# Are there any reasons to reject Graham Platner in Maine (campaign suspended July 8, 2026) **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [March 4, 2026, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-reasons-to-reject-graham-platner-in-maine-campaign-suspended-july-8-2026/1028179 "2026-03-04T03:50:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 37
**Author:** ![Calder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e99b99/32.png) [@Calder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Calder)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2026, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-reasons-to-reject-graham-platner-in-maine-campaign-suspended-july-8-2026/1028179/723 "2026-06-05T04:41:06Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > The interesting thing about Platner having problematic attitudes about women is that Susan Collins started dating her current husband while he was still married to a woman who was dying of cancer. This isn’t a dig — I honestly don’t see the connection you’re making here. Unless you mistyped something, all you’ve established is that they met in 1974, there was a divorce at some point, and they got married in 2012. You’re going to need more than that to allege an affair. I’m not saying it didn’t happen; I’m saying you skipped several steps between “they knew each other” and “there was an affair.” ---
**Author:** ![Calder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e99b99/32.png) [@Calder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Calder)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2026, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-reasons-to-reject-graham-platner-in-maine-campaign-suspended-july-8-2026/1028179/724 "2026-06-05T05:01:57Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > It’s amazing how quickly “believe all women” evaporates when it’s politically inconvenient… I don’t have any problem whatsoever ignoring the testimony of a formor republican operative that was an ex-girl friend. I also don’t think “automatically believe every ex” is a good standard either. An angry ex-girlfriend or ex-boyfriend is one of the least reliable forms of character testimony imaginable. Most people probably have at least one ex who would describe them negatively. Maybe that is surprising because I think Platner is a walking scandal machine. I guess I just want to be consistant in what I think a scandal is. I will say I think more is going to come out latter. The Republican scandal machine won’t release their best stuff they have on Platner until the primary is over and he can’t be replaced anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2026, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-reasons-to-reject-graham-platner-in-maine-campaign-suspended-july-8-2026/1028179/725 "2026-06-05T12:13:28Z")
> [@China\_Guy](#): > > Republican swiftboating is working well. The “Nazi tattoo”. Enquiring minds might disagree. That said, have any of you looked at the amorphous blod that is exhibit A. Can’t tell jack from that. It’s not even a recognizable skull and crossbones, much less an intricate SS one of multiple designs. Certainally, it isn’t a death eagle with a certified swastika in it’s claws. Come on, sheeple, just a little critical judgement based on your own eyes rather than some spin machine. All the evidence shows that he was more than aware it was Nazi symbolism. He knew it was a Totenkopf, he told people over the years it was a Totenkopf, and the pictures of it before he had it covered up show it to be a Totenkopf. And yet your argument is “Hey, it’s just an amorphous blob” and “At least it’s not [completely different Nazi thing]” and to play the “sheeple” card. One could certainly argue that getting a Totenkopf tattoo in his youth was due to poor judgement and because he thought it looked cool and badass rather than out of sympathy for Nazis. But pretending he didn’t know what it was, and that it’s not that thing anyway, and “if you disagree with me you’re all mindless sheep” is not a credible approach to take. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2026, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-reasons-to-reject-graham-platner-in-maine-campaign-suspended-july-8-2026/1028179/726 "2026-06-05T12:21:42Z")
If nothing else, we know that he lied about it. He said that he got it covered up as soon as he learned what it was, but we have evidence that he knew what it was long before the time when he covered it up. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2026, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-reasons-to-reject-graham-platner-in-maine-campaign-suspended-july-8-2026/1028179/727 "2026-06-05T12:26:34Z")
You realize the FACT that it is a nazi tattoo is not in dispute by anyone including Platner right? ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2026, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-reasons-to-reject-graham-platner-in-maine-campaign-suspended-july-8-2026/1028179/728 "2026-06-05T13:08:49Z")
> > Natalie from ContraPoints almost never ever misses, and this is another good example of that: > [@](#): > > I feel like this whole Platner situation could’ve been avoided if a bunch of upper middle class leftists hadn’t seen the most obvious red flags imaginable and thought, “that’s just what rough, salty, Ohio Waffle House type working class people are like” > [@](#): > > I blame the New York Times. They taught people to see stuff like for example a 3rd Waffen-SS Panzer Division Totenkopf and think, “now there’s a man with economic anxiety” ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2026, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-reasons-to-reject-graham-platner-in-maine-campaign-suspended-july-8-2026/1028179/729 "2026-06-05T13:09:53Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > You realize the FACT that it is a nazi tattoo is not in dispute by anyone including Platner right? While it’s true that Platner himself does admit that it was a Nazi tattoo, there are actually a _number_ of posters in this thread, not just one, who continue to deny it. It really is the strangest thing. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2026, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-reasons-to-reject-graham-platner-in-maine-campaign-suspended-july-8-2026/1028179/730 "2026-06-05T13:52:59Z")
How come none of these pictures showing it to be a totenkopf have ever been made public? How come only two people have claimed he told them he knew what it was before the “scandal” broke, one of whom is a GOP operative and the other of whom refuses to make her name public? This whole thing is a case study in gullibility. If you just repeat “Nazi tattoo!” often enough, some people will falsely assume you know what you’re talking about. They’ve built up a Rorschach blot tattoo and an anonymous accusation into what they consider “proof” that he is secretly a Nazi who is posing as a progressive for reasons. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2026, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-reasons-to-reject-graham-platner-in-maine-campaign-suspended-july-8-2026/1028179/731 "2026-06-05T13:56:18Z")
He says he found out it was a Nazi tattoo and then removed it. The debate is about whether a reasonable person could have had that tattoo for years and not recognized it as being a Nazi symbol. Based on the only extant photo, my answer is “absolutely”. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2026, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-reasons-to-reject-graham-platner-in-maine-campaign-suspended-july-8-2026/1028179/732 "2026-06-05T13:57:05Z")
Ew, you’re still on X? I thought you didn’t like Nazis. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2026, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-reasons-to-reject-graham-platner-in-maine-campaign-suspended-july-8-2026/1028179/733 "2026-06-05T13:59:12Z")
> [@Thing.Fish](#): > > He says he found out it was a Nazi tattoo and then removed it. Yes, but there was a gap of many years in that “and then”. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2026, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-reasons-to-reject-graham-platner-in-maine-campaign-suspended-july-8-2026/1028179/734 "2026-06-05T14:02:41Z")
Is that according to him, or according to an anonymous source? ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2026, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-reasons-to-reject-graham-platner-in-maine-campaign-suspended-july-8-2026/1028179/735 "2026-06-05T14:05:22Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > > [@Chronos](#): > > > > Maybe his brother, unlike him, isn’t a WWII history buff. > > I was looking for something that says Plater is some sort of WW2 history expert or buff, but I am not coming up with anything. > [@](#): > > Platner wanted to join the military from a young age. By 3, he was wearing his great-grandfather’s World War I helmet around the house, his mother recalls. **As a teenager, he became a World War II buff** and a skeptic of U.S. military adventurism. His superlative in his high school yearbook was “Most Likely to Start a Revolution.” > **[Inside Graham Platner's Controversial Rise](https://time.com/article/2026/05/20/graham-platner-profile/)** > > The Democrats' hopes in November hinge on the scandal-plagued Senate candidate One of many sources that says he was a WWII buff since long before his drunken Totenkopf adventure. > [@Thing.Fish](#): > > How come none of these pictures showing it to be a totenkopf have ever been made public? What are you talking about? The pictures of his totenkopf _are_ public. There are white knights making arguments he himself doesn’t make - “it’s just a blob, who could possibly recognize that as a skull and bones?” - but these are ridiculous. Even Platner himself doesn’t make that claim. He just pretends to be the world’s most WWII ignorant WWII buff. Talk about a “case study in gullibility”! I’m curious, when it comes out that he SA’d someone or sexted underage girls on Kik, will _that_ finally be a step too far for the Boy with the Nazi Tattoo? > [@Thing.Fish](#): > > Ew, you’re still on X? I thought you didn’t like Nazis. Nah, someone linked Natalie’s tweet on a Discord. Knowing Natalie, she’ll probably delete it soon anyways - she always makes based tweets that go hard and then takes them down ☹ it’s her biggest flaw. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2026, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-reasons-to-reject-graham-platner-in-maine-campaign-suspended-july-8-2026/1028179/736 "2026-06-05T14:06:38Z")
> [@Thing.Fish](#): > > How come none of these pictures showing it to be a totenkopf have ever been made public? What - like this picture? [![](https://i0.wp.com/boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/totenkopf.jpg?fit=1&quality=60&ssl=1&resize=620%2C4000) ](https://i0.wp.com/boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/totenkopf.jpg?fit=1&quality=60&ssl=1&resize=620%2C4000) ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2026, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-reasons-to-reject-graham-platner-in-maine-campaign-suspended-july-8-2026/1028179/737 "2026-06-05T14:08:37Z")
Oh, I’d not seen that picture before. It’s better than the one from the party, but it still looks like a bowling ball with wings to me. I would never identify that as a skull without prompting. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2026, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-reasons-to-reject-graham-platner-in-maine-campaign-suspended-july-8-2026/1028179/738 "2026-06-05T14:10:06Z")
Again - _Platner himself_ has identified it as a Totenkopf. What it is, is not in dispute. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2026, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-reasons-to-reject-graham-platner-in-maine-campaign-suspended-july-8-2026/1028179/739 "2026-06-05T14:11:38Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > > [@Thing.Fish](#): > > > > He says he found out it was a Nazi tattoo and then removed it. > > Yes, but there was a gap of many years in that “and then”. I call bullshit on that, too. No way the teenage WWII buff lost so many brain cells in Basic Training to forget what a Totenkopf was. He may not have known what it was the night he got it, if he was truly black out drunk; but the next morning, I’m sure he figured it out immediately. But as noted by @puzzlegal, at that point his primary concern was comradery with his Totenkopf Bros. > [@Thing.Fish](#): > > Oh, I’d not seen that picture before. It’s better than the one from the party, but it still looks like a bowling ball with wings to me. I would never identify that as a skull without prompting Then let me ask you a simple question. If he didn’t know it was a Totenkopf, why is he covering it with his hand in his Kik teenage thirst trap profile pic? [![](https://s.yimg.com/lo/mysterio/api/158F96636CC679DD6E95FB0869F8133D799D43FA893D6BC8821556801E8CE214/subgraphmysterio/resizefill_w976_h651;quality_80;format_webp/https:%2F%2Fmedia.zenfs.com%2Fen%2Faol_ny_post_us_news_articles_123%2Fdcc3f1fd7499845642fad56c6c428a71) ](https://s.yimg.com/lo/mysterio/api/158F96636CC679DD6E95FB0869F8133D799D43FA893D6BC8821556801E8CE214/subgraphmysterio/resizefill_w976_h651;quality_80;format_webp/https:%2F%2Fmedia.zenfs.com%2Fen%2Faol_ny_post_us_news_articles_123%2Fdcc3f1fd7499845642fad56c6c428a71) Oh, and last I checked, his profile is still up with that profile picture as of a few days ago, so I don’t really buy the whole “his days of sexting women _(who are totally of age despite the demographics of the app he chooses to use but check back on this in October)_ are long over” thing ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2026, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-reasons-to-reject-graham-platner-in-maine-campaign-suspended-july-8-2026/1028179/740 "2026-06-05T14:11:48Z")
> [@Thing.Fish](#): > > Is that according to him, or according to an anonymous source? According to him. He participated in a discussion on Reddit about tottenkopfs, and then when he was running for Senate deleted his post. ---
**Author:** ![Palooka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/palooka/32/2902_2.png) [@Palooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palooka)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2026, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-reasons-to-reject-graham-platner-in-maine-campaign-suspended-july-8-2026/1028179/741 "2026-06-05T14:43:54Z")
Do you think he deleted it because he was worried people would think he’s a Nazi or because he was worried people would think he’s into the same awful edge lord territory as Elon Musk? ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2026, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-reasons-to-reject-graham-platner-in-maine-campaign-suspended-july-8-2026/1028179/742 "2026-06-05T14:46:39Z")
> [@Palooka](#): > > because he was worried people would think he’s a Nazi or because he was worried people would think he’s into the same awful edge lord territory as Elon Musk? The “awful edge lord territory Elon Musk is in” is also known as “being a Nazi” [![](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/885b1e6/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2928x1952+0+0/resize/1200x800!/format/webp/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F1c%2Fd3%2F3a6f572b453cad18e346964ae2ac%2Fhttps-delivery-gettyimages.com%2Fdownloads%2F2194418432) ](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/885b1e6/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2928x1952+0+0/resize/1200x800!/format/webp/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F1c%2Fd3%2F3a6f572b453cad18e346964ae2ac%2Fhttps-delivery-gettyimages.com%2Fdownloads%2F2194418432) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-reasons-to-reject-graham-platner-in-maine-campaign-suspended-july-8-2026/1028179.md?page=36) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-reasons-to-reject-graham-platner-in-maine-campaign-suspended-july-8-2026/1028179.md?page=38)