Maine Senatorial Candidate Graham Platner Has Nazi Tattoo
Democratic Candidate For Maine’s US Senate Seat Says He’s ‘Not A Secret Nazi’ After Exposing Nazi Tattoo
A white man who is running for a U.S. Senate seat has been exposed for having a Nazi-affiliated tattoo, which he claims he had no idea was a Nazi-affiliated tattoo. Now, you’re probably thinking: “Welp, another MAGA politician is showing us what MAGA truly is.” But, nope, this time, the guy who seems to be a secret Nazi is a Democrat, and he’s currently trying to convince his constituents that he’s “not a secret Nazi.”
Meet Graham Platner, who is seeking the Democratic nomination to represent Maine in the Senate.
According to the Times of Israel, Platner, an oyster farmer and military veteran who is considered to be of the far-left, admitted this week that he has a Nazi tattoo on his chest, which he said he has had for nearly two decades.
From the Times:
Graham Platner shared video of himself shirtless, sporting the tattoo, on a popular progressive podcast. He denied that he himself ever held Nazi views, instead claiming he had gotten the tattoo while “inebriated” as a young adult without knowing what it meant.
Since launching his campaign this summer, the 41-year-old Platner had picked up steam in left-wing circles for his populist positions, including calling Israel’s military campaign in Gaza against Hamas a genocide. The political neophyte has won endorsements from progressive leaders including Vermont’s Senator Bernie Sanders, who is Jewish. Morris Katz, the Jewish campaign strategist behind Zohran Mamdani’s digital ads for New York City mayor, made a campaign launch video for Platner.
“This tattoo appears to be a ‘death’s head’ symbol used by the SS, the organization most responsible for the genocidal murder of 6 million Jews and millions of other victims during WWII,” said Zach Schwartz, director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine. “We hope that Mr. Platner would condemn, in no uncertain terms, the meaning behind this tattoo and everything it stands for.”
During a recent episode of Pod Save America, Planter told the program’s host, Tommy Vietor, that the tattoo came as a result of a drunken night in Croatia with his fellow Marines.
“We went ashore in Split, Croatia, myself and a few of the other machine gun squad leaders. And we got very inebriated, and we did what Marines on liberty do, and we decided to go get a tattoo,” Platner recalled, adding that he and his military buddies “chose a terrifying-looking skull and crossbones off the wall because we were Marines, and skull-and-crossbones are a pretty standard military thing.”
“I am not a secret Nazi,” he went on to say. If you read through my Reddit comments, I think you can pretty much figure out where I stand on Nazism and antisemitism and racism in general. I would say a lifelong opponent.”
Yeah, bro — ain’t nobody about to go scrolling through the archives of your Reddit history to prove you’re “not a secret Nazi” when you’re literally saying otherwise with your whole chest.
Even if it’s true that Planter’s tat is just a crazy accident — that he got drunk one night and slipped and fell right into a permanent Nazi insignia embedded into his skin — it just doesn’t explain why he still has it some 20 years later, especially since he has been made aware of the tattoo’s meaning.
Like — if he knows he’s running for a U.S. Senate seat, why the hell wouldn’t he march straight to the tattoo parlor for a tat removal the second he was informed that he was out here repping Hitler and them?
“It was not until I started hearing from reporters and DC insiders that I realized this tattoo resembled a Nazi symbol. I absolutely would not have gone through life having this on my chest if I knew that – and to insinuate that I did is disgusting. I am already planning to get this removed,” Planter said in a statement to the Associated Press.
Planter also noted that in the 20 years since he got the tattoo, he enlisted in the Army, “which involved a full physical that examines tattoos for hate symbols.”
“I also passed a full background check to receive a security clearance to join the ambassador to Afghanistan’s security detail,” he continued, noting that his tattoo never came up during the process.
Now, Planter says he’s planning on having the tattoo removed, and, well, better late than Nazi — sorry, I mean never.
Actually, what he told AP is that he currently has the Nazi tat covered up with another tattoo due to the limited options where he lives in rural Maine.
“Going to a tattoo removal place is going to take a while,” he said. “I wanted this thing off my body.”
The man is running for a whole U.S. Senate seat, but he can’t get out of town for a day to get that thing removed? I mean, I guess.
Even Planter’s now former campaign director, former state senator Genevieve McDonald, who resigned from the campaign last week, doesn’t seem to be buying Planter’s plea of ignorance.
“Graham has an antisemitic tattoo on his chest,” McDonald wrote on social media, according to the Times. “He’s not an idiot, he’s a military history buff. Maybe he didn’t know it when he got it, but he got it years ago, and he should have had it covered up because he knows damn well what it means. His campaign released it themselves to some podcast bros, along with a video of him shirtless and drunk at a wedding to try to get ahead of it.”
Don’t get me wrong, under this rabid, constitution-defying Trump administration, Congress is definitely in need of more Democratic seats, but we just don’t need these Nazi problems over here.
I mean, who does he think he is, Pete Hegseth?
Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.
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