Graham Platner, the far-left Democratic candidate running for the Maine Senate who has won the enthusiasm of the party's grassroots, sought to head off rumors swirling in recent weeks that the black skull-and-crossbones tattoo on his chest is a Nazi symbol.
Speaking with Tommy Vietor on the political podcast “Pod Save America,” released Monday eveningPlatner, 41, confirmed the existence of the tattoo seen on video he shared showing off his bare chest, but suggested his opponents in the race were spreading claims that the symbol was linked to Nazism, which he vehemently denies.
“I'm not a closet Nazi. In fact, if you read my comments on Reddit, I think you can pretty much understand how I feel about Nazism, anti-Semitism and racism in general,” said Platner, a Marine veteran and Maine oyster farmer who has come under scrutiny for past online posts. “I would say a lifelong opponent.”
But according to a person who interacted with Platner when he lived in Washington, D.C. more than a decade ago, Platner specifically admitted that the tattoo was ScullThe death's head symbol adopted by the notorious Nazi SS unit that guarded concentration camps during World War II.
“He said, ‘Oh, that’s my Totenkopf,’” said a former acquaintance. Jewish Insider recently spoke on condition of anonymity to address a sensitive issue. — He said it in a sweet manner.
According to a former acquaintance, the exchange took place in 2012 at the Tune Inn, a popular Capitol Hill establishment where Platner later worked as a bartender and was a frequent patron while attending George Washington University on his GI Bill. He often took off his shirt while drinking with friends late at night at a bar, and at least once said he knew what the tattoo meant, a former acquaintance recalled.
Platner gave different versions of the image at this time, saying that at one point he knew it was Totenkopf when he first got the tattoo years ago, and at another time, according to a former acquaintance, he claimed he didn't know.
Mixed accounts indicate that Platner was at least long aware of the symbols' connection to Nazism, although in a podcast interview he said he was not familiar with any such association when he decided to get the tattoo.
Platner, who is running to unseat Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), said he got the tattoo in Split, Croatia, in 2007 when he and a group of “very inebriated” fellow Marines were on leave from duty and decided to stop by the lounge. “We chose a scary-looking skull and crossbones on the wall because we were Marines, and skulls and crossbones are a pretty standard military thing,” he explained on the podcast.
“We got these tattoos and then we all moved on with our lives,” he added, noting that he later served in the Army and was cleared to work as a State Department contractor in Afghanistan. “I can honestly say that if I tried to hide it,” he continued, “I haven’t done a very good job for the last 18 years.”
In a statement provided to JI on Tuesday, Platner said he was unaware of the tattoo's connection to Nazi imagery until recently. “It wasn't until I started hearing from reporters and D.C. insiders that I realized the tattoo resembled a Nazi symbol,” he said. “I absolutely would not go through life with this on my chest if I knew this – and hinting at it is disgusting. I'm already planning to remove it.”
Platner's former policy director Genevieve McDonald, who resigned from his campaign last week over her objections to his newly discovered inflammatory comments on Reddit, said in a Facebook post Tuesday that “Graham has an anti-Semitic tattoo on his chest.”
“He's not an idiot, he's a military history buff,” MacDonald wrote in the postwhich was reviewed by JI. “He may not have known it when he got it, but he got it years ago and he should have hidden it because he knows damn well what it means.”
McDonald said Platner's campaign “themselves provided this to some of the podcast bros, along with a video of him shirtless and drunk at a wedding, to try to get ahead of it.”
An Anti-Defamation League spokesman said in a statement to JI that Platner's tattoo “is similar to Totenkopf's Nazi tattoo, and if true, it would be troubling that a candidate for high office would have such a tattoo.”
“We understand that sometimes people get tattoos without realizing they are hateful,” the ADL spokesperson added. “In such cases the bearer should be asked whether he rejects its hateful meaning.”
Platner, a political newcomer who faces Gov. Janet Mills and other candidates in the Democratic primary, launched his campaign in August and has raised more than $4 million by promoting left-wing populist causes, including strong criticism from Israel and opposing “fascists”—which has received widespread support from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
Democratic leadership widely views the Senate race as great possibility of self-pickup in the midterm elections as the party tries to regain its majority in the upper house.
But Platner's campaign has lost momentum in recent days amid revelations that he made several controversial comments while posting on Reddit forums. In a series of comments posted anonymously, Platner, who admitted writing the posts and apologized for some of them, called himself a “communist,” called all police officers “bastards” and sexual assault rejected in the military, among other comments causing backlash.
In previously unpublished posts reviewed by JI, Platner protected a man with a tattoo of a Nazi SS lightning bolt who later admitted impersonated a federal officer at a Black Lives Matter protest in Las Vegas in 2020. “I'll be sure to let the black guys I know with the bolts know that they are now Nazis and not USMC scouts/snipers,” Platner said V deleted post on Redditreferring to the Marine Corps.
“Bolts have been a symbol of STA since at least the 80s, if not longer,” he wrote in another, using military jargon. “It was never official, but it sure as shit was tattooed on almost every HOG I knew between 2004 and 2012.”
Platner also drew scrutiny for being photographed this summer with Maine white supremacist agitator Richard Ward, who is running for a seat on the Bangor City Council.
Ward, A. far right activist who frequently disseminates neo-Nazi rhetoric and imagery, wrote on Facebook in late August that he met and shook Platner's hand during a meeting at a state fair in Maine, posting a photo of the two standing side by side.
“Today I shake hands with Graham Platner at the Blue Hill Fair,” Ward said. “Look at Graham Platner from the US Senate. We have a lot in common.”
The photo shows Ward wearing a T-shirt with the number “88”, an obvious reference to the well-known neo-Nazi code for “Heil Hitler”. Post, a. screenshot from which the JI was derived has since been removed from Ward's Facebook page.
A Platner campaign spokesman confirmed the meeting took place but said he quickly ended the conversation. “Graham immediately told Richard to fuck off and get the hell out, as he would tell any Nazi,” a JI spokesman said last month.
