Democratic Senate Candidate Announces He’ll Remove Tattoo Resembling ‘Nazi Symbol’
X/@PodSaveAmerica
Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner announced on Tuesday his intention to remove a tattoo after realizing it “resembled a Nazi symbol.”
“It was not until I started hearing from reporters and DC insiders that I realized this tattoo resembled a Nazi symbol,” Platner told Politico in a statement. “I absolutely would not have gone through life having this on my chest if I knew that — and to insinuate that I did is disgusting. I am already planning to get this removed.”
Platner received backlash this week after a video of his chest tattoo, which closely resembles a Nazi SS Totenkopf, went viral.
The Maine Senate candidate claimed he chose the tattoo after seeing it on the wall of a Croatian tattoo parlor.
Asked by Pod Save America host Tommy Vietor on Monday whether he was “a secret Nazi,” Platner responded, “I am not a secret Nazi,” before explaining that he chose the tattoo after seeing it in the parlor while “inebriated” during his time in the military.
“We chose a terrifying-looking skull and crossbones off the wall because we were marines and, you know, skulls and crossbones are pretty standard military thing, and we got those tattoos, and then we all moved on with our lives,” he said, adding that he had been through several screenings and security clearances since then with no issue.
Platner continued, “I went to college, I went to the gym, I did all the things, and at no point in this entire experience of my life did anybody once say, ‘Hey, you’re a Nazi.’ It never came up until we got wind that in the opposition research somebody was shopping the idea I was a secret Nazi with a hidden Nazi tattoo, and I can honestly say that if I was trying to hide it, I’ve not been doing a very good job for the past eighteen years.”
Prior to receiving backlash over his choice of tattoo, Platner was already engulfed in controversy over a series of old Reddit posts unearthed by CNN.
In the posts, which Platner has since disavowed, he referred to police officers as “bastards,” suggested rural white people were “racist,” and described himself as a “communist” and “psychedelics taking socialist.”
Platner was also accused of racism over an “offensive” post asking, “Why don’t black people tip?”
