Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner's Nazi tattoo tossed his campaign into chaos last fall, and Platner was eventually forced to get new ink to cover up the Totenkopf, a skull and bones symbol adopted by Hitler’s Schutzstaffel (SS). Democrats, who attacked Secretary of War Pete Hegseth over his tattoos and never missed a supposed Republican "Nazi dogwhistle," were suddenly rather blasé about an actual Nazi symbol on one of their own.
But the issue has continued to plague Platner, who went on CBS News last week to drop a new excuse for why he had notorious Nazi imagery permanently inked on his chest.
This time, Platner blamed the military, with an assist from Major Garrett.
In response to controversy surrounding a tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol and comments he made previously on Reddit, Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner says "much of it was because of the culture I had come out of."
— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 10, 2026
"When I left the military, I came out of a… pic.twitter.com/C069CLxuDb
"Is there anything you've done or said that you regret that did not come from the stresses you internalized from post-traumatic stress itself? That is to say, is PTSD the explanation for everything or did you also just make some additional human errors that you want to explain or contextualize?" Garrett asked.
"I'll be up front. I've never blamed the entire fault of my previous opinions and earlier parts of my life at the feet of only post-traumatic stress," Platner replied. "When I left the military, I came out of a hyper-masculine, hyper-violent place. I did four tours in the infantry. We have a crude sense of humor in the infantry. We certainly have a, I would say, narrow view of a lot of topics, and that colored my opinions and my beliefs."
"Once I left, and came out and interacted in the civilian world, with lots of different people with very different experiences from my own, many of those beliefs and thoughts and even just language changed significantly over time. I didn't have some ... some of that was not because of my combat service, but much of it was because of the culture I had come out of," Platner said.
That'll go over well with the brave men and women of our armed forces. Many of us know men and women who served, and none of them were inspired by military culture to get a Nazi tattoo.
Platner's excuse for this did not sit well with anyone. The Republican National Committee (RNC) X account called Platern's remarks "sick."
SICK!
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 10, 2026
Maine Democrat Senate Candidate Graham Platner continues to defend things like his Nazi tattoo and posts where he says women should "act like an adult" to avoid rape.
CBS: Is there anything you’ve done or said that you regret?
PLATNER: “We have a crude sense of humor.” pic.twitter.com/PMDVf3PGyg
Others were not impressed with Platner's explanation.
Graham Platner blames his Nazi tattoo and his laundry list of offensive Reddit posts on… the military???
— Sarah Gallagher (@sgallz_) April 11, 2026
This guy just keeps getting worse. https://t.co/0JBkEjWgOH
Yes, he does. And according to The New York Times, he's polling well ahead of fellow Democrat Janet Mills in the primary race.
Bro
— Matt Whitlock (@MattWhitlock) April 11, 2026
The military did not force you to get a nazi tattoo. https://t.co/yrPbqezzYP
This is correct.
Another week, another Graham Platner lie.
— Kaeley Gemmill (@KaeleyGemmill) April 11, 2026
Now he’s blaming his fellow Marines for his bigoted Reddit comments and Nazi tattoo. https://t.co/WlUP5LkApt
We're sure Platner's fellow Marines love the implication here.
I must have missed the day in basic training where they taught us to get Nazi tattoos and say women deserve to be raped. https://t.co/K2ithoM2xM
— Tim Sheehy (@TimSheehyMT) April 11, 2026
Graham Platner had a trove of interesting social media posts in which he described himself as a "communist," and said "all police are bastards." He also said rural White Americans are racist and stupid. Those posts have since been deleted, of course.
At some point, voters have to ask themselves a simple question: if Graham Platner isn’t responsible for his own words, his own posts, or even his own tattoo, then who is? Blaming the men and women he served alongside isn’t accountability, it’s deflection. And it’s not likely to sit well with the very people he’s now trying to represent. And if Platner doesn't want to take responsibility for the things he's said and done, why would he take responsibility for the things he says and does as the Senator from Maine?
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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