Christine Blasey Ford’s account had 1 of these (named accuser). By contrast, accusations against Roy Moore had all four. Lyndsey’s has three (and the second named source's story of him showing up at her house drunk and acting such that she cut off contact with him suggests there is a drunken, boundary-crossing, scary M.O.)

By merely marshaling evidence the two were often in the same place at the same time during the acknowledged past relationship, Fifield has surpassed Ford's account's documentation. The NYT verified old diary entries, and her texts confirmed many of her thoughts on him predated him running for office. She was forthright that she hid his worst behavior, as many women in abusive relationships do, and very specific in her characterization of his physical behavior (one suspects if it were a made-up partisan hit, she might not caveat his physical abuse so much and would have dropped this in September, but I digress). It is both scary and embarrassing to admit the truth in those situations.

This is all separate from what voters might find acceptable, but the account Lyndsey gives is one that, if I knew it in real time, I'd actively help the friend get out of the relationship and advise her to stay out of it. I've done this with other friends and wish I'd been able to be there for Lyndsey at the time. It shouldn't be dismissed out of hand, especially given it hits far more marks than other allegations treated with utmost seriousness in the press. The idea that this is either all merely normie, drunk, working-class behavior or "Dem HR lady politics" to find it problematic doesn't fly. So many people spent two decades saying every dude right of a Wellesley gender politics professor was a toxic white supremacist but now think you're just a big pussy if you'd object to being locked in a bedroom by a big drunk guy with a Nazi tattoo.

[Lyndsey Fifield @lyndseyfifield]

(a husband and father being eager to protect his wife and little children in their home is good actually)

[Lyndsey Fifield @lyndseyfifield]

It’s pretty different actually.

[KingBroken @KingBrokenT]

I hope that she realizes that Platner's "I'm gonna rape hone invaders" fantasy isnt that different from her Husband's "Im gonna kill home invaders" fantasy".

[Lyndsey Fifield @lyndseyfifield]

@just_mindy Thank you dear friend. The best years of my life. I would give anything to be able to fly home to see my grandmothers again just one more time and take them their precious girls. ❤️

[Rob Bluey @RobertBluey]

Proud to stand by my former colleague @lyndseyfifield. Thanks to @IngrahamAngle for the opportunity—and shame on the New York Times for its treatment of her.

[Lyndsey Fifield @lyndseyfifield]

@Genevieve_207 @daveweigel Thank you—this means so much.

Seeing your statement when you stepped down inspired me to finally stop being silent myself and I admire your courage.

[Inez Stepman ⚪️🔴⚪️ @InezFeltscher]

I like how it doesn’t even occur to these grandstanding “believe all women” hacks that a woman might be against the weaponization of low/no standard accusations *because she herself was a victim*. That actually, as people like @lyndseyfifield (and I) have been repeating endlessly for about a decade now, the casual way the left has decided to throw due process and evidentiary standards in the trash hurts the credibility of women who really have these kinds of experiences. For the hacks, it’s all a cheap political game, and they couldn't care less about making it harder for real victims to come forward.

Lyndsey isn’t asking anyone to believe her warnings about a man who appears to be a volatile, violent, pathological liar on mere accusation. She brought the exact kind of evidence that fair-minded people would ask for, the kind of evidence the lawyer gently cross-examining Christine Blasey-Ford asked Ford to produce (she couldn’t).

She brought specific dates and places, contemporaneous messages to third party witnesses, friends willing to sign their names to corroborate that she told them these things happened years before anyone but her group chat knew the name “Graham Platner.” All those things make her story very credible.

I’ve tried hard to hold consistent standards about these kinds of accusations across party lines. To date, I’ve publicly argued that the accusations against Al Franken (remember him?) and Andrew Cuomo were unserious, and that the most grave accusations (meaning beyond womanizing) against Swalwell lacked credibility. I also thought Tara Reid, Biden’s accuser, lacked credibility. Anyone can check receipts on this.

@krystalball (who retweeted this, and hasn't bothered to tag me) knows this btw because, among other venues, I did so on her show. Unlike Krystal’s cheap play now for bipartisan respectability on this issue regarding accusations against Biden, which everyone with an IQ above 85 knows fits her anti-establishment politics perfectly well and was a politically easy concession to make, I have actually defended even people whose politics I revile from these kinds of attacks because I believe in holding a high and consistent standard.

Holding these standards matters EXACTLY because things that by nature tend to happen in private are hard to prove, but they do happen. Abuse and assault are real and serious, not to be handled cheaply for political advantage. And immoral people use the left’s destruction of due process and evidentiary standards, which inevitably erode the credibility of ALL women who come forward with these stories, as a shield behind which to commit real abuse and assault.

I don’t “believe all women”, but because of the convincing evidence she has brought forward, and also because I know her personally to be a woman of good and honest character, I do believe Lyndsey.

[Lyndsey Fifield @lyndseyfifield]

@AndrewCFollett Andrew thank you! Will try to keep it together on Sunday but definitely want to give you guys a hug!