Graham Platner is running as the Democratic candidate for Senator in Maine, hoping to defeat Senator Susan Collins. He presents himself as a regular guy, wearing L.L. Bean plaid shirts and dungarees, a guy who makes a modest living as an oyster farmer, who hopes to go to Washington to stand up for the little guy, like Jimmy Stewart in that Frank Capra film, that is, little guys just like — he wants voters to believe — himself.
But there have quite a few disturbing revelations about him along the way, which I will deal with seriatim.
1. In 2007, while serving in the U.S. military, Graham Platner went to a tattoo parlor in Croatia and chose, among a great number of tattoos he might have chosen, a Totenkopf, or Death’s Head, the symbol of the Waffen SS. It was a very large tattoo, right on his chest. When his tattoo was discovered, early in the campaign season, Platner explained that he had been drunk at the time, and had no idea that the Totenkopf had any connection to the Nazis. But he kept that tattoo for more than two decades. Did he really never discover in all that time what that tattoo symbolized? Did no one else notice it and let him know? Others who knew Platner claim that he always knew what the symbol stood for, and would refer bemusedly to “my Totenkopf.” He only had it covered after it had become a campaign issue.
2. In Oct. 2025, various news outlets reported Platner’s posts on Reddit that he made between 2013 and 2021. He called himself a “communist,” wrote that “all cops are bastards,” and agreed with a post that described rural white Americans as “racist and stupid.”
3. In a 2013 Reddit discussion about anti-rape underwear — curious that such a topic grabbed his attention — Platner wrote that girls and women who worried about assault should “take some responsibility for themselves and not get so f**ked up they wind up having sex with someone they don’t mean to.” Yes, you should “take some responsibility for yourself” and if someone rapes you, you have only yourself to blame. He turns out to be a misogynist, forsooth, fighting the good fight against the monstrous regiment of women.
4. Platner keeps reminding everyone that he served tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, and that he is one tough guy. I’m not sure that I would want “one tough guy” to be my senator. I’d rather he were one thoughtful guy, one knowledgeable guy, one judicious guy. in 2018, Graham Platner, Mr. Tough Guy, posted this online: “Fight until you get tired of fighting with words and then fight with signs, and fists, and guns if need be.” He declared that “an armed working class is a requirement for economic justice.” He urged others to “Get Armed, Get Organized. The Other Side Sure As Hell Is.” An “armed working class”? So Platner is all for a violent class struggle, and likes to pretend he belongs to that working class himself, a Down East Marxist in a sou’wester.
5. In Feb. 2020, Platner admitted to buying cocaine and doing drugs during paid military leave. He did not say if, or when, he discontinued his use of cocaine, or whether he had taken other drugs since.
6. Platner mocked a soldier who was badly injured in Afghanistan — and went on to win a Purple Heart — in a comment that he left several years ago on a Reddit thread entitled “Old footage of US soldier taking machine gun fire in Afghanistan 2012.” His comment has since been deleted. But the Wayback Machine provides us with what Platner wrote: “This video [of the soldier getting hit with machine-gun fire] never gets old. Dumb motherf**ker didn’t deserve to live. At least his stupidity and fat a** wheezing are available for all future infantrymen to witness and hold in contempt. Poor marksmanship on the Taliban’s part is the only reason this mouthbreather made it home, he managed to make every possible s**t decision possible when it comes to small unit combat.”
Criticism of his grotesque comment came swiftly. The man he had mocked was a Purple Heart recipient, Teddy Daniels, who published a scathing response to Platner’s mockery in the Wall Street Journal. Susan Collins, whom Platner will be running against this November, had her own devastating response to Platner’s mockery of Ted Daniels. At a groundbreaking ceremony in Auburn, Maine, she said: “As the daughter of a World War II veteran who earned two Purple Hearts in the Battle of the Bulge, when my father was wounded, just having turned 19, this offends me deeply as well.” She added in an interview that “I can’t tell you the number of veterans who have contacted us to say how deeply offended they were by Platner’s comments and how disgraceful they were. These are men and women who are risking their lives for our country, and for him to ridicule this soldier and say that he doesn’t deserve to live is just appalling.”
Meanwhile, Daniels, “who was nearly killed by the Taliban, ripped Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner over a resurfaced post in which Platner said Daniels should not have survived. Speaking to ‘The Bottom Line’ on television, Daniels called Platner a ‘coward’ for hiding behind a keyboard. ‘People like this don’t say stuff like this to my face,’ he said. ‘It’s online, and that right there tells me, Graham, you’re a coward.'”
7. Platner also charged that Chris Kyle, a Navy Seal, killed civilians in cold blood in Ramadi, Iraq. Kyle’s widow flatly denied Platner’s charge. And Kyle’s fellow soldiers have published their own replies to Platner, and have furiously denounced his accusations as “lies.” Leif Babin, who was a Navy Seal serving alongside Chris Kyle in Ramadi, says Platner’s charges about Chris Kyle are “absolutely false.”
8. Platner’s whole shtick is that he is a man of the people, a humble oyster farmer just trying to make his modest living. It turns out that his grandfather, William Platner, was a celebrated and very rich architect; his father Bronson Platner practiced law for 30 years, and his mother owns a restaurant. She buys all the oysters that her son harvests. He apparently has no other clients, and obviously does not need any others. He attended Hotchkiss for a year, at a cost of $60,000.
9. Then there are those “sexually explicit” messages that the public has just learned about — though Platner’s campaign had been given a heads-up months ago not by Platner, but by Platner’s wife, who had discovered them on his computer. While “happily” married, Platner sent a half-dozen women “sexually explicit” messages, whose contents may have included photographs. You can well imagine for yourself. His wife Amy Gertner is standing by her man in true Tammy Wynette fashion. Of course, both he and his long-suffering wife claim that when he sent those messages, he was suffering from PTSD. He’s always suffering from PTSD.
10. I’m going to leave this space open so that, at a later date, It can be filled in with whatever new revelations about Graham Platner are still to be uncovered. But the contents of even one of the nine paragraphs above should be enough to disqualify him from becoming a senator. It is incredible that despite all that we now know about Graham Platner, such Democratic stalwarts as Bernie Sanders, Chuck Schumer, and Elizabeth Warren have reaffirmed their support for him.
Ugly 312 says
I don’t know enough about him to like him. What I’ve seen and heard on the internet and news websites makes me not like him.
I’m too old to do research on everyone i have questions about. I just go with my gut and what I’m fed by mass social media and form my opinions based on that. Pretty sure I am not alone.
Richard
KK says
Planter is lower than whale dung. He gives dung a bad name. Real dung can be used as a fertilizer, his is toxic poison. He is a pathological liar attested by the people mentioned in the article.
Wellington says
The Democratic Party to date CAN stand him. This is key to grasp. And even if the Democrats find out a way to dump this cretin because he is simply so toxic that he has become inimical to the preservation of Democratic power, the fact that Democrats have stood by him so far bespeaks to why no informed and patriotic American can any longer justify remaining a Democrat (N.B. this includes Senator Fetterman).
Just as there are no excuses for Islam, there is no excuse for the modern Democratic Party. The single greatest enemy of America is NOT Islam, bad as it is. No, the single greatest enemy of America is the Democratic Party. My God, could anything be more obvious by now? I think not.
40 rounds says
All about power, isn’t it?
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Wellington
Like I’ve mentioned in the past, I prefer authentic communists to fake conservatives. I can’t stand Susan Collins, who has voted for Obamacare, was a part of the votes to scuttle it in 2017 when the votes came, and has usually been an obstacle to GOP efforts to pass any meaningful legislation. All she does is vote for McConnell or Thune as the leader, delivering the illusion that the GOP controls the Senate, which it barely does if her and Murkowski’s votes are removed. Essentially, she does squat to advance our case
Therefore, regardless of whether or not I can stand Platner, had I been a Maine voter, I’d have voted for him, even if holding my nose while doing it. In the Senate, we don’t get the vote of whoever that Senator is anyway, whether it’s Collins or even worse than that, her predecessor Olympia Snowe. If I can’t count on it, why would I waste my vote on someone who’s going to vote on every edge cases against what I stand for?
So even though you’re 110% correct on today’s Dems, I’d rather have an authentic Marxist, or dare I say, even a Nazi or a jihadist, than a fake Republican who treats me as a captive voter and then fishes left for votes. We’ve seen some 35 years of it, starting in the 1990s, and it’s helped drive this country into the ground – $40T in debt, our manufacturing sector all but gone (no, Virginia, just construction activity can’t support all manufacturing jobs), our country hollowed out while our major cities become overcrowded,….. That needs to be reversed, even if it means eviscerating those on our side that keep sabotaging us
tgusa says
Much of what has gone on has gone on under the stewardship of Presidents. We haven’t had an all in for America president since Reagan. George and George, fake Republicans, questionable all in for America. Bill and BO, self centered, self enriching, fake Americans. I disagree with President Trump on many things but leadership is not one of them. Trump has done a better job of picking the people under him than Reagan did. For one and from the beginning Reagan got saddled with Bush (I was so mad about that). Need I say more?. Trumps men, at the top Rubio and Vance. He has powerful allies in the Senate that you will never hear about from the leftist media.
Looking at all of who is out there I am impressed with Marco Rubio most. That guy is young (54) and probably will be President someday. I have no doubt Rubio is an all in for America, American.
I dont know why McConnell or Thune were picked as leaders of the Senate. It is not like those two hail from powerhouse states. I really dont understand Thune, the fake Republican. South Dakota is famous for Mount Rushmore, the Badlands, the Black Hills, Native American culture, and the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Oh great. A fake Republican from nowhere leading the Senate.
The real Republicans ( there are some strong All American Republicans) have to treat the fake Republicans as if they were democrats.
tgusa says
Above all, it is about strong leadership and smart knowledgeable and capable underlings to carry out your all in for America plan. Would you call our opposition smart knowledgeable and capable? Would you say they have strong leadership? They are a huge collection of varying (many times opposing) groups and ideologies They are very independent among each other. Divide and conquer. They were nice enough to divide themselves for us so we should oblige them.
Wellington says
I understand your point, Infidel, about Collins but I would note that she has consistently voted for Republican appointed judges, including Kavanaugh and Gorsuch. She also has voted WITH Trump some 95-96% of the time. Should she not win re-election in November and the Democrats take the Senate (and her losing could do this), then you can forget more judges appointed by Trump being confirmed. This is why were I a Mainer, I would vote for her come November.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Wellington
On paper, Republicans have a 53-47 majority in the Senate. But this week, when the SAVE act was voted on, there were 4 defectors – Collins and Murkowski the usual, and McConnell & Tillis on top of it. Collins can never be counted on for votes that matter!
Collins only votes for the party on the easy votes, and even on Kavanaugh & Gorsuch, the GOP had a majority w/o her. I still say lose her seat, and in Alaska, figure out a way to split the Democrat vote to get around the ranked choice voting system there that guarantees Murkowski an undeserved victory every time even though a majority of Republicans in that state do not support her
tgusa says
Collins and Murkowski can always be counted on to do what Republican voters are against. Both you and Wellington have very good indisputable points. To me it comes down to sticking with the devil I know until I can get rid of it.
Jon says
If you think that no matter how much she fails to toe the GOP line, Susan Collins is worse than Graham Platner, you need your head examined.
Wellington says
As always, Infidel, your points are well taken but if America loses the federal judiciary to the Left, and it’s in the process of doing so, then you can kiss America good-bye. While I’m certainly annoyed at Collins at times, if not having her in the Senate for another six years would mean Trump not getting judicial appointees confirmed (and yes, even if Collins loses Trump still might be able to do so but what if she would become the KEY vote?), then it’s debacle time tor the USA.
One thing more. I think Collins is a very shrewd politician. For a Republican to survive in highly Leftist New England (all six states), one might have to be a RINO and doing good things from time to time rather than no good things ever. Collins is the ONLY Republican in Congress from New England, either in the House or Senate. Only a very clever person could manage this and here I give Collins a lot of credit for her skill in doing so even though I do most definitely find her annoying at times. As an accomplished politician I have to give her an “A” just as I would with Bill Clinton even though I cannot admire him from any moral standpoint.
Ruth E weekly says
I always like your comments. Perhaps it is best that it came out now that there might be a lot of Nazis in America, both Democrats and Republicans. Some other things I have read led me to believe there are a lot of Nazis in America.
tgusa says
In a Reddit post from March 2017, Platner wrote that he “jerked off every time I sit in a porta-potty,” responding to the blue water smell.
Just reading that makes me sick to my stomach. Yep, a real Jimmy Stewart he is.
Oyster farming can be hard. Oyster farming requires careful planning, location selection, and adherence to local regulations. With oysters you don’t need much land or have to feed your crop. Oyster farming is almost as hard as reading this article and writing a comment.
Hugh Fitzgerald says
I didn’t know about that unseemly post. Decorum is not Platner’s strong suit. Of course I would have included it had I known. I also did not know that Platner was expelled from Lawrenceville after just one semester. Cheated on a test? Plagiarized a paper? Beat up his roommate? What was it that got him expelled? No doubt being in a private school caused him to experience PTSD.He was missing his aphrodisiacal oysters.
tgusa says
It seems Platner has covered all the bases that most people would avoid.
somehistory says
With all of the above…..I ask, what color is his little dirty carpet upon which he bends his body and salutes satan with his backside?
muzzies have a lust for all things nazi.
muzzies put responsibility for women being raped, on the women who are raped.
muzzies lie as if telling the Truth would make them melt like the wicked witch in Oz.
Anyone who votes for this slug is in favor of evil. I would personally rather be “racist and stupid” than to be a platner
tgusa says
I would say that you might be right except that he doesn’t have that weird muslim beard thing going on.
somehistory says
Perhaps he doesn’t like the beard itch. Or perhaps he can’t grow one. bo doesn’t have one either.
And what about the bald guy who was in bo’s admin and had joined the blood squad while serving in saudi or egypt? Can’t recall his name at the moment.
I’m going with the preponderance of evidence.
Can they be trusted says
As disgraceful, disgusting and contemptible Platner may be, the terrible situation for the voters in Maine is that he may still be a better choice than Senator Susan Collins.
Hugh Fitzgerald says
I disagree. Were I a voter in Maine, I would happiiy vote for Susan Collins. Platner needs to be stopped in his muddy tracks.
somehistory says
You write: “As disgraceful, disgusting and contemptible ” as he is…..Guess you think Ms. Collins is worse?
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Had she been a Dem, she might have been fine. But as a Republican, she’s definitely worse. Like I said above, I’d prefer an authentic communist/Nazi/jihadist to a fake conservative
Let’s see: she helped shoot down the attempts to can Obamacare. She voted w/ the Dems for judges in various courts. She was the one possible obstacle to some of Trump’s nominees: he had to factor in her vote among others before he nominated anybody. If I was the GOP whip in the Senate, I absolutely couldn’t count on her (or Murkowski’s) vote
Maine is hardly a Blue state, except for the electoral vote that Trump won. Let its Senator actually reflect that state
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Maine is hardly a
BlueRed state…..40 rounds says
All about power, isn’t it?
Wellington says
Completely disagree and I am, to put it mildly, no fan of Collins. At least Collins still functions within the orb of civilized behavior while Platner is simply an obnoxious buffoon. Surprised you can’t see this but go ahead and give me two or three reasons why Platner would be preferable to Collins. Give it a shot.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
See my post above. It’s way beyond being a “fan of Collins”. There can be dissenters, like Rand Paul or Rick Scott. But Collins – and Murkowski – vote no different from Dems on crucial votes. Like I said, I prefer authentic communists to fake capitalists
࿗Infidel࿘ says
I’ll go against the grain and agree w/ you. Completely sick of RINOs, and hope that Collins goes down! Yeah, it would have been better if Maine had a better candidate, but regardless, like I said, I’d rather deal w/ an authentic communist than a fake conservative
WPM says
The fact that a poison ivy bush that runs in the new democratic party line against any republican will automatically get full support from almost all “fellow” democrats is unbelieve able .This” oyster farmer” I guess masturbating’s in a construction outhouse makes you an expert “oyster farmer” and a regular “blue collar” type guy in the new democratic party even if you insult veterans and people who where wounded in battle as losers .You defame veterans who have died after coming home who cannot defend their reputation accusing them of war crimes with no evidence. You call women who get raped that they ask for it by the way they dressed .A poison ivy bush would be a better candidate then this poor excuse of a poor excuse of a human being .
Jon says
All these examples demonstrate:
Platner is sick and unhinged,
unsuitable for public office.
Wellington says
I agree and if Platner gets into the Senate then the continued descent of American society and culture will go down yet another notch and it has being going down, down, down for decades now. I’m no enthusiast of Collins but there comes a point when one has to say “no mas.”