Maine Dem Senate candidate said he wore 'Antifa supersoldier' label on his armor: report

Graham Platner, the Democrat candidate seeking to unseat incumbent Senator Susan Collins in Maine in November’s election, has come under fire for past social media posts, including one in which he said he had an "Antifa supersoldier" label on his "armor."

The Antifa post came in October 2020 on Reddit, per Axios, a year that was marked with violence at the hands of the group that has since been deemed a domestic terrorist organization. He added in the post, in which he complimented a business, "keep up the good fight."

Another Reddit post from July 2020 showed Platner sharing a link to the left-wing Socialist Rifle Association, writing, "We love new folks, and you've likely got an active chapter in your area." Platner wrote about gun courses for new members and experts his local SRA chapter had in an August 2020 post, suggesting that he participated. 

"Helps we have a significant amount of combat veterans and firearms instructors who have put together a solid curriculum to build proficiency amongst our membership," he wrote.

In regard to the supersoldier comment, Platner told Axios, "This was a dumb joke, like most of my old Reddit posts."

Other posts include one from 2021, in which Platner wrote in response to a thread about people becoming more conservative with age, "I got older and became a communist."

That same year, Platner recounted his life after leaving the Marines, writing that he was "a vegetable growing, psychedelics taking socialist these days. After the war, I’ve pretty much stopped believing in any of the patriotic nonsense that got me there in the first place, and am a firm believer that the best thing a person can do is help their neighbors and live a loving life."

“Still got the guns though,” he added. “I don’t trust the fascists to act politely.” Platner told CNN in regards to the communist post, "I’m not a communist. I’m not a socialist. I own a small business. I’m a Marine Corps veteran."

Platner has also spoken out against law enforcement, saying in response to one Reddit user writing, "cops are bastards," "All of them, in fact."

“I can honestly say that that is me just being an a**hole on the Internet,” Platner told CNN. “I have an immense amount of friends who are police officers. They’re not all bastards because they’re literally buddies of mine.”

Older posts from 2013 showed Platner asking why black people "don’t tip," per the Bangor Daily News. On a Reddit post titled "What is one question you have always wanted to ask someone of another race," Platner responded, "Why don’t black people tip?"

He added, "I work as a bartender and it always amazes me how solid this stereotype is. Every now and again a black patron will leave a 15-20% tip, but usually it [is] between 0-5%. There’s got to be a reason behind it, what is it?"

Also in 2013, he wrote in response to a post about underwear designed to prevent sexual assault that people should "take some responsibility for themselves and not get so f*cked up they wind up having sex with someone they don’t mean to?"

Under the first Trump administration, Platner wrote in response to someone wanting to leave the US because of Trump’s immigration policies, "Fight until you get tired of fighting with words and then fight with signs, and fists, and guns if need be." He also wrote the same year that if people "expect to fight fascism without a good semi-automatic rifle, they ought to do some reading of history."

In response to the Reddit posts resurfacing, Platner said in a video posted to social media that the posts came from a time in his life "where I was struggling deeply."

"I got out of the Army in 2012. I had PTSD, I had depression, I had all of the things that come with serving in a war—in two wars that I eventually began to not believe in at all. It left me feeling very unmoored. It left me feeling very disillusioned, very alienated, and very isolated. And I think, like a lot of people, I went on the internet to post stupid things and get in fights and find some form of community in some way."

He said that "some of the worst comments I made, the things that I think are least defensible, that I wouldn’t even try to defend" come from when he came back from the Army, which he joined after his time in the Marines. 

He said he stopped posting because he had found "community," moved back to his hometown, and met his wife. "I’d been able to really begin to feel connected again."

"And so for those of you who have read these things and been offended, have read these things and seen someone that you don't recognize. I am deeply sorry. It's something that I see, someone that I don't recognize, either not in who I am today."

Platner has also come under fire for a tattoo he has on his chest, which resembles a skull symbol used by Hitler’s SS. Platner told Pod Save America’s Tommy Vietor, "I am not a secret Nazi," and that he was "very inebriated" when he got the tattoo while on deployment in Croatia. He said he and his fellow Marines chose "a terrifying looking skull and crossbones."