Gallego Defends Platner After Another Embarrassing Row

For months, Democrats in Maine and Washington appeared willing to overlook nearly every controversy surrounding Graham Platner, the Bernie Sanders- and Elizabeth Warren-backed Senate candidate who became the party’s presumptive nominee after Gov. Janet Mills opted against entering the race in any serious way. But the steady drip of damaging revelations from Platner’s online history is turning what once looked like a promising candidacy into a growing political liability.

The problems began earlier in the primary when old Reddit posts tied to Platner resurfaced. Some dated back more than a decade, while others were as recent as 2021. Together, they painted a picture far different from the disciplined public image Democrats hoped to present in a crucial Senate race.

Among the posts were comments in which Platner described himself as a communist, attacked police officers in crude terms, mocked rural white Americans, made racially insensitive remarks about black people, and appeared dismissive toward sexual assault victims. Platner attempted to explain the comments away by saying he had simply been acting as an “internet sh**poster,” a defense that did little to calm concerns about his judgment and temperament.

Then came the issue that has proven far harder to explain away: the Nazi-themed tattoo Platner admitted to having since 2007. According to Platner, he got the tattoo while drunk in Croatia and claimed he did not understand the symbolism at the time. He later covered it with another tattoo after learning its meaning. Critics, however, have questioned whether that explanation is believable, especially for someone now seeking a seat in the United States Senate.

Just as Democrats were trying to move past those controversies, another wave of online posts surfaced, this time involving graphic sexual comments Platner allegedly made on Reddit while discussing military deployments and porta-potties. One post included an explicit comment about conditioning himself to masturbate whenever he smelled the chemical scent from portable toilets. Another involved him enthusiastically describing explicit graffiti he had encountered while deployed overseas.

The comments were juvenile, graphic, and deeply bizarre even by internet standards. Yet instead of distancing themselves, several Democrats rushed to defend him.