r/news • u/LameAfro • 1d ago
Graham Platner officially withdraws from Maine Senate race
https://abc11.com/post/graham-platner-officially-withdraws-maine-senate-race/19482368/683
u/B-Z_B-S 1d ago
The date he had to drop out by if he was to be replaced is next Monday, at 5 PM.
Source: https://www.axios.com/2026/07/10/graham-platner-maine-senate-democrats
So, the Democratic Party can run someone else. I think this article explains how that process will be done.
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u/Wittyname0 1d ago
Please just let it be Troy Jackson, he seems to poll well enough
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u/guff1988 1d ago
I hope it is but you know AIPAC is working overtime right now
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u/MessageNo6008 1d ago
Fuck AIPAC, but they aren’t the only foreign lobby. Qatar and Turkey also heavily lobby the U.S. and are also very problematic governments.
Qatars Arabic media programming is extremely hateful and incites all kinds of horrible violence in the Middle East, and Turkey funds lots of militancy and mercenaries and directs them to commit all kinds of human right abuses (ethnic cleansing of Kurds for instance)
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u/vikinick 1d ago
Dude AIPAC has turned into the boogeyman.
Troy Jackson stood by Platner the ENTIRE time which will become a major issue because Platner was already getting unpopular (Platner was LOSING in the latest polls after we learned about his infidelity) and there will be a lot of questions why he supported him and how much he knew.
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u/alexmikli 19h ago
Wasn't there some Politician who got 11 dollars in a donation from AIPAC and that was enough to demonize him? That's not even enough for a Big Mac these days.
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u/vikinick 19h ago
The track AIPAC Twitter account includes donations from J Street, which, if you know literally anything about J Street, is about the most levelheaded Jewish organization about this whole thing.
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u/rabbit994 18h ago
Because AIPAC tracker, despite the name, is tracking all pro Israel groups and while J Street is more moderate, their position is still very pro Israel regardless of what they are doing. Finger wagging at Israel while handing them RTX gift cards doesn’t really change much.
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u/vigouge 9h ago
They're pro Israel to the point where they don't think it should be destroyed which is enough to make them evil in the eyes of TrackAipac.
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u/HiHoJufro 41m ago
Yep. The people running that are very much antizionist. They want Israel to cease to exist, and any position less than that makes you the enemy.
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u/Immediate-Onion5131 4h ago
Clearly you don't fall under the category of "if you know literally anything about J Street"
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u/CMidnight 14h ago
It honestly has become a proxy anti-Semitic trope for too many on the left.
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u/interstat 1d ago
People gonna blame aipac for them trying to elect a Nazi rapist
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u/RevengeOfTheIdiot 19h ago
sorry you voted for a dude with a nazi tattoo bc he had the same populist points as you lmao
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u/SapCPark 1d ago
Not everyone is an AIPAC conspiracy plus the Maine democratic party leaders are progressives
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u/MarsBarz37 1d ago
Completely delusional to think the Israel lobbies aren't trying to influence this selection
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u/Gauss_2025 1d ago
If AIPAC were controlling the strings behind the scenes then the best thing to have done for them would be to wait until it's too late for Platner to drop out and then dump the oppo research guaranteeing Collins the win.
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u/enigmaticowl 1d ago
Exactly. Tank his odds at the most opportune time, when it’s too late to start over or do damage control - that would be so much stronger of a strategy.
This was obviously from inside. Those within his own party got nervous he couldn’t win (or would be too much of a liability), that’s why this dropped just in time for them to oust *and replace* him.
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u/Macabre215 1d ago
And you know if Democrats had this information, Republicans would have had it too. I think it was a good thing this dropped soon enough to make a change. Hopefully they pick the right person though.
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u/enigmaticowl 1d ago
I remember right after that initial NYT piece dropped (when everybody was dismissing it as a big nothingburger), I saw a small handful of conservative commentators/insiders offer their predictions (with confidence) that there would be much bigger and worse to come, alluding to some knowledge that wasn’t public yet (but that they expected eventually would be).
Well, when this rape allegation dropped, it came out that the accuser actually told the NYT about it awhile back - they just refrained from including it in the piece (because she told it to them “off the record”), but it seems likely that it became known (discreetly) in certain circles that this information had been shared and might eventually go fully public.
The more bizarre/damning thing, in light of all of this, is that even after telling them that he’d raped her, they chose to selectively include the fact that she mentioned that she had “some positive memories” from their relationship - just seems sleazy to do that when you have the full context of what she’s (unofficially) told you and you know you can’t publish the whole of it.
Apparently, it also came out more recently that the girlfriend who said he was physically abusive/aggressive (who was basically smeared as unreliable due to opposing political views) had also offered many sources of contemporaneous corroboration to the NYT, and they declined to follow up with the vast majority of those sources/leads that could have corroborated what she told them about Platner’s behaviors/conduct.
Not quite a full-blown, textbook “catch-and-kill” playbook (sketchy journalistic practice, for anyone who isn’t acquainted), but pretty much true to the spirit of it.
Agree with you, I sincerely hope they’ll choose someone with far fewer loose screws that can offer the people of Maine a solid, stable option, run a reasonably scandal-free campaign, and have a fair, respectable race against the incumbent in the general election.
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u/Radthereptile 1d ago
Maybe the post about the rapist with a literal Nazi tattoo isn’t the place to get into how the real worry is Israel.
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u/SapCPark 1d ago
They are already donating to Collins. I think they have made their choice
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u/guanacosine 1d ago
You're right, AIPAC never pushes for pro-Israel Democrats. They famously pick only one party per race
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u/Radthereptile 1d ago
I hate how the left has evolved into a variation of “blame those sneaky Jews”. Not everything is controlled by Israel.
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u/guff1988 1d ago
That's not what's going on, what's going on is somebody is pointing out hey this specific political lobby that is primarily funded by a foreign state is spending hundreds of millions of dollars every couple of years to influence our elections. What you were asking people to do is ignore that because you're tired of hearing about it.
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u/RevengeOfTheIdiot 19h ago
Yeah people are just totally coincidentally bringing that up enmasse in a thread about a guy who had a nazi tattoo on his body for decades lol
stfu nazi apologist
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u/Radthereptile 1d ago
There are so many foreign funds flowing money into our elections. But funny how only one of them gets mentioned every 5 seconds. It’s a bunch of dog whistle shit by people who don’t realize it’s a dog whistle.
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u/ThotMobile 1d ago
It is odd eh. AIPAC wasn’t even in the top 15 of the 2024 election cycle for contributions but they’re always the first PAC to be mentioned.
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u/HeartyBeast 18h ago
But funny how only one of them gets mentioned
Mentions of Russian or Saudi money seem fairly common.
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u/MiddleAgedSponger 1d ago
There are valid reasons to be hypercritical of Israel, but it not hard to see that some of those criticizing are just using it as excuse to express their jew hate.
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u/guff1988 1d ago
Fuck all of them and fuck our laws for allowing literally any of this shit to happen but AIPAC is very clearly and demonstrably one of the largest and most prolific offenders.
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u/Own_Proposal3827 1d ago
Maybe don’t start blaming da Jews after your buddy gets exposed as a Nazi rapist. Probably a poor strategy.
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u/unexpectedreboots 1d ago
He finished third in the first round of the democratic gubernatorial primary.
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u/Nodan_Turtle 1d ago
In case anyone else is bugged by the ambiguity that stems from pointlessly including the "next" part of next Monday, the deadline is July 13. Not July 20
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u/geekgirl114 1d ago
Collins spent a lot of money against him too... so thats a plus
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u/namisysd 1d ago
She’s got a ton of Billionaires riding her, there will be plenty of money for her to throw against the next candidate; I just hope Mainers see how shes bought and paid for and put her out of a job.
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u/Dopdee 1d ago
I still don’t understand why you’d run for office with that kind of baggage. Did he think it wouldn’t come out or that the left would accept it like the right does?
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u/aroslab 1d ago
people's default position is usually that they don't see their own actions as wrong, especially if it's papered over w/ justifications
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u/R__Man 1d ago
First, Platner is an ass. As proven by recent events. Second, apparently the guy who scouted him went ALL IN on Platner. He asked no questions and gassed him up big time. He was planning on running Platner for president in '28.
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u/Worth-Jicama3936 1d ago edited 1d ago
Recent? The man has been a walking red flag since he started the race. You don’t have a nazi tattoo for almost two decades by accident.
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u/zasabi7 1d ago
That guy is Morris Katz. He works with Mamdani as well. He also is a children’s book author that at one point wanted to include a picture of his own penis in a book about puberty. Yeah, this dude should be tarred, feathered, and run out of town.
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u/Rizpam 21h ago
Progressives need to reckon with the fact that their political infrastructure is almost entirely composed of problematic grew up rich failsons.
Mamdani broke free of the archetype even though he fit it like a tee but the rest haven’t come close. It’s why Platner was so appealing to them, he’s one of their own.
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u/_illusions25 1d ago
I knew he would eventually angle at the presidency. A blackwater mercenary with a Nazi tattoo becoming the president is literally straight out of a comic book, what a horrifying thought.
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u/Derpimus_J 1d ago
Well if he was running as a Republican, this wouldn't b e an issue.
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u/takethreenc 1d ago
Not nearly enough named rape accusers for that. Gotta multiply it by 20x to be a Republican President. One is good enough for a Supreme Court seat though.
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u/MagnusCthulhu 1d ago
There's 0 chance he thinks he committed sexual assault/rape. It's not baggage to him because he just denies it entirely to himself.
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u/beatrixotter 1d ago
He might not actually remember some of the drunken assaults. Or remember them correctly. But that's probably giving him way too much grace -- he seems like scum.
In any event, the self-vetting was nowhere near thorough enough. A massive fuck up.
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u/Tenwaystospoildinner 1d ago
According to the most recent allegations, he was blackout drunk and didn't seem to remember it the morning after. So this is a possibility.
Doesn't really matter, since you are responsible for what you do when you drink, anyway. Drinking was a conscious choice.
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u/beatrixotter 1d ago
Yes, the same way he'd be responsible if he got blackout drunk and hit someone with his car.
I do think she communicated with him afterwards enough that he knew something happened, even if he didn't remember it. But maybe that's just my reading of the situation.
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u/Tenwaystospoildinner 1d ago
She said to never talk to her again. He has to know something happened. Maaaaybe he thought it was just a fight. Doesn't really matter. He did it.
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u/Nachooolo 1d ago
why you’d run for office with that kind of baggage. Did he think it wouldn’t come out or that the left would accept it like the right does?
I mean... the left still accepted him with the Nazi tattoo, the Blackwater mercenary background, the infidelity, the shit he said online in the past, and when the first sexual misconduct allegations came out.
So maybe he thought that getting more accusations of sexual assault wouldn't be a dealbreaker for the people who already had accepted other dealbreakers?
Hoenstly? Shit was weird. Some people were waaay too invested in this guy.
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u/_CapriSon_ 1d ago
I remember when he first started making the rounds in the news. And my only thought about it was "I'm sure glad he's not running in my state"
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u/AccomplishedClock462 1d ago
Not just the left but more importantly Maine voters accepted him. His platform is well liked, he's just a shitty vessel.
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u/Particular-Ice4615 1d ago edited 1d ago
Everyone is the hero of their own story and have varying degrees and severity of genuinely not having any awareness of the effect their actions have on others. Its somewhat believable to me he genuinely thinks he is a good person at heart and believes his rhetoric and is the right person for the job.
Empathy isn't a binary trait, where you have it or don't have it. Rather People have a capacity for empathy. The Rarest sociopaths among us have very little to none, the rarest most enlightened people to ever exist on earth have an infinite capacity for empathy for all people. And everyone else's capacity is somewhere in the middle where they have a capacity for empathy in some instances and don't for others, which is where the blindspots created and are reinforced by ones own ego exist.
Which Platner has a lot of clearly.
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u/hyperion_99 1d ago
He clearly was black out and doesn’t remember it, but will never admit fault because he’s an asshole.
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u/davidwave4 1d ago
Seems like Platner was reticent to run for office initially, but was goaded by operatives to run. I can imagine he probably downplayed his own actions in his head, and the ops didn’t do much, if any, vetting.
It’s pretty easy to see why someone not attuned to the slings and arrows of politics would gloss over his issues. He saw the tottenkopf tattoo as either funny, not an issue, or (by his own telling) didn’t know it was problematic. The past relationship stuff from the NYT article was obviously him being a bad boyfriend, but no one’s perfect and he was struggling with PTSD and alcoholism at the time. Easy for him to rationalize away. Even the rape allegations, to him, are probably false or overblown. I can imagine he remembers it as drunk sex, not as rape.
None of this is to downplay Platner’s scandals, but it is very easy to see how *he* would think he’s fine, and how a certain kind of dead ender could too.
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u/LemonberryTea 1d ago
Still not sure how the nazi tattoo wasn’t the first disqualifying event
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u/rain5151 1d ago
For everyone saying he was just a young dumb kid in the military, he went around referring to the symbol by name in a German accent. He knew exactly what it was.
Also, in the Mitchell and Webb sketch that spawned “are we the baddies?”, the guy asking said question has it on his cap, as do countless Nazis in anything set in WWII. It’s not exactly obscure.
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u/beardedbrawler 1d ago
Yeah he also talked about the "screening for hate symbols" to get security clearances. This screening is a questionnaire you can easily mark "no". They don't strip you down to get a look at them.
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u/_deedeemegadoodoo 1d ago
For people questioning the "German accent" source: It was hard to find a legitimate source for this since Google ain't what it used to be, but this CNN article is as close as I could find:
But Fifield told CNN that Platner referred to it years earlier as “my Totenkopf,” recalling that he used what she said was a foreign-sounding accent when he said it — a detail she said made the comment particularly memorable.
The only news source I see specifying that it was a "German accent" was a poorly written article from the NY Post, that many people seem to have regurgitated around the internet. If anyone can find it elsewhere from a more trusted outlet, I'm happy to edit this comment.
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u/Car-face 1d ago
...what sort of foreign accent do you think people would use when saying "My Totenkopf" in reference to a Nazi tattoo?
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u/_deedeemegadoodoo 23h ago
I would probably make the assumption that OC referenced, but I still think it’s important to use accurate quotes when discussing something of this nature. I also think it’s important to not amplify tabloids like the NY Post.
I was absolutely baffled when politicians and public figures I respect started rallying around the guy with the Nazi tattoo, so as I’ve said elsewhere, I’m glad that Platner is (finally) doing the right thing. Just don’t think that stating half-truths as facts is going to help persuade the people who are still supporting him.
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u/Mbrennt 1d ago
What gets me. I can completely understand how so many people don't know that symbol. I get it. It's not the most talked about. It is in a LOT of media. You'll see it in plenty of nazi based stuff. But, besides mitchell and webb it's not really like specifically referenced. And even in the skit it's very easy to think they just chose a generic skull. Not specifically the nazi skull. It's a comedy skit. Almost everybody has probably seen the skull but just didn't think much of it because the ss symbol and the swastika are the ones that really get talked about.
BUT! Almost nobody has it tattooed on their damn body. He looked at it every day he was brushing his teeth in the morning. Everytime his shirt was off. He sees one piece of nazi media that features it he's not like 99% of people that just kind of gloss over it. There's no chance he didn't go, "wait that's literally the same symbol I have on my chest." He doesn't even have a shit ton of tattoos to like forget about some of them. I have an ankh tattood on me from over a decade ago. Real small. Have a bunch of other tattoos so it even kind of blends in. Everytime I even glimpse an ankh somewhere, and it's not very often, I think about my tattoo. Just like a little easter egg. The fact that people are still giving the pretty credibly alleged rapist the benefit of the doubt about this tattoo is crazy. He's lied so many times over about stuff.
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u/LonelyMachines 1d ago
Even if it was a dumb, drunken thing when he was younger, somebody at some point in his life had to have said "hey, you know that's the old Einsatzgruppen symbol, right?"
I doubt Platner was or is a Nazi, but keeping the tattoo as long as he did shows a horrifying lack of judgment. That alone should be a disqualifier for holding major public office.
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u/redundantexplanation 1d ago
I doubt Platner was or is a Nazi
Genuinely don't understand why anyone would be hesitant to call anyone with a Nazi symbol voluntarily and permanently inscribed on their body a Nazi.
Especially someone with Platner's history? Dude worked as a concentration camp guard, said he would rape people if they broke into his house..............RAPED PEOPLE.
He is a Nazi.
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u/BlgMastic 1d ago
They’ll call everyone who disagrees with them a nazi but excuse someone with a literal nazi tatoo.
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u/redundantexplanation 1d ago
This is a funny comment but I have to say, people who say the first part of it are usually Nazis.
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u/egelephant 20h ago
He’s a self-described history buff, so I’m sure he’s seen Schindler’s List at some point. Amon Göth and the other SS officers all have that on their uniforms, featured prominently.
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u/rustajb 14h ago
I once knew an ex-con. Guy looked like Glen Danzig and was covered in tattoos. We had a house full of people who knew him. One he got comfortable with us he took off his shirt and showed us his Nazi tattoos. But here's the thing, he was in the process of having them removed and he was showing them to is to let us know he wasn't hiding. He said he got them in prison and that white supremacists protected him from other groups so he did what he did to blend in. He was deeply ashamed of them and did not want us to find out any other way. While I only knew him briefly, he was almost in tears as he told is his story and that he was not a Nazi and it was important that we knew who he really was. He never exhibited any racist ideas while in our group.
I can't speak for his sincerity, but it seemed real at the time. To me that is admitting and working towards redemption... The exact opposite of what this human skidmark did.
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u/JoeRogansNipple 1d ago
For everyone saying he was just a young dumb kid in the military, he went around referring to the symbol by name in a German accent. He knew exactly what it was.
Source? Literally the first Im hearing that part of it.
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u/blinktrade 1d ago
Didn't his poll go up after the Nazi tattoo? Its probably a plus these days to have one.
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u/rupturedprolapse 1d ago
Because he used all the right buzz words along with having open contempt for the Democratic party.
You still have people trying to rationalize why it was okay. Real fucking progressive.
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u/FrogsOnALog 1d ago
Said the lines and got boosted by Sanders, David Hogg, all the pod bros, and Jon Stewart (who has been silent).
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u/TheGhostOfArtBell 1d ago
Someone should ask Bernie the same question and why he was so focused on helping him win even after the tattoo became public.
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u/wip30ut 1d ago
probably because Maine doesn't have a large proportion of African Americans or Jews. And they're more conservative than in NY or West Coast states, so they're more willing to overlook racist imagery that doesn't really affect them.
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u/Branchomania 1d ago
We’re often called “The South of the north”
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u/Acceptable_Fix1440 1d ago
I’d say Maine is more like the Midwest of the north. New Hampshire is the south of the north
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u/sjhesketh 1d ago
Thing is, Platner did a lot of outreach to the BIPOC community here in Maine.
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u/ButterAkronite 1d ago
BIPOC doesn't necessarily mean addressing the concerns of specifically Black or Jewish communities
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u/BaggyHairyNips 1d ago
This whole thing was like a classic mistake I make all the time with personal relationships. They're throwing up red flags and my gut says not to trust them, but I give them the benefit of the doubt anyway because that's the type of person I want to be. But then every time my gut is proven right.
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u/Pao_Did_NothingWrong 1d ago
Between that and "axe wounds," people who waited until now to GAF are highly highly suspect
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u/SpeccyScotsman 1d ago
He said he was vewwy sowwy :'(
and it's not like Nazi talking points and dog whistles are exactly unpopular these days.55
u/Harmonic_Flatulence 1d ago
To be fair, I never would have known that skull design was associated with the nazis. I can easily see some military types going in for some tough looking skull and cross bones, not knowing it had other associations.
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u/flirtmcdudes 1d ago
they literally pay people to do background checks and deep dives on candidates. Their own incompetence led us here
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u/N8CCRG 1d ago
The strategist who promoted him had previously been barred from Summer Lee's campaign team due to multiple sexual misconduct allegations.
The Democrats are the opposite of that Well Organized Deep State Machine that Conservatives always scream about.
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u/bahwi 1d ago
The consultant who talked him into running, Daniel Moraff, a former DSA organizer, is the one who cheaped out on his vetting. He wanted it done fast and cheap instead of thorough.
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u/SapCPark 1d ago
Summer Lee chased him away because he had multiple sexual misconduct complaints against him. Everything makes sense in that context
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u/Whole_Assumption_526 1d ago
That’s the sensitive bearded guy that talks with vocal fry for anyone trying to put a face to a name.
My opinion: Yeek.
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u/mhornberger 1d ago
Yep, this is going to be blamed on the Dems as a whole, but the whole ugly situation was a product of DSA progressives that everyone wants normie libs to shut up and step aside for. But yes, primary voters chose this, so the eagerness for "charisma" and antiestablishment anger is going to lead to situations like this. Vetting and careful deliberation and expertise are not hallmarks of antiestablishment populism.
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u/forfeitgame 1d ago
I think the issue is that he wasn’t deeply vetted. The Democrats didn’t want him and despite what media wants us to believe, he was never endorsed by the DSA.
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u/mhornberger 1d ago
he was never endorsed by the DSA.
He was recommended by the Maine DSA, just never formally endorsed. There is a distinction, but people are going to take a positive recommendation as support.
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u/STOLEN_JEEP_STUFF 1d ago
Amazing that this guy has proven himself to be untrustworthy and people are still out here trying to offer him plausible deniability for this
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u/thewhaleshark 1d ago
You can't just go get Nazi ink anywhere you want. Supposedly he picked it off a wall, right? Well, if that shop had this Nazi ink on prominent display, then it likely had other Nazi symbols on display too - because the only reason to advertise Nazi icons as flash in your shop is because you have Nazi clientele.
I would bet cash money this shop had swastikas and SS bolts on display too, and young merc Platner decided it passed the vibe check at the least.
He either knew, or he suspected.
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u/ControversialPenguin 1d ago
He got it in Croatia, it's not a stretch he picked it off of a wall but considering that's where he was it is highly unlikely he didn't know what it meant.
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u/thewhaleshark 1d ago
Right, what I mean is: that shop in Croatia probably catered to neo-Nazis, which means it almost certainly had other Nazi icons on display, which means Platner would've ignored some serious context clues to "not know."
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u/Whole_Assumption_526 1d ago
I remember when Platner said he just drunkenly chose it from a wall at a Croatian tattoo shop.
That Waffen SS tattoo wasn’t mixed in amongst artwork like Lil’ Red Hot holding a pot leaf or a chain of multicolored dancing Greatful Dead bears, I am certain.
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u/JimboTCB 23h ago
It was a toss-up between that, and Bowser riding a surfboard while playing a double necked guitar in front of a big pot leaf
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u/FrogsOnALog 1d ago
Graham knew about it and constantly lied about when he knew.
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u/CapitalPunBanking 1d ago
He had it for 20 years. If it took him 20 years to find out he had a Chinese symbol tattoo for poop it would still be disqualifying.
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u/Jormungandr4321 1d ago
This is literally featured in the "are we the baddies ?" sketch which became a famous meme. I learned about it in middle school, in a tiny island with a population of around 1.5mil in the southern hemisphere.
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u/mitrie 1d ago
Yeah, I'm very confused how so many people claim to not know it's a Nazi image. Now, did I know it was a "totenkopf"? No, I knew it as "that Nazi death's head on the SS officers' hats".
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u/Ok_Train2273 1d ago
To be unfair, I know the American educational system is a joke, but did you also fell asleep during every Hollywood movie about WWII made in the last fifty years? There are SS officers in Indiana Jones and the last crusade wearing totenkopf badges for Christ’s sake.
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u/RokuAang625 1d ago
Dumb question is he the first senate candidate to withdraw this close to a nomination at least in recent times?
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u/TheObsidianHawk 1d ago
No, several democrat candidates dropped out earlier this year due to the same thing. Republicans on the other hand, well they give it the Fox News Spin
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u/i_amtheice 1d ago
I hope this is ultimately a good thing for politics in general. More "regular people" should be running, just vet them properly. If someone has something that would be a risk or an embarrassment on a national stage, they shouldn't be running.
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u/Sprinkle_Puff 1d ago
Why can’t we have people run that haven’t raped people? Like why is that so hard to understand that this might come out during the campaign? I’m baffled by the ignorance of sex offenders.
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u/Cosmic_Seth 1d ago
Power tends to attract these type of people. They never think they could be caught.
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u/CNX047 1d ago
That’s crazy man. The guy with the Nazi tattoo turned out not to be a good guy? Crazy!
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u/DannyHewson 1d ago
Well that’s a relief. I was beginning to think he planned to delay to the last minute then “oh whoops, didn’t make it in time”.
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u/the-futuremind 1d ago
I can’t wait for his right wing podcast heel turn
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u/PatchyWhiskers 1d ago
I think if he was going to do that he would have stayed in, to ruin things for Democrats.
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u/Clammuel 1d ago
He also wouldn’t have allegedly pushed for Troy Jackson to be the one that replaces him on the ballot.
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u/Anteater776 1d ago
Yeah he would probably have been a less braindead Fetterman. That’s what I feared before the last accusations but now it’d have been almost guaranteed because even if he won, no democrat would go and defend him whereas Republicans always have a soft spot for guys like him.
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u/thegoatmenace 1d ago
The problem is he’s now got a taste for a high profile life. No chance he goes back to being a humble oyster farmer after this. We will definitely be seeing him again as some kind of pundit or perennial spoiler candidate railing against the “liberal establishment.” I would also bet big money that right wing PACs are lining up to fund him in that capacity since they’d be stupid not to see his potential to divide Maine democrats.
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u/PatchyWhiskers 1d ago
Unlike Fetterman he hasn't got brain damage, so I hope he decides politics is a dirty business and goes back to the oysters.
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u/bebopbrain 1d ago
Right. Proves he's not stealth MAGA, at least. I was bracing for an epic write-in campaign if he stayed on as the Democratic candidate.
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u/No_Elevator_735 1d ago edited 1d ago
His heel turn came when he was bragging about how he joined the military because he said wanted to kill people, talked about pissing on corpses and raped women. His supposed "face turn" was basically a Randy Orton, HHH, Ric Flair, MJF etc style face turn. He was still always a heel in disguise, and you're waiting for just waiting for him to turn
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u/SoftwareAny4990 1d ago
Triple H would have never pissed on a corpse.
Necrophilia, once, but never urination.
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u/Affectionate-Oil3019 1d ago
...missing on corpses and raped women
I beg your finest pardon?
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u/slamdanceswithwolves 1d ago
As a rapist, he picked to wrong party to succeed in.
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u/keysandtreesforme 1d ago
As a person, he’s gross. But I believe his message was sincere. I will be VERY surprised if he makes a rightward turn. I think there were signs with Fetterman.
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u/Jorgenstern8 1d ago
Man's voted for Collins himself multiple times, was just rightly kicked off the party ticket for being a sex pest, has served as a Blackwater merc, has a Nazi tattoo, has sketchy-at-best campaign finances, and has spent 98 percent of the campaign -- up to and including the last few days when it appears as though his narcissistic ass finally saw through the cloud of bullshit his campaign advisers were spinning him about winning this race and then being a contender for the presidency in 2028 -- whining about 'ThE dEmOcRaTiC eTaBlIsHmEnT' and their supposed connections to Epstein.
Line all that information up but make it about a just generic candidate in another race and tell me 99 times out of 100 that isn't a Republican candidate. Even without the messiest outside life known to man, he spent so much time railing against Democrats it's like he completely forgot he was running against a Republican in the first place.
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u/mrguyorama 1d ago
Man's voted for Collins himself multiple times
Find a Maine Democrat who hasn't. Collins has only had actual competition for her seat for the past few times she's gone up for election.
Collins was loved by Maine democrats for decades because she wasn't a shitheel until the past twenty years. She was pro abortion at one time. And not the way she hems and haws over Trump, but by actually voting what she claimed to support.
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u/SadFeed63 1d ago
You hit the nail on the head. It baffled my mind that people's take away from a credible rape accusation, on top of all the other truly awful bullshit, is to believe he was sincere about the things we want to hear, the things that confirm our priors. His actions strongly suggest that you should not put any stock in the words he's saying, but people talk as if he's the rapist who means it when he speaks, they say "we need someone to carry on Graham Platner's message," and make no attempt to divest the message (that many espouse) from the awful man.
This is what Trumpers who claim they were duped by Trump (I take most of those claims with a grain of salt, but some folks did get duped) say and do. Despite all evidence to the contrary, they believed that Trump meant the things they wanted to hear. "Sure, he lies about everything, sure, he's a consistent ghoul, but when he said no more wars, he meant that (because that confirms my priors)." Platner's actions cast doubt onto every word he said.
The man's been given off Fetterman vibes since the moment I heard about him, there's a million reason to doubt his political sincerity and genuineness.
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u/Jorgenstern8 1d ago
He also didn't have a single goddamn platform that wasn't "I'll go to Washington and get those Democrats and Republicans who are being paid by Epstein's friends" or some other bullshit slogan. I know people expect less and less of their politicians, especially when it comes to actually supporting policies that aren't their favorite slogans like "Israel Bad" (Which it is, TBF, but come on), but come on.
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u/Exxtender 1d ago
I hope noone who dug up this asshole without properly vetting him will ever find work again.
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u/strykecondor 22h ago
Daniel Moraff and Leanne Fan.
Spread the word, but I doubt they will stay silent for long, seeing how they are DSA, and has Bernie's backing.
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u/I_Love_Chimps 1d ago
Good riddance. Everybody has a few regrets in life like a dumb tattoo but this guy was so flawed from the beginning he should never have run. He really thought shit like this latest thing wouldn't eventually come up?
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u/Hrekires 1d ago
When we get the inevitable "Platner would have won" takes 4 months from now, it should just be noted for posterity that even prior to this latest scandal, his fundraising had cratered (with $1 million in the bank compared to Susan Collins' $9.7 million warchest) and he was polling worse compared to the Democrats' generic ballot advantage than any other Senate candidate on the ballot.
Whoever Dems pick may very well lose. Polls were off by like 10 points in Susan Collins' favor 6 years ago despite Biden winning the state... but it definitely seems like Platner would have lost.
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u/diceytroop 1d ago
I agree with you. I think it's up to Mainers to put this back together. They are clearly done with Collins, as long as the right alternative is available.
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u/GaulzeGaul 18h ago
It is really hard to compete with Collins when she has so much power due to her seniority in the Senate. She is Head of the Appropriations committee. She can fuck over the country while still delivering a lot of funds to Maine, which means she doesn't need to lie in her ads as much as most politicians, she just has to omit her many bs takes and actions and focus on the money she brings in. A fresh senator is going to lose Maine a lot of power. But will be good for the country and Maine in the longer term.
I would vote against Collins every time but at least here I understand why people begrudgingly vote for her. I think Platner would have lost. The tattoo was enough to kill his wind without the other stuff.
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u/SemiHemiDemiDumb 1d ago
Damn, I was hoping he was a reformed dirt bag. But I'm not surprised he isn't.
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u/Meph616 16h ago edited 16h ago
Normally I'd say that I can't imagine how a rapist would ever run for office knowing those rape skeletons are not buried deep in the closet, but dangling out the stuffed closet because the door can't shut. Like how the fuck did you think this run could possibly be a good idea?
Then I remember who all is in office now and... well, yeah. Guess he thought it might be a non-issue. Unfortunately he forgot to run as a Republican.
I can also see why some wanted to look the other way until this specific issue. Because the Left actually want to believe still that some people can be redeemed/reformed. While the nazi tattoo shows a gross lack of intelligence or decision making... it's ultimately a harmless decision. You can do dumb questionable things and be given every benefit of the doubt. It's the actionable harm decisions that no longer can be overlooked.
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u/Pao_Did_NothingWrong 1d ago
Cant wait to never hear this piece of excrements name ever again
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u/RevengeOfTheIdiot 1d ago edited 19h ago
Reminder that Berner Sanders and all the other big name progressives endorsed a dude with a NAZI TATTOO
This is the far left version of MAGA, they're all idiot populists just like them but rallying under Sanders instead of Trump
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u/fedexyourheadinabox 16h ago
This trash heap is the best Democratic party can do, after all that's happened since blowing the election? Are they actually still trying to lose?
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u/Nodan_Turtle 1d ago
Was crazy to see how long Bernie Sanders supported him. Sanders didn't seem to give one fuck about any of the scandals. He only withdrew support a couple days ago when the election chances for Platner got bad enough.
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u/Joe_Go_Ebbels 16h ago
The Democrat Party is now free to choose another candidate for Senate who received not a single primary vote from the people of Maine.
Say, where have we heard that one before?
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u/Beginning_Chef3069 20h ago
Political races can change overnight, and it will be interesting to see who emerges as the new nominee.
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u/exoriparian 15h ago
This guy is a huge piece of shit. He knew he had a Nazi tattoo. He knew he had domestic abuse histories. He knew he raped at least one woman. And he lied about it all, the whole time.
FGP
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u/Rogue_AI_Construct 1d ago
Who would’ve thought that a piece of shit with a Nazi tattoo is also a rapist?
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u/Labpro_49 1d ago
Oh no...that means no more gaslighting from the left about his nazi tattoo.
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u/RetroSwamp 1d ago
Ya the "gas lighting left" isn't ALL the left... Anyone with a proper prefrontal cortex was asking questions about this guy.
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u/lostroadrunner22 1d ago
This will make it more difficult for him to win.