Moulton grabs – Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) appeared to strike a reporter’s phone away during an exchange on Wednesday when asked whether he endorsed Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner. Video showed the lawmaker confronting the reporter, putting his face inches from the phone
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) did not answer the question the way a normal campaign interview is supposed to go.
In new footage obtained by Fox News on Wednesday, Moulton is seen walking into an office when a reporter asks him again: “Do you endorse Graham Platner in Maine?” The first moment in the clip is a scoff—“Who are you?”—followed by Moulton stepping right up to the reporter.
The camera phone stays up, aimed at Moulton. He moves to within inches of it. staring directly into the lens before pushing back: “Who are you to be asking this question?” Then the exchange turns physical. Moulton appears to snatch at the phone. and in the last seconds of the clip the device jumps around and seems to tumble to the ground.
When the clip ends, Fox News anchor John Roberts says, “Yikes!”
On X soon after the video spread, Moulton defended what happened. He said the reporter—whom he put in quotes—was with America Rising. describing it as a right-wing PAC dedicated to opposition research on Democrats. Moulton also did not soften his language. “I’m not going to apologize for how much MAGA pisses me off,” he wrote. “I’ll take them on anywhere, anytime, and I won’t back down. If this tracker can’t handle a reality check or hold onto his own equipment, that’s on him.”.
He then turned to Fox News directly, saying the network should “stop ghosting my team” if it “wants me back on their airwaves so badly.”
The confrontation arrives in the middle of a politically charged moment for Maine Democrats, where Platner is the party’s nominee after winning the Maine Democratic primary last month. Next, Platner will face Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) in this November’s general election.
Platner’s candidacy has been shadowed by a series of controversies, many of them described as personal and inflammatory. The material includes reports that he had a Nazi tattoo on his chest. which he later removed. and that he denied knowing it was tied to Nazi Germany. A former girlfriend later contested that claim and told The New York Times he knew exactly what it was.
The coverage also points to other allegations and disclosures tied to his private life and online behavior. Platner’s campaign has acknowledged he sexted a number of women who were not his wife, and he responded by ripping the “establishment media” for trying to “tear apart” his marriage.
There are also references to now-deleted Reddit posts in which Platner praised Nazi-allied soldiers, as well as accusations of abusive behavior by ex-girlfriends described in a New York Times report; Platner denied those accusations.
The Moulton moment makes a different kind of headline—less about what Platner believes. and more about how Democrats and their opponents collide when the question hits the nominee’s political baggage. But the video and Moulton’s reply land on the same pressure point: where hostility ends and accountability begins. and who controls the temperature of the interaction when the camera is rolling.
Seth Moulton Graham Platner Maine Senate Susan Collins America Rising X Fox News Democratic primary general election reporter phone incident