I posted all the way back in May a roundup of all the public allegations From October, 2025 that he had told other people the tattoo was a totenkopf prior to him starting his political campaign.
In particular:
In a Tuesday interview with the Bangor Daily News, former state Rep. Genevieve McDonald, who resigned Friday from serving as Platner’s political director, said the campaign has been aware of the tattoo since she joined the campaign in August. Platner himself told her roughly a month ago he had a tattoo that “could be problematic,” she said.
The campaign denied that, calling it “a lie from a disgruntled former employee.” In a statement, Platner said he didn’t know until last week that his tattoo had a Nazi affiliation in any way.
In the Politico reporting of Racicot’s rape allegations, Platner responds with:
In a statement, the Platner campaign reiterated his denial and accused critics of trying to drive him out of the race.
“These allegations are very serious and Graham vigorously denies them. They are also coached and coordinated by out of state establishment operatives. For a year, opponents of this campaign have thrown everything they can at Graham –– calling him a Nazi, a war criminal, and a communist. None of it has been true and this is no different. It is not a coincidence that this story comes a week before the ballot deadline, just as the previous false allegations came a week before the primary. Graham began this campaign to fight for a Maine where everyone is treated with dignity and where Mainers are put first, and no amount of desperate smears will stop this movement from seeing that vision through.”
So you either have 3 options you can believe in here:
- Both Racicot and McDonald are lying and he’s beset upon by smear campaigns from people he knowingly chose to associate with but he is nevertheless dropping out.
- Racicot is telling the truth BUT Platner happened to coincidentally hire a campaign manager who would then go on to fabricate details about him out of personal animus in an astounding bad stroke of luck.
- Like any gaslighter, he’s adopted the well worn tactic of any negative information that comes out about him must be because the accuser has some kind of grudge or personal vendetta against him rather than simply wanting the truth to come out.
To me, it’s simply impossible to hold position #2 intellectually honestly.
I’ll reiterate what I said back in March:
The last one is what moved him into the “this dude really fucking sucks” column for me. Trotting out the tired “disgruntled former employee” line and willing to deliberately destroy the reputation of someone who was formerly close to him just so he wouldn’t have to suffer some blowback or tarnish his reputation. I don’t care to what extent he does or does not hold Nazi views because it’s irrelevant, he does not care about his principles and he does not care about the people of Maine if they at all come into conflict with his own personal prospects which, if you’re coming in remotely from the left, it’s a guarantee that your personal comfort will be tested by your beliefs.
This is reminding me of Eric Adams all over again when people on this board, the voters in New York and prominent political pundits were all gaga for him and were violently hushing down any suggestions that this guy might fucking suck. I was looking at this in incredulity and being like, “guys, how the fuck are you not seeing how much this guy sucks?” and he proceeded to be the complete disappointment that exceeded even how much I could have predicted he would suck. (In all fairness, Fetterman totally fooled me and I was the one dismissing the people who were predicting all the ways he would suck).
This just feels like Lucy and the football all over again when everyone’s going to be surprised all over again when he doesn’t turn out to be the leftist champion people are desperately trying to stuff him into being. He’s a cynical grifter that’s riding an opportunistic wave and will turn on this dime as willingly as he’s turned on all of his previous dimes and you can’t say you weren’t warned.