Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner once urged violence as a tool for social change in a now-deleted Reddit post, according to Politico.
Platner, a former Marine and oyster farmer, wrote in 2018 that “an armed working class is a requirement for economic justice” and suggested that those who “expect to fight fascism without a good semi-automatic rifle” should “do some reading of history,” the outlet
Platner did not dispute his authorship of the posts but renounced his past rhetoric in a statement to Politico.
“As I told CNN, I was fucking around on the internet at a time when I felt lost and very disillusioned with our government who sent me overseas to watch my friends die,” Platner said. “I made dumb jokes and picked fights. But of course I’m not a socialist. I’m a small business owner, a Marine Corps veteran, and a retired shitposter.”
CNN first reported Thursday that Platner participated in the subreddit r/SocialistRA, along with other left-wing forums. Many of his posts date back roughly five years and appeared under the Reddit username “P-Hustle,” where he called police “all bastards,” described himself as a communist, and said rural white Americans were racist and stupid.
Platner deleted the posts in August, the same month he launched his Senate campaign, saying he wanted to distance himself from what he described as a darker period in his life.
Hellbound and Down 