Folks can change. I’ve seen it, and I’ve lived it. Simply when change occurs can usually be grasped solely looking back. Within the case of Senate hopeful Graham Platner of Maine, many Democrats are understandably desirous to see proof that he’s not the person implicated by the drumbeat of damning revelations. Platner’s marketing campaign promise has lengthy been that he’s simply an atypical man who has realized from his many errors—that he’s not the person who picked fights on-line, belittled ladies, and in any other case drank and swore and argued an excessive amount of. However on the eve of Maine’s main elections subsequent week, and in mild of but extra experiences of “reckless” and “unsettling” conduct, within the phrases of 1 ex-girlfriend, many citizens could also be questioning if this aspiring consultant of the individuals has actually modified sufficient.
Platner, a gruff 41-year-old Marine Corps veteran, is making an attempt to unseat Republican Senator Susan Collins with a platform of financial populism, common well being care, labor protections, and anti-interventionism. Though he was raised on the shores of coastal Maine by well-heeled mother and father who shipped him off to prep faculty, he has introduced himself as a rugged man of the individuals: a navy veteran (he served in Iraq and Afghanistan), an oyster farmer, and a household man. He launched his grassroots Senate marketing campaign final yr.
Democrats moved rapidly to embrace Platner as the person the occasion wants to higher converse to the working class—and notably white males. However revelations maintain rising which can be testing the occasion’s religion that he factors a approach ahead.
Whereas on navy go away in Croatia in 2007, Platner drunkenly bought an enormous tattoo of a skull-and-crossbones design related to Nazis. Platner has mentioned that he was not conscious of the which means of the image, which he overlaid with a distinct design final yr. However a new report in The New York Occasions has undermined this doubtful declare. Among the many numerous ex-girlfriends interviewed, one recalled that Platner had referred to the tattoo as “my Totenkopf”—the German identify for the Nazi image—and defined that he and different members of his navy unit had chosen it as a result of they noticed themselves as killers akin to the Nazi Schutzstaffel, or S.S., who carried out most of the Third Reich’s worst atrocities. (Platner’s marketing campaign has disputed the lady’s account.)
Platner additionally spent years posting racist, sexist, and homophobic messages from a private Reddit account, together with a disturbing riff on sexual assault within the navy. “Holy fuck,” he wrote in a 2013 submit about ladies who’re nervous about getting raped, “how about individuals simply take some accountability for themselves and never get so fucked up they wind up having intercourse with somebody they don’t imply to?” These posts, mixed with a 2020 video that confirmed Platner reminiscing about shopping for cocaine and utilizing medication within the navy, led to the resignation of his marketing campaign’s political director, Genevieve McDonald, in October.
Platner has mentioned that his Reddit feedback—posted between 2009 and 2021—represent nothing greater than “fucking round on the web” at a time in his life when he was battle-scarred, traumatized, and adrift. “I don’t need you to evaluate me on the dumbest factor I ever wrote on the web,” he mentioned final yr after the feedback got here to mild. “I would like if individuals might choose me on the individual I’m immediately.”
However new revelations have emerged that problem Platner’s claims that his misdeeds are nicely behind him. Studies surfaced on Saturday that Platner’s spouse, Amy Gertner, warned senior marketing campaign staffers final yr that he had been sexting not less than six totally different ladies on the private-messaging platform Kik early of their marriage, which started in 2023. “Amy and I went via one thing laborious—due to me. We did the work, and I’m grateful for her each hour of daily,” Platner responded in a public assertion on Sunday. Rattled Democratic senators met with Platner this previous week to ask if anything worrisome in his previous was more likely to come out. Platner assured them that no “credible” allegations can be forthcoming.
In keeping with the Occasions’ report, Platner’s ex-girlfriend accused him of occasional bouts of violence—grabbing her by the shoulders laborious sufficient to depart marks, and twisting her arm to shove her right into a bed room, and holding the door shut so she couldn’t go away. “It harm,” she mentioned. However “it didn’t break my arm.” (His marketing campaign advised the Occasions it “strongly disputes” her account.) A number of ladies mentioned that Platner cheated throughout their relationships.
The difficulty with hiding damning data is that when it in the end comes out, it demonstrates a willingness to readily lie, and invitations affordable suspicion that there could also be but extra to the story. Platner’s dismissiveness about sexual assault within the navy—he as soon as wrote that anybody who believes the navy purposefully covers up rape is “clearly each an fool and junior sufficient in rank or life expertise to suppose it issues”—is much more regarding in mild of the Occasions’ interview along with his ex-girlfriends, certainly one of whom recalled that Platner generally fantasized about raping dwelling intruders as a way to categorical dominance. (A marketing campaign official, requested by the Occasions about that account, didn’t dispute it.) That, coupled along with his apparently extreme want for sexual consideration, factors to some erratic and disturbing tendencies. Platner and his spouse have characterised public concern about his previous conduct and statements as mere gossip and trashy headlines, however there’s good purpose to see on this mess each proof of poor private judgement and a harbinger of issues to return.
Platner has insisted all alongside that he has modified. That is doubtlessly true: All of us develop and alter daily. He has additionally introduced his previous indiscretions as a sort of asset, an indication of authenticity. On this political second, when seemingly each screwup or shortcoming might be spun into proof of sincerity—of an actual and flawed and accessible humanity—maybe Platner is on to one thing. “Persons are finished with the clean-cut sorts who’ve harbored ambitions for political workplace since they had been on highschool scholar council and have lived each waking second accordingly,” the politics reporter Ken Klippenstein wrote in a latest substack submit about Platner. However questions stay about simply how genuine Platner’s story actually is—the island the place he farms oysters, as an example, belongs to a well-to-do household, and the oysters seem like primarily offered to a restaurant operated by Platner’s mom, in response to The Washington Free Beacon.
Failures, errors, and regrets are basically human—what is supposed when somebody is alleged to be “solely human,” in spite of everything, is that they’re due some understanding for his or her wrongs. Change, too, is human. This notion is central to Platner’s gross sales pitch. “I made feedback I’m not completely satisfied about, that I don’t agree with, however they got here from a time and place in my life, and as I learn via the feedback launched, I can see myself altering,” Platner insisted final yr.
Platner immediately could also be nothing like the person he as soon as was. Possibly he adheres now to a code of candor, honor, and prudence. And it could be the case that the individuals of Maine are keen to put aside Platner’s previous, even his very latest previous, as a result of they like his insurance policies, which actually do prioritize the wants of atypical People. However Graham Platner arguably owes potential voters a extra fleshed-out story concerning the methods during which he has modified, and a assure that these modifications are actual—and everlasting, this time.
