Top Democrats faced questions over Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner’s scandals on Sunday, days after The New York Times shared details of abusive behavior alleged by past romantic partners.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), who has endorsed Platner, said he continues to support him even as he criticized Platner’s past behavior and said his campaign should not attack his accusers, while Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) declined to offer any support for Platner and said that Platner and Maine voters will need to address the scandal.

Iran launched a number of ballistic missiles at Israel on Sunday night for the first time since the U.S. and Iran reached a tenuous ceasefire in early April. 

The IDF said it had intercepted all of the missiles “thus far,” and no injuries were reported. Israel’s Home Front Command canceled schools nationwide on Monday.

Darializa Avila Chevalier, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s endorsed candidate to unseat Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY),on Friday defended her attendance at an anti-Israel rally one day after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, denied knowledge regarding her own history of posting anti-U.S. and pro-Russian sentiments online and maintained she owed nothing to the Texas tycoon underwriting a PAC backing her campaign.

The Democratic Socialists of America-endorsed congressional contender faced a battery of questions from reporters following a press conference, including over her decision to participate in an anti-Israel protest organized by pro-China, pro-Iran groups on Oct. 8, 2023, that even Mamdani and then-city Comptroller Brad Lander condemned at the time. Chevalier maintained that she had consistently opposed Hamas and “the celebration of the loss of life,” but refused to speak to the taking of hostages or to whether she had denounced the attack from the outset.

Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, President Donald Trump said his red line for resuming military action in Iran would be if he didn’t believe the parties could reach a deal in a timely manner, and said U.S. forces could be deployed into Iran to retrieve and destroy the regime’s stockpile of enriched uranium.

Trump continued to assert that Iran is desperate for a deal, even as negotiations appear largely deadlocked and as Esmaeil Baghaei, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, told CNN in Tehran on Sunday that the primary obstacle to an agreement is Washington’s changing and “contradictory” positions. Meanwhile, U.S. and Iranian forces continue to exchange strikes nearly daily around the Strait of Hormuz.

The four leading Democrats running in a closely contested Manhattan primary to succeed retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) all declined to describe Israel’s military conduct in Gaza as genocide during their first televised debate on Thursday evening.

Micah Lasher, an assemblyman who is backed by Nadler and other Democratic leaders in New York, called the number of Palestinian casualties “horrific” but characterized the question as “one of a set of definitional debates that does more to divide people of good faith than it does to find common ground.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is examining pathways to repurpose Iranian assets to compensate the U.S.’ Gulf allies for damage inflicted by Iranian attacks during the war, and potential future damages, a source familiar with Bessent’s thinking told Jewish Insider.

“Treasury will utilize all tools available to allow Iranian assets to be made available to our Gulf allies to support rebuilding and repairs for any future damage caused by Iran,” the source said.

The Israeli Ministry of Defense and the Trump administration have launched formal talks on a “new security cooperation framework” to replace the current U.S.-Israel memorandum of understanding on military aid upon its expiration in 2028, the ministry said in a statement on Friday. 

The Israeli team will be led by Defense Ministry Director-General Amir Baram and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter, while the U.S. team will be led by State Department counselor Daniel Holler and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee.

The New York Times’ detailed exposé about Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner’s history of toxic, alcohol-laden and occasionally physically threatening relationships with three former girlfriends landed Thursday afternoon — with Platner’s campaign hoping to limit the fallout amid signs his campaign is losing support.

In an interview with MS NOW’s Chris Hayes Thursday evening, Platner denied the most serious allegations of physical abuse leveled by Lyndsey Fifield, who dated him from 2013-2015. Fifield recounted one incident where Platner “twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a bedroom and held the door closed from the other side so she couldn’t get out.”

She also said he knew about the Nazi origin of his Totenkopf tattoo — first reported by Jewish Insider in October — saying he taught her the word for it when they were dating.

“There are some allegations in this piece that I want to be unequivocal about — they’re not true. Anything alleging physicality, anything alleging I knew what my tattoo was, these are the statements of someone politically motivated,” Platner told Hayes.