Is Graham Platner One of the Baddies?

Graham Platner, the Maine progressive candidate for Senate running to unseat Susan Collins has had a bad month. First it was uncovered that he said some pretty bad shit on reddit years ago. From Politico: “"Platner asked why Black people “don’t tip” in 2013,” he also downplayed sexual assaults and advocated for violence for political change.

Four days ago on the 17th he posted a video on X where he claims that “I went from thinking that people were bad to knowing that people are good.” Fair. It seemed like he was just a changed man, based on his comments for the last 8 or so years since he returned to Maine and started looking to do good with his life.

What we discovered just yesterday via a leaked section of a Platner family wedding video is that Graham Platner has had a explicitly Nazi tattoo on his chest since 2007.

In an interview with Pod Save America, Platner’s campaign got ahead of oppo research reports by releasing an embarrassing video from his brother’s wedding. In the video he is dancing shirtless and pantsless to Miley Cyrus’ Wrecking Ball - while that might be embarrassing for any campaign (imagine if Chuck Schumer did it), Platner is shown to have a Nazi Skull and Cross Bones tattooed on his chest.

The symbol, called a SS-Totenkopf is a well known icon of Nazi-sm. If you’ve seen Indiana Jones, the symbol is all over the Nazi’s in those movies. It’s in the Wolfenstein games.

It’s even in a meme. The Mitchell & Webb “Are we the baddies” meme is literally centered around the SS skull and crossbones. You can watch the video above.

I can wrap my head around getting shitfaced in Croatia as a Marine and getting a questionable tattoo… even as someone who has previously claimed to know a lot of WW2 history. Ok. But for me it’s the matter of keeping that tattoo and reportedly bragging about it for the last 18 years.

Even in the shockingly forgiving video interview with Pod Save America Platner doesn’t seem to really comprehend the gravity of having a Nazi tattoo on his chest for nearly two decades and flaunting it.

Platner’s former Political Director Genevieve McDonald, posted on Facebook: “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.” McDonald is correct. And it seems that only after 2 days of the media collectively going “What the fuck?” has he decided to get the tattoo removed.

Platner told Politico on Tuesday that “It was not until I started hearing from reporters and DC insiders that I realized this tattoo resembled a Nazi symbol.” He also claimed that he’s not a “secret Nazi.”

I’m honestly not sure on this. I believe in forgiveness and that people can be better through service.. but I don’t believe the man is an idiot who doesn’t know anything about history or 60 years of culture.

ALREADY AN UPDATE. I spoke via DM with one of my favorite people, Scott Kelley Ernest who is a former white extremist now working to bring people out of it. He moved me a bit on the issue, saying in a Bluesky post “I also agree with [Platner] in that I wouldn’t be who i am today if i hadn’t taken my path.”