WASHINGTON — Morris Katz, the star Gen Z political guru behind Mayor Mamdani and Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, has provided a groveling, belated mea culpa over Platner’s marketing campaign implosion after he was accused of rape.
However one former ally isn’t shopping for it, branding him a “twerp from Tribeca” — and suggesting there’s extra filth on Katz’s failure to vet Platner earlier than backing him to run towards Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
In an interview on “The Ezra Klein Present” launched Friday, Katz — a co-founder of lefty consulting group The Struggle Company — acknowledged the marketing campaign’s lapses in judgment. However, he claimed, “there is no such thing as a normal vetting course of that will have discovered the credible allegation that ended the marketing campaign,” referencing a rape accusation from ex-girlfriend Jenny Racicot.
“That being stated, in hindsight, figuring out what we all know now, the Reddit posts alone most likely ought to have been sufficient — or ought to have been sufficient,” Katz instructed Klein. “The tattoo ought to have been sufficient. The preliminary New York Instances story on troubling habits ought to have been sufficient.”
The Marine-turned-oyster farmer needed to apologize for previous Reddit posts — together with disparaging a Purple Coronary heart recipient and telling intercourse assault victims to “take some accountability” — and in addition needed to cowl up a Totenkopf tattoo — a Nazi SS image, inked on his chest almost twenty years in the past.
“I believe it ought to have been a pink line,” Katz stated within the Instances interview of the Reddit posts. “He talked about it being one of many issues he regretted saying probably the most, that it was indicative of a time of his life when he was misplaced and indignant, and that it was by no means reflective of who he was.
Even after the marketing campaign’s implosion, Platner — in contrast to Katz’s feedback to the Instances — maintained that Racicot’s allegations weren’t credible, dismissing them in addition to earlier accusations of bodily abuse that ex Lyndsey Fifield leveled within the Instances as totally false.
However Katz additionally used the Instances interview to take a shot at Platner’s former marketing campaign supervisor Genevieve McDonald, who departed the Platner marketing campaign final October after the primary wave of scandals broke.
McDonald had revealed to The Wall Road Journal and Instances that Platner’s spouse Amy Gertner got here ahead across the time of the marketing campaign launch to disclose that her husband had been sexting with no less than six girls.
“In that particular occasion, Amy got here to her and was absolutely trustworthy. To see Amy’s belief violated like that, and to see that apply that enables campaigns to function and us to get to a spot of honesty violated like that, was irritating,” Katz stated, dodging questions on reportedly threatening McDonald for talking out.
McDonald, who departed the Platner marketing campaign final October following experiences on the candidate’s offensive Reddit posting and Nazi tattoo, fired again in an X publish that if Katz “doesn’t be taught to maintain my title out of his mouth, I’m going to grant one among these interview alternatives and we’re all going to be taught who knew what when.”
“I’m not a twerp from Tribeca making an attempt to impress David Axelrod,” she seethed.
Katz within the sitdown additionally acknowledged the marketing campaign’s lapses in judgment — however claimed “there is no such thing as a normal vetting course of that will have discovered the credible allegation that ended the marketing campaign,” referencing a rape accusation from ex-girlfriend Jenny Racicot
Right here’s the most recent on the bombshell sexual assault allegations which pressured Graham Platner to drop out of Maine Senate race :
Within the Instances sitdown, Katz famous of the heightened scrutiny Struggle Company has confronted over Platner’s lack of vetting: “I believe numerous the critiques and anger are absolutely legitimate.”
It’s unclear how a lot Struggle Company raked in for its work on the Platner marketing campaign. Federal Election Fee filings present no direct funds to Katz or agency companion Rebecca Katz, who is just not associated to him, regardless of their company, by its personal admission, making greater than 40 advertisements.
Greater than 70% of the marketing campaign’s spending went towards advert buys, advert manufacturing and digital consulting, amounting to $10,177,696 to a few different companies between August 2025 and Could 2026, the filings present.
“We have been proud to assist elect champions for working individuals throughout New York Metropolis this previous major and can proceed doing so throughout the nation,” Struggle Company stated.
“The problem of all of this was — as somebody who does deeply consider in grace and nuance and the truth that persons are sophisticated and life is sophisticated and possibly politics ought to mirror just a little bit extra of that — there was a relentless weighing of: How a lot is an excessive amount of? What’s the pink line? And I believe, clearly, I didn’t see it quickly sufficient,” Katz added on this Instances interview.
