That’s already dropped, and i don’t think it’s going to be a bigger deal in the future than it is now. I think that people who, themselves, don’t recognize the image as a Nazi symbol are less worried about it than those who do. And symbols can have more than one meaning. Did it mean “nazi” to him? No one but his closest confidants really know.
Yes, but only if it’s fraudulent. The rules on VA disability are unclear to me.
That could be a big deal. Even a criminal deal.
The thing that scares me most is all the people around him who fled. From Wikipedia:
In late October and early November 2025, several high-level staffers left Platner’s campaign during a period that coincided with media reporting on his controversial tattoo and old Reddit posts. On October 17, Platner’s political director, Genevieve McDonald, resigned.[47] Platner offered her $15,000 in severance pay if she signed an NDA, but she refused the offer.[48] On October 27, Platner’s campaign manager, Kevin Brown, resigned, citing family reasons.[49] On October 31, Platner’s campaign finance director, Ronald Holmes, resigned.[50] Also on October 31, Platner filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission indicating that Victoria Perrone was no longer his treasurer and Ben Martelo would take her place.[51]
What do they all know that we don’t know? I bet it’s more than the tattoo.
On the Nazi tattoo thing, a lot of people seem to have been able to buy the implausible story that he didn’t know the symbol of the skin that he was wearing on his skin for nearly two decades, and they hang their support of him on that implausible story. We already have some evidence that that’s a lie, but it hasn’t been published very widely. It will be now, and maybe there’s more evidence.
On the sexting thing, we know that he was sexting on a mostly-minority platform, but again, people are hanging their hopes on the idea that maybe all of his partners were of age. Evidence might still emerge otherwise.
And on the disability thing, we know that he’s on VA disability, but we don’t know the details, because he’s refused to answer any questions about it. The only other source of information is the federal government, who didn’t say anything when they wanted him to win the primary. We’ll see what they say now.
I think @Babale and i believe the same story: that he didn’t know what it was when he got it, that he later learned it was an obscure Nazi symbol, that he didn’t do anything about it because it’s was more important to him that it was a tattoo he shared with his way buddies than that it also represented Nazis, and that when he ran for office he realized he could no longer ignore the Nazi symbolism and got it changed to something else. The difference is that i believe someone might keep a tattoo with awkward meanings for non-Nazi reasons. But i don’t think that underlying story is even a little implausible.
Of course, the new tattoo looks kinda Norse, which maybe isn’t super far removed from neo-nazi. But i don’t see a lot of evidence the guy has Nazi sympathies.
I do see a lot of evidence he can’t keep his pants zipped, and suspect we’ll learn nasty things about his dating on the “general communication platform that is often used for dating, including by teens”.
Yes, and it may be something very vivid—like personal testimony from a teen claiming they had physical contact. That could very well achieve turning thousands of Democrats or Independents into ‘won’t vote at all rather than okay this by voting Platner.’
Would any teen the GOP produces be able to prove claims of contact with Platner? Possibly not. The GOP will time the ‘reveal’ very carefully, of course. Far enough out from Election Day to affect early and mail voters; close enough so that the failure to provide evidence will skate by.
Also: I’m seeing reports that Collins has said she won’t debate Platner, but the reports aren’t from major outlets. So they may not be reliable.
FWIW I hope the GOP machine harps non-stop on “the boy with the Nazi tattoo” because Maine voters overwhelmingly don’t care about that at all, even if a few here think they should.
Leftists sure went from “you have to punch the one Nazi at the bar or you’ll become a Nazi bar” to “we all love the Nazi at our bar and you better figure out your striped pajama size soon because we outnumber you” pretty damn quick.
Sure. Breaking security rules around classified e-mails was, incontrovertibly, something Hillary Clinton did, and presumably the argument from people who mock bringing it up is that it wasn’t ultimately a big deal and everything Trump did was worse so we shouldn’t care. And now, the Invisible Jews Are Hiding In My Shower wing of the Democratic Party is arguing that branding oneself with a Nazi symbol is exactly the same thing - meaningless and trivial (and that in comparison not to the crimes of Donald Trump, but to being a generic Republican).
The question is, is it in fact accurate to claim that Nazi affiliation is a mere bagatelle that only bad-faith political opponents would ever care about, and will the consequences of the Democratic Party embracing such a conclusion be the same as the consequences of not caring about e-mail security protocols? Your position on this question is apparent. I wonder if others agree.
Platner survived and even thrived amidst a string of negative stories that began last fall, including both the revelation of a skull and crossbones tattoo that resembled a Nazi symbol as well as many controversial Reddit posts.
Nothing is funnier than the way that some posters insist up and down that no one is denying that Platner had a Nazi tattoo only for other posters to come in and deny that Platner had a Nazi tattoo.
It resembles it so closely as to be identical because it is in fact one.