Graham Platner, a Marine vet who’s running for a US Senate seat in Maine, said he was “very inebriated” when he got a tattoo linked to Nazism while on leave in Croatia nearly 20 years ago and insists he’s “not a secret Nazi.”
The liberal candidate, 41, went out of his way to disclose the controversial skull tattoo on the right side of his chest as he shared an embarrassing video that shows him singing in only briefs at a wedding celebration for his brother.
The Democratic oyster farmer, in an apparent attempt to get ahead of bad press, said he was on leave with fellow Marines in Croatia in 2007 when he got the questionable ink, which appears to resemble the “Totenkopf” — an image adopted as a symbol by Hitler’s Schutzstaffel, or SS.
“We got very inebriated, and we did what Marines on liberty do, and we decided to go get a tattoo,” he explained on the “Pod Save America” show.
“We chose a terrifying-looking skull and crossbones off the wall because we were Marines and, you know, skulls and crossbones are a pretty standard military thing, and we got those tattoos, and we all moved on with our lives,” Platner explained.
“I am not a secret Nazi,” the Bernie Sanders-backed candidate insisted, claiming he was unaware the tattoo had potentially sickening connections to Nazism.
He said the tattoo never raised any red flags, including when he joined the Army National Guard. The Army prohibits ink that is extremist, racist or sexist.
“It never came up until we got wind that in the opposition research somebody was shopping the idea that I was a secret Nazi with a hidden Nazi tattoo,” he told “Pod Save America” host Tommy Vietor.
After a firestorm of backlash, Platner said he was planning to have the offending ink removed.
“It was not until I started hearing from reporters and DC insiders that I realized this tattoo resembled a Nazi symbol,” the embattled candidate told Politico Tuesday.
“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.”
His former campaign director, however, disputed his claim.
“Maybe he didn’t know it when he got it, but he got it years ago, and he should have had it covered up because he knows damn well what it means,” Genevieve McDonald wrote on Facebook, according to the outlet.
She resigned from Platner’s campaign after his old Reddit posts surfaced, which include labeling all police “bastards,” describing rural white Americans as “actually” stupid and racist — and once calling himself a “communist” around 2021, according to CNN.
Hellbound and Down 