Are there any reasons to reject Graham Platner in Maine (campaign suspended July 8, 2026)

[ZosterSandstorm]

He’s going to have a podcast with someone like Sean McCarthy or Anna Khachiyan where he monetizes conspiracy theories about Jews and “Big Pharma” in a leftist way.

[ZosterSandstorm]

@robby

For what it’s worth, according to my ex—who has been a rating specialist at the VA for over 20 years—TDIU ratings are pretty rare and difficult to get. They typically include paraplegics and people with ALS. It’s far more likely that Platner’s rating is a “scheduler” rating that includes PTSD. In other words, he likely has a number of claims that add up to 100%. He almost certainly does not have a TDIU rating.

Platner refusing to answer about what his rating is made me suspicious that it’s not the one where he could draw some sort of defense out of existing law.

Of course, I also think that if he can “work on an oyster boat,” be a bartender, and demonstrate enough physical capacity to break into a house and rape someone, then he is capable of putting the fries in the bag and doesn’t need to be getting “100% disability” payments of any kind. There’s no way the entire claim is PTSD, part of it has to be physical, and it is readily apparent that he’s not physically disabled when it comes to activities he feels like doing. The issue of “if he really is claiming that his mental state is so bad, he shouldn’t be voting on national policy issues in the Senate” is also a real one, and I guess we’ve seen the outcome of that.

@DrDeth

Except, you have yet to show his benefits are of the TDIU (Total Disability Based on Individual Unemployability) type. Apparently they are of the “schedular” 100% rating, where you can still work and get 100% disability) . My evidence ? The trump controlled Administration hasnt indicted him. The person who handles such fraud is Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General , who was directly appointed by trump. A trump appointee. Read that again.

Your argument is “no Democrat could possibly be committing VA fraud because Trump would prosecute them if they were”? Seriously?

[Alessan]

Probably. He can’t rise to the top so he’ll sink to the bottom, and the bottom is where the conservatives live.

[puzzlegal]

He remains good looking and charismatic, so that’s a risk. But maybe he’ll go back to whatever he was doing.

An asshole and racist who lived near my parents ran for governor several years ago. When he did, it came out that a lot of the things he’d claimed when he’d run for local elective office (like he was a green beret) were fake, he’d just lied to make himself look better. He dropped out in shame without admitting anything and went back to local politics. He ran the town parade and stuff like that, and never bothered the broader population again.

[Calder]

@Shalmanese

I’m saying it’s entirely possible that Platner a few months from now will be doing the right wing circuit and spouting right wing talking points because those are the only people willing to give him a platform anymore. It’s a prediction, not a certainty but a prediction with precedent.

My read is similar: some of the stuff he posted as recently as five years ago about LGBT people was genuinely ugly, and the whole “if someone broke into my house I’d rape them, but not in a gay way” line doesn’t exactly scream someone with deep progressive convictions. But I don’t think he was a secret Republican either. What makes more sense to me is that he’s an economic populist who adopted LGBT‑friendly positions because that was the lane he needed to run in as a Democrat. His “left‑wing” identity always felt skin‑deep, and the recent revelations just make that clearer.

To be fair, with no voting history at all, all of this is guesswork and impressions. We’re all trying to make sense of a very incomplete picture.

[DrDeth]

@robby

For what it’s worth, according to my ex—who has been a rating specialist at the VA for over 20 years—TDIU ratings are pretty rare and difficult to get. They typically include paraplegics and people with ALS. It’s far more likely that Platner’s rating is a “scheduler” rating that includes PTSD. In other words, he likely has a number of claims that add up to 100%. He almost certainly does not have a TDIU rating.

Thank you.

@ZosterSandstorm

Of course, I also think that if he can “work on an oyster boat,” be a bartender, and demonstrate enough physical capacity to break into a house and rape someone, then he is capable of putting the fries in the bag and doesn’t need to be getting “100% disability” payments of any kind. There’s no way the entire claim is PTSD, part of it has to be physical, and it is readily apparent that he’s not physically disabled when it comes to activities he feels like doing.

The entire claim is not PTSD. And again, this claim has been debunked over and over. Note that there are several serving Members of Congress who have Military disability, and also several in the past.

[DigitalC]

@thorny_locust

It is unfortunately entirely possible for someone to be a Democrat and/or a left-winger and to still be an asshole rapist. The Republicans don’t have a monopoly on it.

It is also possible, downright likely even, that a complete piece of shit like him has no actual positions and will go with whatever is best for them. At this point thinking this guy is out for anyone besides himself is pretty silly, if he feels going down the right wing route will help him he would with zero regrets.

[Atamasama]

@DigitalC

It is also possible, downright likely even, that a complete piece of shit like him has no actual positions and will go with whatever is best for them. At this point thinking this guy is out for anyone besides himself is pretty silly, if he feels going down the right wing route will help him he would with zero regrets.

As time goes on, and more info is brought to light, there is a lot that you can compare between Trump and Platner (and not just the rape thing). Trump doesn’t seem to have any real political ideologies whatsoever, aside from whatever serves him best. He’s not really a big-C Conservative, he just aligned himself with the Republicans as a way to gain power. He probably doesn’t really care about 99% of the garbage he preaches, except that he can motivate people to support and vote for him by saying it. Trump didn’t swerve left once elected, if anything it was the opposite, and being a phony conservative and a phony Republican and a phony Christian and a phony (insert whatever here) didn’t stop him from continuing to pretend and pander after he was elected. I’m not sure Platner would have either.

Of course, it’s not a great defense of Platner to say you can look at Trump to predict what he might have done if he had been elected.

[Marvin_the_Martian]

@DigitalC

At this point thinking this guy is out for anyone besides himself is pretty silly

This was pretty obvious from his withdrawal video - it was all about him and how the Democratic establishment conspired to push him out. This was not the tone of someone who really wants to see Collins defeated or who realized that he had no chance to be the person to do it. It would not surprise me if he tried to get his supporters to reject the Democratic nominee out of childish spite.