Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner attempted to preempt potential opposition research by revealing and explaining a skull and crossbones tattoo on his chest that resembles Nazi imagery, as well as an embarrassing home video.
In a video interview with Pod Save America that aired Monday, Platner said he and his fellow Marines got matching tattoos at a salon in Split, Croatia, in 2007 while deployed overseas.
He said he wanted to address the issues himself before his opponents could use them as a weapon, saying there was nothing “worse” or “different” than his problematic Reddit posts that came back to bite his campaign in recent days, and insisting he had no knowledge of the historical associations of those images.
“We chose a terrifying skull and crossbones on the wall because we were Marines and skulls and crossbones are pretty standard military things,” he said, “and we got these tattoos and then we all left our lives.”
The tattoo in question resembles the Totenkopf, or “skull” symbol, which was adopted by Hitler’s SS during the Nazi era and became particularly associated with the SS-Totenkopfverbande, the branch charged with guarding the concentration camps, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
When reached for comment, Platner said, “I absolutely would not have lived my life with that on my chest if I had known that” the tattoo resembled a Nazi symbol. He said he was “already planning to get this removed.”
The skull is prominently featured in video footage he shared with the media company, which shows him dancing in his underwear at his brother’s wedding, lip-syncing to Miley Cyrus’ Wrecking Ball in a performance for his sister-in-law.
He emphasized in the interview that he was “not a secret Nazi” and pointed to his history of comments on Reddit as evidence of his opposition to Nazism, anti-Semitism and racism. “I would say a lifelong adversary,” he said.
The U.S. military already has a policy of controlling extremist, racist and sexist tattoos, and Platner added that the Nazi connection was never brought up during security checks, including when he joined the National Guard after his Navy service and later for the State Department when he worked as a security officer for the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan.
“The fact that I managed to go from being a communist to being a Nazi in the space of four days, according to the people who are trying to do this to me, is a pretty spectacular turn of events,” Platner said.
These revelations come as Platner’s insurgent campaign faces new scrutiny. On Friday, he released a video apology for inflammatory posts on Reddit spanning 2013 to 2021, which included calling police officers “bastards,” questioning why black people tip less and appearing to agree with characterizations of rural white voters as “racist” and “stupid.”
His former political director, Genevieve McDonald, a former state representative who resigned Friday following the Reddit comments, remained highly skeptical of Platner’s explanation for the tattoo.
“Platner prides himself on his extensive knowledge of military history,” McDonald said. “While he may not have known what his tattoo meant when he chose the image, it is not plausible that he remained ignorant of its meaning all these years.”
Platner has become a prominent figure in a competitive Senate race to flip Maine, drawing hundreds to town halls and raising nearly $4 million while positioning himself as a critic of the Democratic establishment, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, whom he has said he will not support.
In the podcast interview, Platner claimed he wasn’t trying to hide the tattoo.
“I can honestly say that if I tried to hide it, I haven’t done a very good job over the last 18 years,” he said.
