WASHINGTON — Lefty Maine Senate hopeful Graham Platner, a Marine veteran who has positioned himself as a staunch anti-war candidate and critic of the US navy marketing campaign in Iran, as soon as defended a Marine who urinated on a useless Taliban fighter, newly unearthed Reddit posts present.
The left-wing populist additional described conflict because the “most fulfilling expertise of my life” and fight because the “[b]est goddamn factor on this planet” in a sequence of since-deleted Reddit posts from 2013 by means of 2020 reviewed by The Submit.
“I discover the urinating on our bodies as a poor alternative, however solely due to the present state of media affairs,” Reddit person “P-Hustle,” which CNN traced again to Platner, 41, wrote in a since-deleted July 2013 put up on a thread a couple of Marine getting fined and demoted for urinating on a useless Taliban fighter.
“It’s amusing that at present killing a person isn’t worthy of remark, however god forbid you show dominance. Solely 50 years in the past, and for the remainder of the historical past of warfare, these things was fairly normal.”
Platner scrubbed his Reddit historical past earlier than launching his Senate marketing campaign in August of final yr, however he seemingly copped to previous posts on the location in an interview with CNN, the place he described it as “me f—king across the web” and claimed that it’s not “indicative of who I’m at present.”
“I used to be an adolescent once I enlisted within the Marine Corps,” Platner mentioned in an announcement to The Submit. “I used to be trying to find a option to serve my nation and I had satisfaction in that service. But in addition within the years since, like many veterans, I noticed how a lot we had been taken benefit of and developed a brand new understanding of conflict.”
Within the current day, the oyster farmer has leaned on his time within the Marines to publicly campaign in opposition to what he referred to as the “tragic, silly, ill-conceived” bombings in Iran.
He has additionally zinged incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) over her preliminary assist for the Iraq conflict. Collins, notably, later soured over how that battle was carried out.
“Susan Collins despatched me and my buddies to die in Iraq twenty years in the past. She realized nothing from it,” Platner, who volunteered for the conflict and later labored for navy contractor Constellis, previously often called Blackwater, chided on X final yr when Collins opposed a decision to forestall assaults on Venezuela.
Years in the past, below his nameless Reddit account the place he gave unvarnished takes, Platner argued that the conflict in Afghanistan was by no means about “fixing the place” and as soon as he “simply targeted on the work, I loved the hell out of myself.”
A few of Platner’s scorching rhetoric on conflict in his since-deleted Reddit posts had been beforehand lined by the Portland Press Herald.
“Needed to have an journey and kill some folks,” he wrote in a 2020 Reddit alternate asking Marines why they enlisted. “Joined up in ‘04, did Fallujah and Ramadi, and managed each. Hell of a wonderful expertise.”
In one other, Platner underscored the “feeling of accomplishment that can’t be replicated” from fight and lamented that “civilian life actually appears devoid of objective or pleasure after intense fight.” He additionally referred to as “main a rifle squad or machinegun part in fight was a extremely fulfilling expertise.”
“It’s arduous to elucidate how a lot I loved fight,” he wrote. “It’s each bodily and intellectually difficult, and extremely thrilling (particularly the primary few instances). I used to be by no means an enormous fan of killing, at the very least not for killings sake, however I did love profitable and that required killing.”
The left-wing oyster farmer conveyed related sentiments in different since-deleted posts, writing in a distinct put up that Marine and Military infantry warfighting was “one hell of an superior expertise,” and in one other put up describing it because the “Greatest goddamn factor on this planet.”
Platner is a veteran of each the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. At one level, he defined that he “loved the hell out of combating in Afghanistan” on account of its diverse terrain however discovered Iraqi cities to be “only a terrifying expertise.”
Again in 2014, Platner appeared to champion aggressive navy motion in response to the grotesque ISIS beheading of American journalist James Foley.
“We’re going to kill 1000’s. By the top of it, it might be tens of millions. Our lifestyle is best, and if that’s what it takes to prevail, let’s get this present on the highway,” he wrote. “I don’t disagree together with your level, I simply disagree with the actual fact you appear to suppose we shouldn’t do it.”
“There are occasions on this world when, for the nice of tolerance and humanity, that you must kill a motherf—er,” he wrote in a deleted 2013 put up. “Sadly most people who find themselves true believers in tolerance and humanity discover that exercise repulsive. Which I suppose is morally good, however pragmatically a shortfall.”
Platner has described rising more and more cynical and disillusioned with the navy, notably throughout his temporary time as a non-public navy contractor.
“I can let you know my life can be higher if I had not needed to struggle in Ramadi in 2006,” he instructed CNN final month.
A evaluate of Platner’s previous Reddit posts additionally reveals his evolving views on US excursions overseas at time went on. In 2020, he lamented seeing “one other era of younger Marines get all pumped as much as get right into a struggle that’s frankly pointless and of disastrous strategic consequence is miserable in a method I can barely put into phrases.”
“None of this bulls–t was well worth the folks we misplaced to it. Waste of time (until you’re a politician or a protection business stockholder, then it was effectively value all of the struggling.),” he wrote in a 2021 Reddit put up about casualties in conflict.
After the Kabul bombing in the course of the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, Platner fumed that “this silly f–king conflict can’t come to an finish quickly sufficient.”
“Perhaps it’s as a result of I’m older now, however I simply really feel…protecting,” he went on. “These guys are the most effective of us, and we don’t deserve what they’re keen to surrender, not after 20 years of this dumb bulls–t.”
The populist is operating neck and neck in opposition to Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) within the June 9 main for the Democratic nod to compete in opposition to Collins in November. Platner is averaging a 19.2 proportion level lead over Mills, based on the newest RealClearPolitics mixture of polls.
Collins, the only real New England Republican in both chamber of Congress, is broadly seen as probably the most susceptible sitting Republican within the Senate, although she has a historical past of overperforming the polls and profitable in powerful election years.
Platner’s candidacy has been dogged by a hodgepodge of controversies.
Final yr, his unearthed Reddit posts exposing his uncooked takes on politics confirmed Platner describing himself as a “communist,” blasting “all” law enforcement officials as “bastards,” and chiding that rural white Individuals “truly are” racist and silly.
Maybe most infamously, he was caught with a Nazi-linked tattoo that appeared like a Totenkopf or “demise’s head” image utilized by the infamous Nazi SS secret police power. Platner claims to have gotten that ink in Croatia whereas inebriated in 2007.
Platner has since inked over it with what he characterised as a “Celtic knot with some imagery round canines” and insisted that he’s “not a secret Nazi.”
