When Democrat Graham Platner entered the race to unseat incumbent Republican senator Susan Collins in August, he immediately clicked with Maine voters. An oyster farmer and ex-Marine who looks the part of a rugged Down-Easter, Platner’s brand of left-wing populism, focused squarely on the state’s cost-of-living crisis, resonated broadly. Platner has raised an impressive $4-plus million, gotten reams of positive press, drawn large crowds across the state, and received endorsements from Bernie Sanders and several progressive organizations. He has successfully positioned himself as the insurgent alternative against the Democratic Establishment’s pick to take on Collins: Maine’s 77-year-old governor, Janet Mills, who finally joined the race this week with the backing of national figures such as Chuck Schumer.
A major part of Platner’s appeal is that he is the opposite of a seasoned politician. But given that he was basically unknown before the summer, it seemed inevitable that his lack of polish would come with a few downsides. So it was perhaps not shocking when CNN’s investigative reporter Andrew Kaczynski — known for exposing politicians’ unsavory pasts — published an article that included several eye-opening internet comments made by Platner during his pre-politician days posting on Reddit, mostly from 2020 and 2021. Some of the most notable:
In one now-deleted Reddit comment from 2021, Platner responded to a thread about people becoming more conservative as they age by saying: “I got older and became a communist.” The comment was made on a subreddit called r/Antiwork, a far-left forum “for those who want to end work.”
In one deleted comment, in a thread about a Black army lieutenant who was held at gunpoint and pepper-sprayed by police during a traffic stop, one Reddit user wrote, “Bastards. Cops are bastards.” Platner replied, “All of them, in fact.”
In another since-removed post from 2020, Platner responded to a thread titled “White people aren’t as racist or stupid as Trump thinks” by writing, “Living in white rural America, I’m afraid to tell you they actually are.”
In the now-deleted posts, Platner also used the word “retarded” repeatedly to denigrate other commenters, along with other harsh language, as when he responded to a question about why Maine had voted against a power line that would connect Massachusetts to Canada: “I have to ask, and I do mean this is the most charitable of ways, but are you retarded? We shouldn’t have the [sic] eat the pain because you cunts and Massachusetts couldn’t act like adults. Fuck off and die, leave Maine out of your capitalist fantasies.”
And Platner detailed the disillusionment he experienced after his military service, sounding a pessimistic note about the U.S.: “My time in America’s imperial wars definitely radicalized me further,” he wrote, “and I’m significantly more left today than I was back then. It is difficult to see all that horror, as well as all the grift and corruption, and not find the entire thing utterly bankrupt. I did used to love America, or at least the idea of it. These days I’m pretty disgusted by it all.”
In an interview with Kaczynski, Platner said many of his comments were broadly unrepresentative of his current views. “That was very much me fucking around the internet,” he said. “I don’t want people to see me for who I was in my worst internet comment — or even, frankly, who I was in my best internet comment … I don’t think any of that is indicative of who I am today, really.”
“I’m not a communist. I’m not a socialist. I own a small business. I’m a Marine Corps veteran,” he continued.
Platner said he is still “very angry still about the wars I had to fight in and what I had to take part in” — a view that is unlikely to alienate many voters — while sounding a brighter note about America’s future: “I absolutely love the place that I live, and I love the people around me,” he said. “And I do actually believe firmly in the idea that we as Americans have a lot in common and that we can be the thing that we want to be the thing that we claim to be.”
On Thursday night, Politico published its own story about Platner’s internet past, this one focusing on his seeming endorsement of political violence. In comments he made in 2018, as part of a sub-Reddit called the Socialist Redditor Rifle Association, Platner wrote that if people “expect to fight fascism without a good semi-automatic rifle, they ought to do some reading of history.” And there was more where that came from:
In a July 2018 post on the same subreddit, Platner said that he “agreed” with a 1914 quote from former socialist presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs that workers should arm themselves unless they are “willing to be forced into abject slavery.”
Platner cited Debs, who ran for president from prison, as an example to counter the notion that the 2nd Amendment only gained salience in the 1970s.
“That’s why this poster and the Debs quote that follows above should be shared far and wide. An armed working class is a requirement for economic justice,” Platner said.
“As I told CNN, I was fucking around on the internet at a time when I felt lost and very disillusioned with our government who sent me overseas to watch my friends die,” Platner told Politico. “I made dumb jokes and picked fights. But of course I’m not a socialist. I’m a small-business owner, a Marine Corps veteran, and a retired shitposter.”
And the hits kept on coming. On Friday, the Bangor Daily News revealed a series of Platner Reddit posts from 2013, in which he openly mused about a racist stereotype and appeared to make light of sexual assault:
Platner responded to a 2013 post on Reddit entitled “What is one question you have always wanted to ask someone of another race,” writing, “Why don’t black people tip?” He worked as a bartender at Tune Inn on Capitol Hill, where he was a guest bartender last month.
“I work as a bartender and it always amazes me how solid this stereotype is,” he wrote. “Every now and again a black patron will leave a 15–20% tip, but usually it [is] between 0–5%. There’s got to be a reason behind it, what is it?”
That same year, he also responded to a post about underwear designed to prevent sexual assault saying people should “take some responsibility for themselves and not get so f–ked up they wind up having sex with someone they don’t mean to?”
Whether Platner can surmount any fallout from the posts may depend on how well he can incorporate them effectively into his regular-guy image — and whether there is more from his past to be exposed, which seems like a decent bet at this point.
The reporting on Platner’s online past is already having an impact on his campaign. Per the Bangor Daily News, Maine state representative Genevieve McDonald left her role as Platner’s political director on Friday, writing in her resignation letter that the past remarks “were not known to me when I agreed to join the campaign, and they are not words or values I can stand behind in a candidate.”
This is all undoubtedly good news for Mills, who faces major electability questions herself, primarily regarding her age. She has pledged to serve only one term, but if Mills beats Platner and Collins, she would be the oldest freshman senator ever at 78. Especially after a presidential election defined by a Democrat’s advanced age, Mills will need to convince voters both that she’s fit to serve six years and that an Establishment deeply disliked by rank-and-file voters can still be trusted to pick the right candidate against the formidable Collins. Any more doubts about Platner’s viability will help.
Benjamin Hart,Nia Prater
Source link