Democratic candidate Graham Platner denies having a ‘secret Nazi’ on the tattoo

Maine Democratic Senate candidate and former Marine Graham Platner He denied being a “secret Nazi” on Monday after revealing he had a tattoo resembling the symbol of Nazi Germany.

Plattner’s campaign shared a video “Pod Save America” podcast that featured Plattner lip-syncing to Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball” at his brother’s wedding nearly a decade ago. In the video, Plattner is shirtless and has a skull tattooed on his chest beneath the SS symbol “Totenkopf”, or Schutzdolf.

“I’m not a secret Nazi,” Plattner said. “Actually, if you read my Reddit comments, I think you’ll understand where I stand on Nazism and anti-Semitism and racism in general. I’d say a lifelong opponent.”

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Graham Plattner, a US Marine and Army veteran and oyster farmer, launched a Democratic run for US Senate in Maine against Sen. Susan Collins in August. (Graham Plattner Campaign)

Plattner said he got the tattoo in a Croatian parlor in 2007 after getting “too drunk” with a fellow Marine. He insisted that the skull and crossbones was a “pretty standard military thing” and got the tattoo before joining the army and getting a security clearance.

“During this whole experience in my life, no one has ever said, ‘Oh, you’re a Nazi,'” Plattner said. “It never came to light until we got wind that, in opposition research, somebody was buying the idea that I was a secret Nazi with a hidden Nazi tattoo. And I can honestly say that if I’ve been trying to hide it, I haven’t been doing a very good job for the last 18 years.”

Platner quickly faced backlash for the video, including from the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC).

“This comes less than a week after his arrest: advocating political violence, saying black people don’t tip, calling all cops ‘bastards,’ calling Maine lobstermen ‘pieces of s—‘. What’s next…,” the group Written on x.

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Graham Planter Sen. Susan is looking to run against Collins but must first win the Democratic primary against incumbent Gov. Janet Mills. (Mark Makela/Getty Images)

Although Plattner suggested he didn’t think the symbol meant anything beyond the skull and crossbones, his former political director, Genevieve MacDonald, wrote on Facebook that he “knows very well what it means.”

“This is seriously the stupidest timeline,” Macdonald wrote. “Graham has an anti-Semitic tattoo on his chest. He’s not stupid, he’s a military history buff. He probably didn’t know it when he got it, but he got it years ago and he probably hid it because he knows exactly what it means.

“The vaults are open for the GOP —— to crush our dreams in general and literally everyone I know is fighting each other on social media. We can’t be that painfully stupid.”

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Graham Plattner’s former director claims he knows what the symbol means. (Graham Plattner Senate Campaign)

Fox News Digital Plattner’s campaign and the NRSC were reached for comment.

Plattner came under fire as recently as last week, trying to take on longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine. His post from Reddit in 2018 Resurrection. In one post, he wrote that “all” police are bastards and called himself “communist”.

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In a separate post, he argued that if people “expect to fight fascism without a good semi-automatic rifle, they should read a little history.”