Graham Platner is the embodiment of performative left-wing populism, whose empty rhetoric makes former Vice President Kamala Harris sound weighty by comparison.
A woman claiming to be a former partner of U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner alleges infidelity and says his Nazi tattoo story changed over time.
Maine Senate Dem nominee Graham Platner says he kept his Nazi tattoo to remind himself “the US was the evil bad guy” while he was deployed overseas, according to a woman who says she dated him while he was engaged to someone else in 2021.
Sens. Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) and Ed Markey (Mass.) are just the latest high-profile Democrats to throw their support behind scandal-plagued Senate candidate Graham Platner.The progressive oyster farmer from Maine won the Democratic nomination Tuesday night, a result that was widely expected after Gov. Janet Mills (D) suspended her campaign in April. Despite Mills still appearing on the ballot, Platner managed to secure 72% of the vote share, setting up a general election against five-term incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R). 'In November, Maine voters will elect Graham Platner, and we will win a Senate majority.'Prior to Election Night, Platner had received the endorsements of Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.). Many moderate Democrats have been hesitant to endorse the anti-establishment populist over the course of his candidacy due to his troubling past, including a now-covered-up chest tattoo that resembled a symbol used by Nazi concentration camp guards, sexually explicit messages he sent to several women while married, and past Reddit posts in which he downplayed sexual assault in the military. Although Schumer initially backed Mills, he and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) released a joint statement on Wednesday saying, “In November, Maine voters will elect Graham Platner, and we will win a Senate majority.” Gillibrand reiterated her position when asked by reporters about Platner’s victory. “We are going to win Maine, and we are going to flip the Senate,” she said.RELATED: Graham Platner trots out wife to deal with his extramarital sexting scandal, giving some Democrats the ick Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesAfter Platner clinched the nomination, Markey posted on his X account: “We need more leaders in Washington who will stand up to corporate power, fight for working families, and take bold action on the climate crisis. That’s what Graham Platner is fighting for in Maine. And that’s how he will help Democrats take back our Senate majority.”The senator’s statement stands in contrast with his awkward CNN interview last Thursday during which he evaded endorsing Platner while praising his campaign and policies to anchor Boris Sanchez. "So why not say that you endorse him?" Sanchez asked.Markey responded, “In my opinion, he has taken the issues and he's galvanized a grassroots movement all across Maine. People are responding at the town meetings, they are up, they're energized, and in my opinion he is on a pathway to victory in the state of Maine."Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (D) also proclaimed she would support Platner against Collins even as she denounced his past comments.“I’m disgusted by what [Platner] posted, and I’ve been disgusted by some of his other, you know, behaviors and antics. But here’s the thing: You know, come November, there’s going to be a clear choice,” she said. “There’s going to be Susan Collins on the one hand, who has stood with Trump.”While both Sens. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) stopped short of official endorsements, Welch expressed his support for the voters’ decision, while Schatz is working to raise funds for Platner’s campaign.“He’s got a lot of controversy around him, but that’s been out there. The Democratic voters in Maine were fully aware of it, and they gave him a very solid Democratic victory in the primary,” Welch said.Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) followed suit, posting on X early Wednesday morning: “Graham Platner made a passionate case for loving and serving Maine. Powerful.”"I’ve made mistakes in my life, mistakes that I regret, that I live with and that I continue to learn from. And I’m still far from perfect," Platner said in his victory speech Tuesday night.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Politics, religion, movies, and generational gripes collide in a wide-ranging conversation that ends with Robby Soave preparing for his trip to Ukraine.
Former Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene slammed President Donald Trump, saying, “He’s the real traitor,” regarding his handling of the Epstein files. “We should consider them traitors,” Greene told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on The Source with Kaitlan Collins on Wednesday. “They’re traitors, the ones that refuse to release the Epstein files, want to cover […]
Ron Klain defends Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner's Nazi tattoo, sparking backlash from Jewish groups and Republican critics on social media.
The UFC Freedom 250 fight night, which will be held on June 14 is being presented as a patriotic celebration to mark the 250th anniversary of the United States. But in actual fact, the date doesn’t coincide with the birth of the nation, it falls on the President’s birthday.By installing an MMA octagon on the most symbolically charged turf in American democracy, Donald Trump is doing more than celebrating a sport. He is staging a vision of power in which the head of state no longer serves the nation – he embodies it, as a champion who dominates and subdues.With his administration navigating one of the gravest international crises of his second term, Trump appears consumed by two preoccupations: his plans for a grand White House ballroom and the UFC fight event scheduled on the South Lawn for June 14th. He has compared the structure being erected – a 27-meter-high octagon called “The Claw” to the Eiffel Tower, and has suggested it might never come down.The event was deemed significant enough that according to Politico, the G7 schedule was adjusted G7 schedule was adjusted to avoid a conflict.Claiming ownership of national symbolsOrganisers have framed the event as a patriotic and apolitical celebration of American history: between bouts, the UFC plans to air segments honouring national heroes, the nation’s founding, and the 250th anniversary of the United States. Yet none of the commemorations invoked actually fall on that date. The 250th anniversary of independence will be marked on July 4 2026; the flag’s 250th anniversary comes in 2027; and the Army’s bicentennial was already observed in 2025. The only milestone that actually falls on June 14 is Donald Trump’s 80th birthday. Under the cover of national commemoration, the event functions first as a presidential birthday party – and a political and financial operation.The broadcast will air on Paramount+, whose parent company was acquired in August 2025 by David Ellison, the son of Oracle’s co-founder and a figure closely associated with Donald Trump. The audience has been carefully selected: military personnel selected by the Pentagon under specific fitness criteria will serve as the televised backdrop. Trump has personally acquired shares in TKO Holding Group, the UFC’s parent company, which he has been promoting for months. This is not a sporting event honoured by the president’s presence. It is a presidential event dressed up as an MMA gala.A long-standing fascination with combat sportsTrump has long been drawn to combat sports and the spectacle of violence – this despite having avoided military service during the Vietnam War through a diagnosis of bone spurs provided by a physician who was a family acquaintance.In the 1980s, he cultivated close ties with professional wrestling’s WWE. In 2007, he staged a scripted showdown with WWE owner Vince McMahon in an event billed as the “Battle of the Billionaires”.Professional wrestling operates according to the logic of kayfabe – a convention by which audiences are invited to engage with a narrative everyone knows to be scripted. This dynamic illuminates much about how Trump operates. He grasped early that politics worked on the same principle: he did not turn politics into spectacle, he revealed that it already was one.The UFC, however, belongs to a different register. The fights are real. Trump’s interest dates to the early 2000s, when he hosted several UFC events at his Atlantic City casinos. Dana White, the UFC’s CEO, regularly recalls the support Trump allegedly provided when the organisation was still struggling for legitimacy. This closeness is not a recent enthusiasm – it reflects a long-standing relationship with a cultural world that has become central to a significant strand of the contemporary American right.From civic hero to fighting championTo appreciate the full weight of this choice, it helps to trace how the figure of the heroic American president has evolved. From the founding era onward, presidents have frequently been associated with a form of heroism – beginning with George Washington, whose greatness derived not from force but from his willingness to relinquish power after victory. Lincoln embodied moral authority rather than military might. In the twentieth century, the president-as-hero – from Roosevelt to Eisenhower – drew legitimacy from the idea of service: suffering, sacrifice, putting the nation before oneself. The democratic hero existed to serve something larger than himself.That model began to fracture after September 11, 2001. American political rhetoric gradually displaced it with the notion of toughness – hardness, resilience, the will to dominate. The hero was no longer expected merely to serve; he was expected to win. George W. Bush landing on an aircraft carrier in a flight suit, already gestured towards this shift.