{"id":1201,"date":"2026-06-01T10:09:04","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T10:09:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bestusamoverss.com\/?p=1201"},"modified":"2026-06-01T10:09:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T10:09:04","slug":"will-maine-voters-extend-forgiveness-to-another-graham-platner-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestusamoverss.com\/?p=1201","title":{"rendered":"Will Maine voters extend ‘forgiveness’ to another Graham Platner controversy?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Credit: <\/span> NPR<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The path to turning the Senate blue runs, in part, through the state of Maine.<\/p>\n

Graham Platner \u2014 an oyster farmer and Marine Corps veteran \u2014 hopes to lead the charge.<\/p>\n

Read more One by one, U.S. civil rights agency dismantles tools to fight discrimination<\/a><\/p>\n

The anti-establishment candidate seemingly came out of nowhere to become the presumptive Democratic nominee for the Senate seat in Maine. It’s a seat that Republican Susan Collins has held for nearly 30 years.<\/p>\n

But Platner’s controversial past keeps catching up with him.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, the reported<\/u> that Platner exchanged sexually explicit messages with multiple women early in his marriage. Platner married Amy Gertner in 2023.<\/p>\n

Soon after the story was published, Gertner posted a video to X<\/u> defending her husband. On Sunday he provided a statement in which he said in part, “Amy and I went through something hard \u2014 because of me. We did the work, and I’m grateful for her every hour of every day. I’ve learned throughout this campaign that people don’t care about gossip or headlines, they care that you’re fighting for their hospitals, their paycheck, their kids.”<\/p>\n

But Platner’s been dogged by controversy since the start of his short but meteoric campaign.<\/p>\n

Last fall, old, deleted Reddit posts came to light in which he made racist comments and blamed sexual assault on victims. He apologized at the time and said he’d changed. He said his posts came at the darkest time in his life when he was dealing with PTSD after multiple combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

There was also a skull and crossbones tattoo on his chest that resembled a Nazi SS symbol. He said he didn’t know that when he got it on a drunken night with fellow Marines in 2007. He recently covered it up.<\/p>\n

Taken together though, these scandals raise big questions: Does Graham Platner have too much baggage to carry on? Or will his political plans \u2014 that have generated SO much enthusiasm \u2014 carry him through?<\/p>\n

As part of our Newsmakers video podcast series, Morning Edition’s Leila Fadel sat down with Platner before the weekend revelations to ask why voters, at least at the time, had chosen to forgive or turn a blind eye to his past.<\/p>\n

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“I mean, the infantry is a place of hypermasculinity. It’s a place of intense violence, things that are seen as virtues,” he said. “These are generally not seen as virtues in the normal world. And then I had to struggle with how do I come out of that and integrate back into society? I talked about that journey. I talked about it very, very honestly. And I think a lot of people recognize that the ability to transform, the ability to change is kind of just a normal human trait.”<\/p>\n

During the interview Platner also had choice words for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.<\/p>\n

“Pete Hegseth is literally using the U.S. military to make up for the fact that he’s insecure about his own military service,” Platner said. “That’s insane.”<\/p>\n

Platner said his deep opposition to the Iran war comes from his time in combat.<\/p>\n

“I know what it looks like when American-made high explosives interact with children. It’s an awful thing,” Platner said. “[It] stays with you the rest of your life\u2026Just a bucket of blood that we just dumped cash into for 20 straight years. That is not making America safer. That is not protecting the interests of the average American. That is using militarism and war as an excuse for people to make profit.”<\/p>\n

Platner contrasted his own record with Hegseth’s service record.<\/p>\n

“He was a National Guard major. I mean, no shade to the National Guard at all. I was in the National Guard. But his combat record doesn’t look like the combat record of a lot of other people,” Platner alleged.<\/p>\n

Hegseth’s military awards include two Bronze Star Medals for meritorious service, according to the Pentagon. He was deployed to Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and Afghanistan. NPR reached out to Secretary Hegseth for a response to Platner’s criticism. We have not yet received a response.<\/p>\n

You can hear more from Platner about his proposed policies, his party and his idea of masculinity in our full interview here.<\/p>\n

Read more Violent clashes give way to peaceful PSG parade after Champions League win<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anti-establishment candidate Graham Platner seemingly came out of nowhere to become the presumptive Democratic nominee for the Senate seat in Maine. But his campaign has been dogged by controversies. <\/p>\n

There were the old, deleted Reddit posts in which he made racist comments and blamed sexual assault on victims. There was a now-covered tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol. And most recently, the Wall Street Journal reported<\/a> that Platner exchanged sexually explicit messages with multiple women early in his marriage.<\/p>\n

Taken together, they raise a big question. Does he have too much baggage to carry on? Or can his anti-establishment political message \u2014 that has generated SO much enthusiasm among the democratic base \u2014 carry him through?<\/p>\n

In this episode of NPR\u2019s Newsmakers<\/em>, Platner addresses earlier controversies, the failures of his own party and calls Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth \u201cinsecure.\u201d Platner says he aspires to a version of masculinity different from the one embodied by Hegseth. \u201cThis idea that you’re supposed to use your strengths to use power over other people or to offend people, be mean to people \u2014 that somehow that’s manly. That’s not masculinity,\u201d he says. \u201cThat’s the act of a coward.\u201d<\/p>\n

NPR sat down with Platner before news broke of the explicit sexual messages.<\/p>\n

NPR’s Newsmakers <\/em>is where you’ll find NPR’s biggest interviews. We post new episodes as soon as they’re available — any day of the week. Follow or subscribe on Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you watch or listen to podcasts so you always get the latest episode as soon as possible. You can also find Newsmakers<\/em> on the NPR app.<\/p>\n

Newsmakers <\/em>relies on supporters who value independent journalism and a free press. Join NPR+ today to support our work and get perks from the podcasts you trust. Go to plus.npr.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nprs-newsmakers"],"yoast_head":"\nWill Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? - Best USA Movers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bestusamoverss.com\/?p=1201\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? - Best USA Movers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Anti-establishment candidate Graham Platner seemingly came out of nowhere to become the presumptive Democratic nominee for the Senate seat in Maine. But his campaign has been dogged by controversies. There were the old, deleted Reddit posts in which he made racist comments and blamed sexual assault on victims. There was a now-covered tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol. And most recently, the Wall Street Journal reported that Platner exchanged sexually explicit messages with multiple women early in his marriage.Taken together, they raise a big question. Does he have too much baggage to carry on? Or can his anti-establishment political message \u2014 that has generated SO much enthusiasm among the democratic base \u2014 carry him through?In this episode of NPR\u2019s Newsmakers, Platner addresses earlier controversies, the failures of his own party and calls Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth \u201cinsecure.\u201d Platner says he aspires to a version of masculinity different from the one embodied by Hegseth. \u201cThis idea that you're supposed to use your strengths to use power over other people or to offend people, be mean to people \u2014 that somehow that's manly. That's not masculinity,\u201d he says. \u201cThat's the act of a coward.\u201dNPR sat down with Platner before news broke of the explicit sexual messages.NPR's Newsmakers is where you'll find NPR's biggest interviews. We post new episodes as soon as they're available -- any day of the week. Follow or subscribe on Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you watch or listen to podcasts so you always get the latest episode as soon as possible. You can also find Newsmakers on the NPR app.Newsmakers relies on supporters who value independent journalism and a free press. Join NPR+ today to support our work and get perks from the podcasts you trust. 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