SouthernWorldwide.com – Democratic candidate Graham Platner has recently cited his personal struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to address a series of controversial social media posts made before his Senate campaign. These posts, which occurred prior to his Senate run, included justifications for political violence and insults directed at law enforcement.
In 2020, Platner, aged 41, made a comment on the Reddit forum r/SocialistRA. This was five years before he emerged as a significant challenger to Republican Senator Susan Collins in Maine’s upcoming midterm elections.
Using an anonymous username, Platner commented on a report by the Portland Press Herald. The report detailed an incident where two former police officers admitted to killing porcupines with their batons while on duty. One of these officers, an Afghanistan veteran, attributed his actions to PTSD stemming from his overseas deployments.
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“Don’t buy into that bulls—,” Platner wrote in the now-deleted post. He identified himself as a Marine and Army veteran, as well as an oyster farmer. “I did 4 tours in the infantry to Iraq and Afghanistan, saw all kinds of awful things, have a PTSD diagnosis and STILL manage not to beat defenseless animals to death for fun.”
“That’s just cops giving excuses for their garbage behavior,” he added.
Platner’s activity on the r/SocialistRA subreddit and other Reddit forums was initially reported by CNN. All of these posts were deleted several months before the left-wing populist candidate officially launched his Senate campaign.
Throughout his campaign, Platner has attempted to link his past offensive remarks to the PTSD he developed after serving multiple overseas deployments. He has described this period as the most challenging chapter of his life.
He has maintained that these statements do not reflect his current self, but rather a person who was “having a very difficult time settling into a society that he felt betrayed by and left behind by after having a fight in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
“This was a time in my life where I was struggling deeply,” Platner stated in a video shared on social media in late 2025. “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, 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,” he continued. “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, some outlet for my feelings.”
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In 2013, while discussing a video that promoted women’s underwear designed to prevent rape, Platner wrote a message that was later deleted. This message was first obtained by The Washington Post. “Rape is a real thing. If you’re so worried about it to buy Kevlar underwear you’d think you might not get blacked out f—ed up around people you aren’t comfortable with,” he wrote.
Furthermore, in 2018, he appeared to endorse political violence as a means to achieve “economic justice,” according to a deleted post reported by Politico.
However, some of Platner’s most controversial statements were made as recently as five years ago, when he suggested that PTSD should not be used as an excuse for “garbage behavior.”
In 2020, Platner posted on Reddit that white people in rural America are “actually” racist and unintelligent, and that all law enforcement officers are “bastards.” These comments were made in deleted posts reported by CNN.
The following year, Platner commented in a now-deleted post that he “got older and became a Communist.”
The Maine Democrat has also faced criticism for a chest tattoo featuring a symbol associated with Nazis. He had this tattoo for most of his adult life, having gotten it in 2007 while drinking with fellow Marines stationed in Croatia.
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Platner has since expressed regret for some of his online posts and has covered the tattoo. He stated that he was unaware of the symbol’s association with Nazi Germany. However, some reports suggest that Platner may have known about the tattoo’s connection to Nazi Germany.
This closely watched Senate race in the predominantly Democratic state is crucial for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s efforts to regain control of the Senate.
The presumed Democratic nominee has also asserted that the backlash from his past social media activity will not hinder his campaign’s momentum.
Governor Janet Mills, a Democrat from Maine, attempted to highlight Platner’s comments about rape in her campaign advertisements. However, this negative advertising did not appear to affect his standing among Democratic primary voters. Mills, who was supported by Schumer, withdrew from the race in late April after consistently trailing Platner in public opinion polls.
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“The Democratic establishment tried to use all those attacks against me and failed miserably,” Platner remarked, referring to the Mills campaign’s negative ads before her withdrawal. “Now the Republican establishment is going to try to use the exact same attacks, and that will also fail miserably.”
