Graham Platner addresses recent controversies at town hall, is adamant campaign will continue

OGUNQUIT, Maine (WMTW) - Democrat Graham Platner is continuing his campaign for Senate, despite the recent revelation of several controversial — and previously deleted — Reddit posts, as well as his tattoo that resembled a Nazi symbol.

“It’s been a hell of a week,” Platner said to a packed crowd of his supporters during a town hall in Ogunquit. “I went from being a communist on Thursday to a Nazi on Monday.”

Before beginning his speech, Platner addressed the tattoo on his chest that he got while in the Marines in 2007. He says he is just now realizing it appeared to resemble the “Totenkopf,” German for “death’s head.”

“I just thought I had a skull and crossbones tattoo, until over the weekend or late last week, until I started getting asked questions about if I had a hidden Nazi tattoo,” he said. “I laughed at it, because I thought that was the dumbest thing I heard, and then someone showed me a picture of a motif that Neo-Nazis used, and it’s a skull and crossbones, they’re pretty popular amongst military units, but they definitely had a lot in common.”

According to the Anti-Defamation League, Hitler’s paramilitary organization, Schutzstaffel (SS), adopted a particular Totenkopf image as a symbol during the Nazi era. The ADL said it became a symbol of the SS branch responsible for guarding the concentration camps, and that many members of that branch became the core of an SS division that engaged in a number of war crimes during World War II.

“I then went and got it covered,” Platner explained. “Because I do not want something on my body that represents, in any way, the antithesis of my politics.”

The news about Platner’s tattoo also comes after several of his previous Reddit posts resurfaced late last week, and when asked about how this timing coincides with Governor Janet Mills’ entrance into the race, Platner said “the establishment is spooked.”

“The machine is turned on because it is scared,” he said. “They feel threatened...they’re not trying to organize people, they’re trying to destroy my life. They’re not trying to get out there and talk about issues, they’re trying to figure out if I said something stupid on the internet 13 years ago.”

After addressing the controversy, Platner focused the town hall on his core beliefs and policy goals. He stressed the importance of addressing wealth inequality, fighting for universal healthcare, and fixing the housing crisis.

“Everybody knows that they’re being robbed,” he said. “We’re getting screwed by the same people who have been screwing us the entire time, and that is this class, the rich, the powerful.”

Some attendees told WMTW ahead of the town hall that they were skeptical of Platner’s previous online comments and tattoo, and they were hoping he would address the issue this evening.

“When I hear what he has to say about that, then I can make a judgment about whether I think that’s acceptable or not,” York resident Robert Benedetto said.

Kristen Scontras, who came to the event from Eliot, said her brother was deployed to Afghanistan, so she can have patience with Platner’s past struggles, but she still wants to hear more.

“I read what he said, I don’t love it,” she said. “And then the tattoo thing, I need him to go further than that, he doesn’t seem stupid to me, he seems smart, I don’t know, I need a little more.”