Platner, a candidate for Maine’s Senate seat, admitted to keeping a Nazi tattoo on his chest for nearly two decades but said he didn’t know the meaning
Pod Save Graham Platner. The former Obama White House aides Tommy Vietor and Ben Rhodes, now hosts of the podcast Pod Save the World, helped the Maine Senate candidate frontrun the news that he has a Nazi tattoo emblazoned on his chest—a stark contrast to their condemnation of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s tattoo of a Jerusalem Cross as a “dog whistle” for “white nationalists.”
Platner revealed on Monday’s episode that he got a tattoo resembling a Totenkopf—a skull and crossbones associated with Nazi Germany and white supremacists—in Croatia in 2007 while serving in the Marines. He claims to have been unaware of its symbolism, though associates have refuted that claim, with one saying Platner “knows damn well” what the ink means.
Vietor described Platner’s tattoo as “opposition research,” asking the Senate candidate a series of softball questions.
“I’ve been told that some of your political opponents are telling reporters that that tattoo has a Nazi affiliation,” said Vietor, a former van driver for the 2008 Obama campaign. “And I would like to know: Is that accurate, and are you a secret Nazi?”
“I am not a secret Nazi,” Platner replied. “Actually, if you read through my Reddit comments, you can pretty much figure out where I stand on Nazism.”
Vietor went on to describe Platner as a “normal guy” who wants to “make the country a better place.”
The left-wing podcasters were more alarmed by a different tattoo less than a year ago, expressing concern over how Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s tattoo of a Jerusalem Cross would affect military recruiting. Rhodes described the tattoo as a “dog whistle” to “white nationalists.”
“Recruitment—are they just going to go off and recruit MAGA people? Are they going to go off and recruit white nationalists? And I don’t say this just because the guy has a tattoo, but that’s who they’re putting out the Bat-Signal to,” Rhodes, a former Obama adviser, told Vietor.
Hegseth’s tattoos include a Jerusalem cross—a large cross with four smaller crosses in the corners—and the words “Deus vult,” which is Latin for “God wills it.” Such tattoos are common Christian symbols, especially among Catholics.
While Hegseth’s tattoo was falsely linked to white nationalism, Platner was allegedly aware that his tattoo had Nazi ties, according to Genevieve McDonald, who resigned as his campaign director last week after his Reddit posts denigrating both white rural Americans and black people surfaced. She called him “a history buff” who “knows damn well what [the tattoo] means.”
“Graham has an anti-Semitic tattoo on his chest,” McDonald wrote. She noted that Platner’s campaign released a video of him shirtless, with the tattoo on display, to “some podcast bros” to “try to get ahead” of the negative story.
Platner is running to unseat Republican incumbent Susan Collins. This is not the first scandal to plague his campaign: In Reddit posts revealed last week, Platner called himself a communist, said “all” cops are bastards, called white rural Americans “racist and stupid,” asked why black people “don’t tip,” and blamed sexual assault victims for their own rapes.
Platner said most of the posts were made while drunk.
“I also used to like to get drunk and post on Reddit, because that was fun when I was angry and alone,” he told Vietor on Monday.
Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) is standing by Platner.
“I personally think he is an excellent candidate,” Sanders said Tuesday. “I’m going to support him, and I look forward to him becoming the next senator in the state of Maine.” Asked further about the Nazi tattoo, Sanders complained about the “corrupt campaign finance system.” He added: “We don’t have enough candidates in this country that will take on the powers that be and fight for the working class.”
Read the full article here
