Senate hopeful with Nazi-linked tattoo makes bizarre promise to be arrested if Democrats don’t win midterm elections
Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner suggested that if he defeats Susan Collins in the midterms but Democrats fail to take control of the Senate, he will be “arrested.”
Platner, 41, has faced outrage from both sides of the aisle over a Nazi tattoo he claims he got while drunk and over controversial posts on Reddit made a decade ago.
He is now the presumptive Democrat nominee after Gov. Janet Mills withdrew from the race.
On Saturday, he said at a town hall that, as part of a minority Democratic party, he would join protests and picket lines and expected to end up in handcuffs.
“If we don’t get the majority and things continue to get worse, I promise you that as a United States Senator I will be arrested,” he said.
The candidate wore a sweater with the words “neat,” referring to the style of drinking without ice, a common phrase used by anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protesters.
Platner — who has campaigned on being pro-LGBTQ, Medicare for All and ending foreign wars — promised “an element of activism” whether Democrats take the Senate or not, The Midcoast Villager reported.
However, should the Democrats get upset and take back the Senate, he plans to bog down Donald Trump by having his entire administration testify before Congress.
Controversial Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner has suggested that if Democrats do not regain control of the Senate but he defeats Susan Collins, he will be “arrested.”
Platner, 41, has faced outrage from both sides of the aisle over a Nazi tattoo he claims he got while drunk and over controversial posts on Reddit made a decade ago.
“We bring everyone in the White House under subpoena to Senate committees day in and day out to answer questions about all the violations of law they have committed,” he said.
He also said he would make what he believes is a “compelling case” to impeach and remove two Republican members of the Supreme Court.
The Daily Mail has contacted Platner for comment.
The The Democratic Senate hopeful has also come under fire for his Nazi tattoo after it was revealed he had an SS skull and bones inked on his chest while serving in the Marines.
Last year he found himself in a scandal when a video showed him drunk and shirtless, with a ‘Totenkopf’ on the left side of his chest, a symbol of the Nazi paramilitary wing.
Platner released a statement last fall sharing that he had covered up the tattoo, adding that he was unaware it was an SS symbol when he drunkenly visited a tattoo parlor with his Marine Corps friends in Split, Croatia, in 2007.
‘There is no way I would have gone through life with this on my chest if I knew that – and to insinuate that I did is disgusting. I had already covered the tattoo with a new design,” the Democratic candidate said.
In a video on X, Platner showed off the new tattoo.
Platner is now the presumptive Democrat nominee after Governor Janet Mills withdrew from the race and will face Collins (pictured) in the general election.
A Graham Platner campaign sign for Senate after a town hall event
“It’s a Celtic knot with some imagery around dogs, because my wife Amy and I love dogs,” he said.
He further claimed that the stories about his Nazi tattoo represent an establishment plot to torpedo his candidacy.
‘[My donors] know that this is all nonsense. It is no surprise that these stories disappeared within days of DC’s chosen candidate entering this race,” Platner told local station WGME in an interview.
Platner has also come under fire for his Reddit post, in which he asked why “black people don’t tip” and suggested that women who are raped in the military should be careful about how much to drink.
‘I made that comment in 2013. I had just left the infantry, which at the time consisted exclusively of men. I have rarely had professional contact with women in the service,” he told WGME last year.
Before the tattoo scandal, Platner was touted as the Democratic answer to MAGA.
Abundant crowds filled his town halls — 500 in Ellsworth, 200 in Caribou — and a viral social media presence made him a national progressive folk hero.
Platner has stormed rural corners of the state long written off by Democrats, railing against “oligarchy” and corporate greed while urging empathy for working-class voters.
The many fires Platner has had to put out have Senate Republicans licking their chops if he faces the general election.
“It’s a good thing Graham Platner isn’t a true Maine oysterman because he won’t be able to live in the state anymore after we soundly defeat him,” a spokesperson for the Republican Senate Super PAC said.