A Democrat Finally Said What His Own Party Refused to Say About Their Nazi-Tattooed Senate Candidate
Bernie Sanders spent seven months campaigning for a man with a Nazi SS tattoo on his chest.
Now a fellow Democrat just said on live television what Sanders refused to admit.
And what Congressman Jake Auchincloss just told CNN is something every Democrat in Washington was too scared to say.
Auchincloss Breaks While Warren and Sanders Cover for Platner
Auchincloss went on CNN's The Arena and said it plainly.
"I find that tattoo and his commentary about it to be personally disqualifying," the Massachusetts Democrat told anchor Boris Sanchez. "I hope Maine voters agree with me."
Then he twisted the knife on his own party.
"I think it would be a mistake for the Democratic Party to think that Graham Platner's brand of the Democratic Party is what wins us durable majorities throughout this country."
CNN anchor Boris Sanchez's on-air response: "Wow."
That's the reaction when a Democrat says something so obvious it shouldn't need saying.
Graham Platner – oyster farmer, Marine veteran, and presumptive Democratic Senate nominee in Maine – had a Nazi SS Totenkopf tattooed on his chest for 18 years.
That's the skull-and-crossbones worn by Hitler's Schutzstaffel.
Platner's explanation: he was drunk on shore leave in Croatia in 2007, saw it on a flash wall, thought it looked cool, and had no idea what it meant.
Jewish Insider reported something different – that an acquaintance had heard Platner refer to his own chest tattoo as "my Totenkopf" before he ever launched his Senate campaign.
He's since covered it with another tattoo.
https://x.com/RNCResearch/status/2059258693431050467“>https://x.com/RNCResearch/status/2059258693431050467
Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren Chose Platner Anyway
While Auchincloss drew a line, Sanders and Warren went the other direction.
Warren campaigned for Platner after Maine Gov. Janet Mills dropped out of the primary in April.
Sanders – who called Platner "a great working class candidate" last August – snapped at a Fox News reporter last week when asked about Platner's resurfaced Reddit posts, telling her to "get a better job."
Those posts, made under the handle "P-Hustle," span from 2009 to 2021.
More than 2,000 of them are now archived in the Maine Monitor database.
They include Platner calling rural white Americans "racist and stupid," writing that "cops are bastards, all of them," describing himself as a "vegetable-growing, psychedelics-taking socialist," and posts about wounded soldiers and women too graphic to print here.
Platner was 41 when the most recent posts were written.
Not a teenager. Not a college kid.
The far left rewarded Auchincloss for his honesty by threatening to primary him.
Saikat Chakrabarti – AOC's former campaign manager and Justice Democrats co-founder – posted that Auchincloss was "essentially endorsing Susan Collins" and "should be primaried" for the unforgivable sin of refusing to back a man with Nazi imagery on his chest.
That tells you everything you need to know about where the Democratic Party is in 2026.
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The Party That Once Bragged About Punching Nazis Is Now Defending One for Senate
Auchincloss – who is Jewish – was the first elected Democrat to call on Platner to drop out when the tattoo story broke last October.
Nobody listened.
Mills eventually dropped out anyway, citing poor fundraising.
Schumer pledged to support Platner to beat Susan Collins.
Warren hit the trail with him.
And the far left attacked anyone who objected as a saboteur of a working-class movement.
Now Platner is the party's nominee – still polling competitively against Collins – and Democrats are stuck defending a candidate who explained his SS death-skull tattoo as something he picked off a wall while drunk in Croatia.
The people who spent years bragging about punching Nazis just nominated one for Senate.
One Jewish congressman from Massachusetts was the only Democrat with the guts to say so.
Collins is running for her sixth term. Democrats just handed her the easiest race of her career.
Sources:
- "After Mills withdrawal, Auchincloss reiterates Platner's Nazi tattoo 'disqualifying,'" Jewish Insider, May 26, 2026.
- "House Democrat Trashes Graham Platner Over 'Disqualifying' Nazi Tattoo Scandal," Mediaite, May 26, 2026.
- "Auchincloss: 'Hope Maine Voters Agree' that Platner's Tattoo and 'Commentary About It' Are 'Disqualifying,'" Breitbart, May 25, 2026.
- "Maine dem Senate hopeful backed by Bernie Sanders apologizes for Nazi-style tattoo, vows to stay in race," Fox News, October 2025.
- "Graham Platner, who opposes Israel and had a Nazi tattoo, set to be Maine's Democratic Senate candidate," Jewish Telegraphic Agency, April 30, 2026.
- "Bernie Sanders lashes out at reporter over Maine candidate's Reddit posts," Fox News, May 2026.
- "It Sure Sounds Like Graham Platner Knew He'd Gotten a Nazi Tattoo," Yahoo News / Jewish Insider, October 2025.
