Democratic candidate Graham Platner denies being ‘secret Nazi’ over tattoo

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Maine Democratic Senate candidate and former Marine Graham Platner denied that he was a "secret Nazi" on Monday after revealing he has a tattoo that resembles a Nazi Germany image.

Platner's marketing campaign shared a video with the " Pod Save America " podcast that confirmed Platner lip-syncing to Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball" at his brother's marriage ceremony a few decade in the past. Within the video, Platner is shirtless and seems to have a cranium tattoo on his chest that resembles the "Totenkopf," an emblem of the SS, or Schutzstaffel, below Adolf Hitler.

"I'm not a secret Nazi," Platner stated. "Truly, when you learn by means of my Reddit feedback, I believe you possibly can just about determine the place I stand on Nazism and antisemitism and racism generally. I would say a lifelong opponent."

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<source media="(min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1023px)" srcset="https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/10/672/378/democratic-senate-candidate-graham-platner-of-maine.jpg?ve=1&tl=1, https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/10/1344/756/democratic-senate-candidate-graham-platner-of-maine.jpg?ve=1&tl=1 2x" height="378" width="672"><source media="(min-width: 1024px) and (max-width: 1279px)" srcset="https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/10/931/523/democratic-senate-candidate-graham-platner-of-maine.jpg?ve=1&tl=1, https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/10/1862/1046/democratic-senate-candidate-graham-platner-of-maine.jpg?ve=1&tl=1 2x" height="523" width="931"> Graham Platner, a U.S. Marine and Military veteran and oyster farmer, in August launched a Democratic run for the U.S. Senate in Maine in opposition to Sen. Susan Collins. (Graham Platner marketing campaign)

Platner stated that he received the tattoo in a Croatia parlor after being "very inebriated" along with his fellow Marines in 2007. He insisted that skulls and crossbones had been a "fairly normal navy factor" and that he received the tattoo previous to becoming a member of the Military and getting a safety clearance.

"At no level on this whole expertise of my life did anyone ever as soon as say, ‘Hey, you are a Nazi,'" Platner stated. "It by no means got here up till we received wind that within the opposition analysis, any individual was procuring the concept that I used to be a secret Nazi with a hidden Nazi tattoo. And I can truthfully say that if I used to be attempting to cover it, I've I've not been doing an excellent job for the previous 18 years."

Platner rapidly confronted backlash for the video, together with from the Nationwide Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC).

"This comes lower than every week after he was caught: advocating for political violence, saying Black folks don’t tip, calling all police ‘bastards,’ calling Maine’s lobstermen 'items of sh*t.' What’s subsequent...," the group wrote on X .

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Graham Planter is trying to run in opposition to Sen. Susan Collins however has to first win the Democratic major in opposition to sitting Gov. Janet Mills. (Mark Makela/Getty Photographs)

Though Platner urged he didn't assume the image meant something past a cranium and crossbones, his former political director Genevieve McDonald reportedly wrote on Fb that he "is aware of rattling properly what it means."

"That is severely the dumbest timeline," McDonald wrote . "Graham has an anti-Semitic tattoo on his chest. He is not an fool, he is a navy historical past buff. Possibly he did not understand it when he received it, however he received it years in the past and he ought to have had it lined up as a result of he is aware of rattling properly what it means."

She added, "The vault is open for the GOP to f------ crush any goals we had within the common and actually everybody I do know is preventing with one another on social media. We can't be this painfully silly."

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Graham Platner's former director reportedly claimed that he knew "rattling properly" what the image meant. (Graham Platner Senate marketing campaign)

Fox News Digital reached out to Platner's marketing campaign and the NRSC for remark.

Platner, who's trying to tackle longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, lately got here below hearth final week after Reddit posts of his from 2018 resurfaced. In a single put up, he wrote that "all" police are bastards and referred to as himself a "communist."

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In a separate put up, he argued that if folks "count on to battle fascism with out a good semi-automatic rifle, they should do some studying of historical past."

Lindsay Kornick is an affiliate editor for Fox Information Digital. Story suggestions may be despatched to lindsay.kornick@fox.com and on Twitter: @lmkornick.