The Problem With Platner

Graham Platner is an oyster farmer in Maine who decided that what America needs at this time was that he become Senator Graham Platner, and he is now running in the Democratic primary against Governor Janet Mills, who is now in her second four -year term. Platner is most notable for being an antisemite, albeit one with some Jews in his family tree (this is a more common phenomenon than you might think) and conspiracy theorist (you seldom have one without the other), and is deeply hostile to Israel, which he repeatedly describes as committing “genocide” in Gaza. He wants America to halt “all support to Israel.” He insists that Israel tricked America into entering the war in Iran. Apparently the last 47 years of Iranian hysteria and hate directed not just at the Little Satan, Israel, but just as fervently at the Great Satan, America, has made no impression on Graham Platner. Graham Platner has ignored those demonstrations by hundreds of thousands of Iranians shouting “Marg bar Amrika” — “Death to America” — while they happily set fire to American flags, have also been ignored. He thinks America had no real quarrel with Iran, but that sinister little Israel tricked the Americans into going to war with the Islamic Republic. He thinks Israel has a Svengali-like hold over that innocent, Donald Trump. And I presume he also thinks that Israel tricked those Iranian students to seize the American Embassy and hold American diplomats hostage for 444 days.

Platner has been interviewed on online shows conducted by several well-known anti-Israel and indeed, antisemitic hosts. He’s a perfervid admirer of other antisemites and conspiracy theorists, including such people as Stew Peters and Kyle Kulinski, who insist that Israel — or “the Jews” — control everything, though if that were true, how is it that “the Jews” can’t manage to silence either one of them? How is it that Platner himself, coming out of nowhere, is now the candidate to beat in Maine’s Senate race? Couldn’t America’s powerful Jews have disrupted his campaign so as to ensure his loss? Instead, without any political experience whatsoever, this candidate from nowhere is now 20 points ahead of his primary rival.

The most notable political endorsement for Platner comes from Senator Bernie Sanders, who thoroughly approves of, and shares, Platner’s hostility to Israel.

Graham Platner likes to stress his “working class roots.” What’s he talking about? His father is a lawyer and his mother owns a restaurant. His grandfather was a famous modernist architect.

Graham Platner wears a tattoo of the Totenkopf, the “Death’s Head” skull-and-crossbones symbol that Nazi members of the Schutzstaffel — the S.S. — wore. One of his former employees brought this fact to light while accusing Platner of fostering an antisemitic atmosphere at the workplace. Platner says that he got the tattoo in 2007 when he was drunk, and that he didn’t realize the significance of such a symbol. Do you believe him? He has had 20 years to remove that tattoo, and has failed to do so. Doesn’t this suggest a fondness for the symbol of the worst of the Nazi killers?

On the Kyle Kulinski show, Platner said that the American should give “not one dollar” to Israel. His exact words were these: “Not a single dollar ought to spent on a country that is engaged in genocide. This is not a war in the best interests of the United States.” Kulinski asked him about who has been “behind the scenes”; Platner answered: “The nation that right now is exterminating people.” And then added: “What is being done is a horror.” You know what “nation” he has in mind. Iran has a population of 93 million. In the recent six-week war by American and Israeli forces, about 3,000 Iranians died. That doesn’t sound like “extermination” to me.

After Bernie Sanders announced his support for Graham Platner, a second senator, Ruben Gallego of Arizona also came out in support of Graham Platner. Gallego used to be pro-Israel, but he has become steadily less sympathetic during the last year. He praised Platner because “Graham Platner is the kind of fighter Maine hasn’t seen in a long time,” Gallego rote on X. “Someone who tells you exactly what he thinks, doesn’t owe anything to the special interests, and wakes up every day thinking about working families.”

That’s the problem with Platner. He “tells you exactly what he thinks” and what he thinks is hair-raising. As for his not owing anything “to the special interests,” Gallego is alluding, I have no doubt, to the pro-Israel AIPAC, though why AIPAC is more of a “special interest” than any other group trying to influence the outcome of an election is entirely unclear. And the “special interest” that supports Platner is the league of Israel-haters and antisemites, including the Muslim Somalis in Lewiston, Maine, the best-off of whom no doubt send money to his campaign.

Do you think Israel has engaged in genocide? If you do, Graham Platner is the candidate for you.