A Democrat hoping to become Maine’s next senator once referred to himself as a “communist” and made derogatory remarks about police and white rural Americans online.
Graham Platner, an oyster farmer and military veteran running to unseat moderate GOP Sen. Susan Collins next November, posted a series of inflammatory and potentially damaging comments on Reddit before deleting them all when he launched his political campaign, CNN has found.
Many of the posts unearthed by the network show Platner expressing left-wing and progressive views that align with his Senate campaign. However, other remarks that could harm his political ambitions include calling police officers “b—–ds,” suggesting all rural white Americans are racist and stupid, and revealing that he owns guns because he doesn’t “trust the fascists to act politely.”
Platner said he regrets making the comments CNN uncovered, explaining they came from a place of frustration during a darker period of his life and that he no longer holds many of the views he expressed.
“That was very much me f—ing around on the internet,” Platner told CNN. “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.”
In one 2021 Reddit post, Platner wrote in a thread discussing whether people become more conservative as they get older: “I got older and became a communist.”
He also said in another 2021 thread that after leaving the military, he became a “vegetable-growing, psychedelics-taking socialist” who had “pretty much stopped believing in any of the patriotic nonsense that got me there in the first place.”
“Still got the guns though,” he added. “I don’t trust the fascists to act politely.”
He also said in a 2021 post that his time in the military has left him dissilusioned with the state with the state America.
“I did used to love America, or at least the idea of it. These days I’m pretty disgusted by it all,” he wrote.
Elsewhere, Platner responded to a 2020 Reddit thread titled “White people aren’t as racist or stupid as Trump thinks” by posting, “Living in white rural America, I’m afraid to tell you they actually are.”
Platner disavowed each of the comments when approached by CNN. He said he is not a communist or socialist, noting that he owns a small business and has served in the Marine Corps. He added that he has “an immense amount of friends” who are police officers and that they’re “not all b—–ds because they’re literally buddies of mine.”
He also clarified that he does not believe all rural white Americans are racist or stupid, saying he was simply “angry on the internet about the state of things back then.”
Platner has seen a rapid rise in profile since entering the race to become Maine’s next U.S. senator, raising $4 million in donations and receiving high-profile endorsements from progressive Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former DNC co-vice chair David Hogg’s Leaders We Deserve PAC.
His biggest challenger in the Maine Democratic primary is the state’s 77-year-old governor, Janet Mills, who would be 79 upon taking office and 85 at the end of her term.
In the general election, the unapologetically left-wing Platner may also struggle to win over voters in a state with a long history of electing moderate candidates.
Elsewhere, Platner was found to have called MAGA musician Ted Nugent a “motherf—er” who makes him want to “puke when he spews his warmongering macho bulls–t.”
“To be fair, I’m not really regretful of that one,” Platner told CNN.
The Daily Beast has contacted Platner’s office for comment.
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