The Graham Platner controversy deepened this week after the Maine Senate Democrat candidate admitted he has a Nazi-style tattoo on his chest—revealed during a friendly interview on the left-wing podcast Pod Save the World, hosted by former Obama aides Tommy Vietor and Ben Rhodes. Platner, who is challenging Republican Sen. Susan Collins, said he got the Totenkopf—a skull and crossbones emblem used by Nazi Germany—while serving in the Marines in 2007, claiming ignorance of its meaning.
“I am not a secret Nazi,” Platner told Vietor, adding, “Actually, if you read through my Reddit comments, you can pretty much figure out where I stand on Nazism.” Vietor brushed off the issue, calling the tattoo “opposition research” and describing Platner as a “normal guy” who wants to “make the country a better place.”
The soft treatment stands in sharp contrast to how Vietor and Rhodes attacked Secretary of War Pete Hegseth last year for his Jerusalem Cross tattoo. Rhodes had labeled it a “dog whistle” to “white nationalists,” asking if the military would now “recruit MAGA people.”
Former Platner campaign director Genevieve McDonald, who resigned last week, said the candidate “knows damn well what [the tattoo] means.” She accused him of trying to “get ahead” of the scandal by releasing a shirtless video to “some podcast bros.”
Despite the uproar, Sen. Bernie Sanders defended Platner, calling him “an excellent candidate” and dismissing concerns over the tattoo as political noise.
