Sen. Bernie Sanders, who strongly backed Platner earlier this month, said the revelations about Platner do not impact his endorsement.

“He went through a dark period,” Sanders told reporters on Tuesday. “He has apologized for the stupid remarks, the hurtful remarks that he made, and I’m confident that he’s going to run a great campaign and that he’s going to win.”

Vermont Sen. Peter Welch also told NOTUS on Tuesday that he is confident “Mainers will figure it out.”

Cynthia Phinney, president of the Maine AFL-CIO, said she had not seen reports about Platner’s tattoo and the controversy surrounding it. But she made clear she thought the negative news about Platner was a result of meddling from the national Democratic Party.

“I’m disappointed with the apparent engagement of the national party in our state primary the way this is coming out,” Phinney said.

Phinney said that she didn’t have proof that the national party was behind the emergence of a series of damaging news stories about his campaign but that she thought the “mudslinging” was unhelpful regardless of its source.

“I don’t think this is adding to the quality of what people are getting to think about in the campaign,” she said. “The important thing to me is to replace Suan Collins.”

When asked about the reports, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer threw his weight behind Mills’ campaign. 

“We think that Janet Mills is the best candidate to retire Susan Collins. She’s a tested two-term governor and the people of Maine have an enormous amount of affection and respect for her,” he said, adding: “I’ll let the people of Maine decide.”

The guy with 5 separate compact tours who was deployed in the same cities and time of Blackwater documented war crimes of killings and rapings in Ramadi and Faillujah, and kept rejoinging the same ill-trained war-criminal military contrator for 13 years of US imperalism invovlment in third-world countries that left them in poverty and ruins ?? Wait, he also has histroy of sexual assault allegations, rape and racist comments, and a nazi tattoo??

Edit: it turned out he only joined blackwater after they were rebranded as Constellis due to their war crime convictions. he also apologized for his rape and racist comments after people found out about them. and about the tattoos he said it was from anime or whatever but it's not nazi symbol. He is still proud of his 5 compact tours of shame US invasions over the period of 13 years though as if he can't stop reminiscing about the memories of seeing brown people killed.

Imo, he is conciousless af, and ready to lie and adapt to tell you whatever you want to hear, and he's so eager to be in position of power... So it all checks out; he is perfect for the job of a conciousless lip-service politician with values open for sale to the highest bidder.

But according to a person who socialized with Platner when he was living in Washington, D.C., more than a decade ago, Platner had specifically acknowledged that the tattoo was a Totenkopf, the "death's head" symbol adopted by an infamous Nazi SS unit that guarded concentration camps in World War II.

"He said, 'Oh, this is my Totenkopf," the former acquaintance told Jewish Insider recently, speaking on the condition of anonymity to address a sensitive issue. "He said it in a cutesy little way."

The exchange occurred in 2012 at Tune Inn, a popular dive on Capitol Hill where Platner later worked as a bartender and was a frequent patron while he attended The George Washington University on the G.I. bill, according to the former acquaintance. He would often take his shirt off drinking with friends late at night at the bar, and on at least one occasion had stated he knew what the tattoo represented, the former acquaintance recalled.

Platner gave varying accounts of the image during this time, saying at one point he was aware it was a Totenkopf when he had first gotten the tattoo several years prior and at another time claiming he had not known, according to the former acquaintance.

The mixed accounts indicate that Platner has at least long been aware of the symbols's connection to Nazism, even as he said in the podcast interview he was not familiar with any such association when he chose to get the tattoo.

The source for this is Jewish Insider, which I’m sure people will say whatever they are going to say about that, but at some point this guys multiple red flags need to be taken as a pattern.

Dude has a very clear pattern of making questionable choices in the most favorable reading of circumstances. His former campaign manager said this when resigning over Grahams past comments:

“The words we choose to use online reflect who we are and what we stand for. While I am empathetic to Graham’s experiences and respect his personal journey and growth, I cannot overlook the volume and nature of his past comments, many of which were made as an adult, not as a young man.” McDonald said in her resignation letter.

Y’all need to stop apologizing for this guy and start looking for a better candidate to get behind so it isn’t Janet Mills in the general.

I would be gobsmacked if it turns out the DNC is not behind this smear campaign. They ratfuck primaries like nobody’s business, and in true Dem fashion, it’s so they can try to get a literal 80 year old into power instead. Fucking moron democrats never learn a damn thing.

edit: saw Platner address this on pod save. Don’t think he knew. I think he should just get the tat covered, make an apology statement, and move on.

This is a complicated story. Reddit somehow released his username and tied it to him? No one has said how they were tied together.

The Washington Post reported Platner downplayed concerns about sexual assault in posts from 2013. CNN reported he labeled all White Americans in rural areas as racist and stupid in one 2020 post and said all cops are “bastards” in a 2021 post. The Bangor Daily News reported Platner asked why Black people “don’t tip” in a 2013 post.

Now he has a nazi tattoo that he didn't know was a nazi tattoo. That may be true? I don't know. He's going up against Susan Collins. I can't imagine the DNC wanting her over anyone.

I feel like you have to try to find a tattooist in Croatia in the mid aughts willing to ink an ss symbol on an American military member. Like I've never been there but I know in America it's a pain in the ass to get a swastika or ss lightning bolt tattoo because most artists won't do it, and this is America where we skim history in schools

“We got very inebriated, and we did what Marines on liberty do, and we decided to go get a tattoo. We went to a tattoo parlor in Split, Croatia. We chose a terrifying-looking skull and crossbones off the wall … a pretty standard military thing,”

and you did not, at any point in this "skull and crossbones" endeavor, have your "are we the baddies" moment?

Today I learned that a Nazi tattoo. Anyone else here know that before this story?

To be fair Nazis use a lot of covert symbolism specifically to mask what they mean. Like the number 1488. You would have to be terminally online or be a.politics nerd to know that's a dog whistle. That's the whole purpose of Nazi symbolism. It's to coverly signal other Nazis that they are in good company. It is extremely easy to accidentally have something that's a Nazi symbol. Also they fucking take over everything. Like the fucking ok sign with your hand. Like wtf

See what the DNC does to smear the non-80 year old candidate?

Next!

This made me spit out my coffee. Thanks for posting.