Graham Platner, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Maine, apologized for having gotten a tattoo years ago that resembles a Nazi symbol and said he would have it removed.
Mr. Platner, who is running for the seat held by Senator Susan Collins since 1997, said in a video podcast interview aired Tuesday that he got the skull and crossbones tattoo, which is widely recognized as a Nazi symbol, while drunk 18 years ago and was unaware of its extremist association.
Mr. Platner, a Marine veteran and oyster farmer, has also come under scrutiny for a series of posts he made years ago on Reddit that played down sexual assault in the military and criticized the police and white Americans living in rural areas.
Mr. Platner acknowledged the tattoo in an episode of the podcast Pod Save America that aired on Tuesday. The podcast played a video clip from a decade ago in which Mr. Platner dances shirtless, with the tattoo visible, at a bar while lip-syncing to a Miley Cyrus song at his brother’s wedding. A host of the podcast, Tommy Vietor, said that some of Mr. Platner’s “political opponents” had been telling reporters that he had a tattoo “with Nazi affiliation.”
Mr. Platner said on the podcast, which is hosted by former Obama aides, that he got the tattoo in 2007 in Split, Croatia, and that he and other Marines had chosen a “terrifying-looking skull and crossbones off the wall” and that “skulls and crossbones are a pretty standard military thing.”
“I am not a secret Nazi,” Mr. Platner said on the podcast, adding that he was a lifelong opponent of antisemitism and Nazism.
In a statement to The Associated Press late Tuesday, Mr. Platner said: “It was not until I started hearing from reporters and D.C. insiders that I realized this tattoo resembled a Nazi symbol. I absolutely would not have gone through life having this on my chest if I knew that — and to insinuate that I did is disgusting. I am already planning to get this removed.”
He said in the statement that he had never tried to hide the tattoo, including during a full physical examination he had when enlisting in the Army, and added that no one had told him that the image had Nazi links. A spokesman for Mr. Platner did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday morning.
Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the Anti-Defamation League, decried what he called “the flirtation with Nazism” across the political spectrum in the United States.
“If you’re running for office, seeking a potential appointment, or serving the public in any capacity, you should have no connection to or sympathy for Nazi ideology. Period,” Mr. Greenblatt wrote in a social media post, which included a headline about Mr. Platner’s tattoo.
Mr. Platner also addressed Reddit posts that he made between 2009 and 2021, which were reported by CNN and The Washington Post, saying that he was “utterly horrified by” some of his words from the past.
Among the posts that have drawn criticism was one from 2013 in which he responded to a thread asking users what questions they have for people of other races. Mr. Platner asked why Black people do not tip, something he said he observed while working as a bartender. On the podcast, Mr. Platner said he had been “legitimately asking the question,” because he thought there might be a cultural explanation.
“It was certainly not meant as a malicious thing,” he said.
In another 2013 post, he appeared to play down challenges that service members face when trying to report sexual assault allegations. Mr. Platner said in the podcast that, when rereading his own comments, he saw “me not knowing what I’m talking about,” along with an expletive, and added that his views had changed.
He made other posts disparaging police officers and calling white Americans living in rural areas racist and stupid.
He said on the podcast that he had been “trying to get a rise out of people on the internet” and that those comments did not reflect his true opinions at the time.
He said that he wrote the posts during a dark time in his life and that he had struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder and alienation after his military service. Mr. Platner, who returned from his last tour in Afghanistan in 2018, noted that his posts stopped around 2021, when he said he was in a better place.
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who has endorsed Mr. Platner, told reporters on Tuesday that Mr. Platner was an “excellent candidate” and that his endorsement stood.
Mr. Platner said: “The idea that a person cannot, like, evolve and grow from years ago is, I think, pretty laughable to the average human being. Especially in this day and age. Everybody has posted something stupid on the internet.”
Jenny Gross is a reporter for The Times covering breaking news and other topics.
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