It turns out that no, the worst is not behind Graham Platner.
Hey, remember this weekend’s Corner post, pointing out the long litany of controversial past writings by Maine Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, Graham Platner? Writings like how he became a Communist, and that all police are bastards, and that rural White Americans “actually are” racist and stupid?
Yesterday, Platner insisted the worst was behind him.
Graham Platner, the embattled Maine Democratic Senate candidate, said he doesn’t expect more damaging stories to come out about his social media history, even as he invited opponents to “go find more stuff” if they can.
After a wave of reports detailing problematic Reddit posts tarnished his insurgent campaign in a highly competitive Senate battleground, Platner said in a podcast interview released Monday there isn’t anything “worse” or “different” than the posts revealed in recent days.
The worst, in fact, was not behind him.
Graham Platner, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in Maine, took the unusual step of disclosing that he has a tattoo that has been linked to Nazis.
In an extended interview on Pod Save America that first aired Monday night, Platner said he and some fellow Marines got a skull tattoo while drunk on leave in Croatia in 2006, without knowing that it was associated with the Nazis. Platner made the disclosure by providing a video of him dancing shirtless at a family wedding, because he said political opponents were pitching stories about it to national journalists.
The tattoo on his right pectoral appears to resemble the Totenkopf, which the Anti-Defamation League said is German for “death’s head.” It was worn by Hitler’s Schutzstaffel and became a symbol of the unit guarding concentration camps.
I just wish that at the tattoo parlor, Platner had asked a friend, “are we the baddies?”
Platner has declared, “I am not a secret Nazi.” (Some might argue that when you’ve got an SS symbol tattooed on your arm, there’s not much secret about it.)
The other major candidate in the Maine Democratic senate primary, governor Janet Mills is 78. But you know what she doesn’t have? Any tattoos of any symbols associated with the Nazis.