Free Republic

The ultra-left’s conquest of the Democratic Party continues apace, as extremists triumph over more centrist candidates in primaries across the country. The dynamic may be most visible in Maine, where Graham Platner drove old-line Dem Gov. Janet Mills out of the race before the primary even happened. Platner is as hard-left as they come: all out on gender extremism, pushing anti-Israel lunacy to the extreme (including publicly cheering antisemitic conspiracy theorists) and screaming about the rich despite his own ultra-privileged background.

Seven years ago, Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner cruelly mocked an American soldier who was caught on camera taking fire from the Taliban in Afghanistan. The viral helmet footage showed how Pfc. Ted Daniels moved into the open as a diversion tactic to help his squad mates get to safety. But Platner saw him as a “dumb motherf—er” who “didn’t deserve to live.” “This video never gets old. Dumb mother—er didn’t deserve to live. At least his stupidity and fat ass wheezing are available for all future infantrymen to witness and hold in contempt,” Platner, then a 34-year-old, chided...

If you want to know how far some liberals are willing to go to register their fear and loathing of President Trump, just read the recent opinion piece by Frank Bruni in the New York Times. (...) Platner has said he is a communist. He said cops are bastards. He called people who post online “retarded.” He said war was “the most enjoyable experience of my life.” Working as a bartender, he wondered “Why don’t black people tip?” And speaking about women who are concerned about sexual assault, he wrote that “Rape is a real thing. If you’re so worried...

In 2002, my classmate Graham Platner ran for student-body president of John Bapst Memorial High School in Bangor. I remember watching him in our auditorium debate his fellow candidates. He was the radical, wearing a revolutionary proletarian costume: overalls and a red armband... I don’t recall the issues they discussed, but I do remember Platner proposing collective action to overturn some school policy — saying something along the lines of, “They can’t suspend us all.” The history teacher serving as moderator interjected to remind Platner and everyone else that, yes, in fact, they could... Students elected the safe candidate, a...

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic nominee for vice president last cycle, opted to fly to Maine to stump for Graham Platner, an oyster farmer who is running for Senate and who has a Nazi tattoo. Several members of Congress responded. “Don’t forget to ask him about his Nazi tattoo,” stated Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas). “Can you let him know there’s ways to remove the Nazi tattoos from his chest?” asked Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.). “In case it wasn’t clear before why Kamala Harris selected Tim Walz over Josh Shapiro. This is who they are,” the Republican Jewish Coalition stated....

During a recent episode of Mark Halperin’s ‘2Way’ podcast, Mark and guest, conservative talk radio host Larry O’Connor, teased that something major is going to drop on far left Maine senate candidate Graham Platner that is so bad he will have to ‘leave the state.’ It’s hard to imagine what such a thing could be. Platner has already faced wide criticism for having a Nazi tattoo on his chest for almost twenty years, which democrats and various liberal media types are hilariously trying to defend. Platner has also faced scrutiny for comments on the website Reddit, in which he disparaged,...

In late April 2026, Maine Governor Janet Mills suspended her campaign for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination, effectively handing the race to Graham Platner, a 41-year-old Marine veteran and purported oyster farmer.Platner now stands as the presumptive Democrat nominee against incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins.The development itself is unremarkable in the rough-and-tumble of primary politics.What demands scrutiny is not the candidate’s past, but the cognitive mechanism by which that past has been processed, reframed, and ultimately laundered by his party. Platner acquired a prominent chest tattoo in 2007 while on leave in Croatia with fellow Marines. The image, a skull...

Graham Platner, a man with a Nazi tattoo and current Democrat candidate for the US Senate in Maine, vows "if Democrats win a majority we will shut the White House down with incessant hearings requiring the presence and testimony of every person working for Trump. They won't have any time to do what Trump wants them to do. This November election is our opportunity to seize power and wield it to bring the benefits of collectivism to the people who are oppressed and deprived under capitalism." Platner has been endorsed by Sens. Bernie Sanders (Vt), Elizabeth Warren (Mass), Ruben Gallego...

GRAHAM PLATNER: RELEASE THE RECORDS After three days of exposing the lies, it's time for transparency. Graham Platner has made his military service, his veteran status, and his "working-class oyster farmer" identity the centerpiece of his Senate campaign. So prove it, Graham. Release the records. Every veteran candidate releases their DD214. John Kerry did. John McCain did. Tammy Duckworth did. Dan Crenshaw did. Your DD214 would show your exact deployment dates and locations (you claim 3 Iraq tours + 1 Afghanistan), your awards and decorations, your Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) and rank progression, your character of discharge, and the reason...

Sen. John Fetterman sounded the alarm Friday about the leftward drift of his own party, warning that a “small Communist takeover” is underway in Maine as Graham Platner closes in on the Democratic Senate nomination. Appearing on Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime,” the Pennsylvania Democrat said the rise of Mr. Platner — an oyster farmer and Marine Corps veteran who wrote in a 2021 Reddit post, “I got older and became a communist” — exemplified the Democratic Party’s inability to resist its worst impulses. “There is kind of a small Communist takeover in Maine,” Mr. Fetterman said. “Platner, he’s already...

Platner told MS NOW he wants Trump officials hauled before committees 'day after day after day' Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner unveiled a plan during an interview on Thursday to "shut this White House down" so that the Trump administration is not able to function. "Something we’re going to have to do if we’re in the majority [is] we need to use the power we get to shut this White House down," Platner told MS NOW host Jen Psaki during "The Briefing." "We do that, I think one of the best ways is through committee hearings and investigations. I want...

Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills announced Thursday she was suspending her campaign for the US Senate — clearing the way for far-left candidate Graham Platner to face five-term Republican incumbent Susan Collins in November. “While I have the drive and passion, commitment and experience, and above all else –the fight — to continue on, I very simply do not have the one thing that political campaigns unfortunately require today: the financial resources,” Mills said in a statement. “That is why today I have made the incredibly difficult decision to suspend my campaign for the United States Senate.” The 78-year-old Mills,...

A recent poll showed current Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who had worked in Cuba with the Marxist Venceremos Brigade trailing Councilwoman Nithya Raman, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. Only 24% of Los Angeles residents approve of the job that Bass is doing, which included the worst wildfires in the city’s history, while 47% disapprove. If disappointed voters replace Bass with an even more extreme version, that will be in line with what happened in New York City where a widely despised former Mayor Bill de Blasio was, after a one term break to make room for...

WINDHAM, Maine—Senate candidate Graham Platner (D.) urged his supporters to publicly harass members of Maine’s congressional delegation who oppose Medicare for All. “In the future, when we’re trying to vote on something like Medicare for All, if there are other members of the Maine delegation that don’t want to come along, we need to be able to impose costs,” he said during a Saturday town hall in the southern Maine town of Windham. “We need to be able to turn people out to flood their offices. Frankly, I want people to follow them around and don’t let them have a...

Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner’s national finance director announced his resignation on Friday, marking the latest departure an exodus of personnel from a campaign dogged by controversy at every turn. Ronald Holmes, who started working for Platner’s campaign in August, announced his immediate exit in a LinkedIn post, saying he is “no longer fully aligned” with the campaign’s standards. The exit comes just days after Platner’s campaign manager, Kevin Brown stepped down after less than a week on the job, and two weeks since the campaign’s political director, Genevieve McDonald, left. “I joined this campaign because I believed in...

What they're saying: Sanders, who rallied with Platner last month in Maine, said he still thought Platner was the best candidate to win. Citing Platner's deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, Sanders said Platner "went into a dark period in his life. I suspect that Graham Platner is not the only American to have gone through a dark period."He added: "What he did was he expressed his darkness on the internet. Probably not a brilliant thing to do, alright? And he said things that are stupid, things that were hurtful. He has apologized for them." I think what we have got...

Graham Platner, a far-left Democratic candidate running for Senate in Maine who has captured the enthusiasm of the party’s grassroots base, sought to preempt rumors circulating in recent weeks that a black skull-and-cross bones tattoo on his chest is a Nazi symbol. Speaking with Tommy Vietor on the “Pod Save America” political podcast, released on Monday night, Platner, 41, confirmed the existence of the tattoo, seen in video he shared displaying his bare chest, but suggested that his opponents in the race have been spreading claims that the symbol is affiliated with Nazism, which he forcefully denied. “I am not...

Why it matters: (Graham) Platner drew the backing of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) as an anti-establishment outsider, but his campaign is already trying to clean up recently resurfaced Reddit posts where he espoused offensive views about Black people and sexual assault victims. Platner’s campaign shared video with Pod Save America of him singing shirtless that exposed a skull tattoo on his chest that resembles the “Totenkopf,” a symbol used by Hitler’s Schutzstaffel (SS). The move was intended to get ahead of opposition research, and the GOP’s Senate campaign arm seized on the images, accusing Platner of having a “Nazi tattoo.”...

Graham Platner, the Maine Democratic Senate candidate backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), wrote in 2020 that he had an "antifa supersoldier" label on his "armor," according to an archived post reviewed by Axios. Why it matters: Progressives have elevated Platner as one of their top candidates in next year's midterm elections, but his old Reddit posts have thrown his campaign into turmoil. Platner is running to unseat Sen. Susan Collins, Senate Democrats' top Republican target next year. The contest for the Democratic nomination between Platner and Maine Gov. Janet Mills — who's preferred by Democratic Party leaders — already...

When Senator Susan Collins of Maine appeared at a ribbon-cutting in the small town of Searsport this week, protesters awaited her. A now-viral video of the event shows Collins, a moderate Republican, at something of a loss. “Shame! Shame! Shame!” protesters shouted at her, until she said, “I have a suggestion. Would you listen to the suggestion?” One protester had an idea of their own. “Vote Graham Platner!” they replied. Platner was national news by the time Collins arrived in Searsport. On August 19, he announced that would run as a Democrat to unseat Collins, who has been in the...