{"id":23066,"date":"2026-04-12T02:32:36","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T02:32:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2026\/04\/12\/nazi-tattoo-dem-blames-u-s-army-culture-for-ink-nasty-social-media-posts\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T02:32:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T02:32:36","slug":"nazi-tattoo-dem-blames-u-s-army-culture-for-ink-nasty-social-media-posts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2026\/04\/12\/nazi-tattoo-dem-blames-u-s-army-culture-for-ink-nasty-social-media-posts\/","title":{"rendered":"Nazi Tattoo Dem Blames U.S. Army \u2018Culture\u2019 For Ink, Nasty Social Media Posts"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Maine Democrat Graham Platner, who is running for the U.S. Senate in Maine, faced backlash for his Nazi-symbol tattoo and several nasty social media posts \u2014 and during a recent interview, he attributed both on the \u201cculture\u201d that he was exposed to while serving in the United States military.<\/p>\n

Platner<\/a>, who served both in the Marine Corps and the U.S. Army, got the tattoo covered up<\/a> after the initial public outcry, appeared on \u201cThe Takeout with Major Garrett\u201d \u2014 and he argued that the \u201chyper-masculine\u201d culture in the infantry had \u201ccolored\u201d his perspective in the past.<\/p>\n

WATCH:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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In response to controversy surrounding a tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol and comments he made previously on Reddit, Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner says \u201cmuch of it was because of the culture I had come out of.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I left the military, I came out of a\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/C069CLxuDb<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 CBS News (@CBSNews) April 10, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cGraham, there have been a lot of things said about you. Things that you have written on Reddit, a tattoo you had and a controversy around that, and I want to ask you this, because I don\u2019t think it\u2019s been put to you this way before: Is there anything you\u2019ve done or said that you regret that did not come from the stresses you internalized from Post-Traumatic Stress itself? That is to say, is PTSD the explanation for everything, or did you also just make some additional human errors that you want to explain or contextualize?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be up front,\u201d Platner said, adding that he\u2019d never blamed his past behavior solely on the fact that he\u2019d been diagnosed with PTSD.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I left the military, I came out of a hyper-masculine, hyper-violent place. I did four tours in the infantry. We have a crude sense of humor in the infantry. We certainly have a, I would say, narrow view of a lot of topics, and that colored my opinions and my beliefs,\u201d Platner continued.<\/p>\n

He went on to claim that it wasn\u2019t until he got out of the military and spent time with different people that his thoughts and opinions began to change over time.<\/p>\n

Platner went on to say that he didn\u2019t believe his past opinions were related to his combat service necessarily, but said that \u201cmuch of it was because of the culture I had come out of, and over the years in between, I\u2019ve met a lot more people, had a lot more experiences, learned a lot more about the world, and my opinions have changed with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Platner is currently polling well ahead of Governor Janet Mills (D-ME). Whoever wins the primary will face incumbent Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) in November\u2019s general election.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n