'I Hate Nazis': Graham Platner Is Defiantly Still Running for Senate – and Leading in the Polls
EXCLUSIVE: The Maine oysterman sits down with Zeteo to talk about his controversial tattoo and the Democratic establishment's 'continuous' attacks on his campaign.
OGUNQUIT, Maine – “I hate Nazis, and I think far-right extremism is a cancer that needs to be excised from our politics,” Graham Platner tells Zeteo in an exclusive interview Wednesday night. These are important sentiments to hear from any politician, perhaps especially so from Platner, who is running in the Democratic primary to face longtime Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins.
The anti-establishment oyster farmer had just spent the last 48 hours explaining that he never realized the skull-and-crossbones tattoo he got during his time in the Marines resembled a Nazi SS Totenkopf symbol.
Speaking with Zeteo, Platner denies a report that he knew about the tattoo’s meaning a decade earlier. Responding to his former staffer’s claim that he told her a month ago his tattoo “could be problematic,” Platner says his campaign had heard several weeks ago that rumors were going around about his tattoo, and he dismissed it as “insane.” He says he only discovered the meaning last week when his team was contacted by a news outlet.
“That’s when I was like, ‘We’re going to schedule a tattoo appointment, because I don’t want this thing on my body,’” he says, adding: “I have been an avowed anti-fascist my entire life.”