Graham Platner refuses to apologize for mocking US soldier getting shot on video by Taliban

Democrat candidate for US Senate in Maine Graham Platner has refused to apologize for a resurfaced Reddit post of his in which he mocked an American soldier getting wounded by Taliban gunfire in Afghanistan.

The 2019 Reddit comment, in which he was referencing a video taken years earlier, stated, "This video never gets old. Dumb motherf*cker didn’t deserve to live. At least his stupidity and fat a** wheezing are available for all future infantrymen to witness and hold in contempt. Poor marksmanship on the Taliban’s part is the only reason this mouthbreather made it home, he managed to make every possible sh*t decision possible when it comes to small unit combat."

A Fox News reporter spoke with Platner over the weekend, asking, "I was wondering if you regret the post about the Purple Heart veteran — if you think you need to apologize to him? What you would say to voters who might be upset by it."

"I did four tours in the infantry. Any attempt to say that I disrespect veterans is slanderous and offensive," Platner replied. 

The reporter pushed again, asking whether Platner thought he owed the veteran an apology. Platner replied, "do you know how many of my friends have Purple Hearts? Do you know how many of my friends got wounded?"

The reporter said, "I’m sure a lot," to which Platner said, "yeah, a lot of them." 

The soldier featured in the helmet-worn camera was Pfc. Ted Daniels, who was wounded in the action and received a Purple Heart. He could be heard yelling in the video "help me" and "I'm hit." He said in interviews when the video first went viral in 2013 that he had purposely moved out of cover to draw fire away from the men in his unit. 

"You know, tactically, it was not a sound thing to do. But I also remember Murphy's Laws of Combat. If it's stupid, but works, it isn't stupid," he said at the time. He said he had been hit by bullet fragments.

Speaking with Fox News’ "The Bottom Line," Daniels called out Platner, saying he was a "coward." He said, "People like this don't say stuff like this to my face. It's online, and that right there tells me, Graham, you're a coward."

He added, "Thank you for your service, Graham, but I think you’re a scumbag personally."