Graham Platner, the embattled Maine Democratic Senate candidate, said he doesn’t expect more damaging stories to come out about his social media history, even as he invited opponents to “go find more stuff” if they can.
After a wave of reports detailing problematic Reddit posts tarnished his insurgent campaign in a highly competitive Senate battleground, Platner said in a podcast interviewreleased Monday there isn’t anything “worse” or “different” than the posts revealed in recent days.
“There is nothing that I can remotely think of that is out there that is any worse, or really any different, than what has come out,” Platner said in a ‘Pod Save America’ interview. “I mean, if that is their concern, then they can go find more stuff.”
Platner responded to questions about some of the controversial comments he made prior to running for office, including 2013 posts in which he downplayed the problem of sexual assault in the military.
“I didn’t know what I was talking about,” he said. “Very soon after, actually, this time frame, when I started going to college, I became very close friends with a number of vets — female vets at George Washington, and all of them had a story. And I very quickly changed my tune.”
He distanced himself from posts in which he called police officers “bastards” and affirmatively responding to a post labeling white rural voters as “racist” and “stupid,” saying he was “trying to get a rise out of people on the internet.”
On Friday, Platner issued a five-minute video statement apologizing for his Reddit comments, while explaining that his language and divisive musings stemmed from a low point in his life following the end of his military service. Reddit posts reported by POLITICO, CNN, The Washington Post and the Bangor Daily News spanned a range of posts from 2013 to 2021.
Platner said he anticipated his digital footprint might be used against him by his leading primary opponent, Gov. Janet Mills, or the incumbent, GOP Sen. Susan Collins. The progressive outsider insinuated more than once that his political opponents were responsible for providing his Reddit history to members of the media.
“We are up against the machine. We were told not to run this race,” he said. “We were sent messages saying we were not supposed to do this. We had to wait our turn. We didn’t have permission, and that if we did it, they were going to try to just destroy my life, and that is what they’re trying to do.”
Platner later made a direct link between the onslaught of negative stories against him and Democratic Party leadership.
“We need to be thinking big again … That’s why I am a Democrat. It’s why I’m running as a Democrat. I believe in that kind of Democratic Party, and that’s what we’re trying to build,” Platner said. “And yet the leadership of the party sees that across the country, sees candidates across the country that represent that and its only response is to crush them.”
