Ana Navarro went on The View this week and asked out loud why the Democrat Party can't find better candidates than Graham Platner.
Nobody on that panel had an answer.
Maine's Senate candidate just became so radioactive that the women of daytime TV's most reliably liberal program turned on him on camera – and the list of what they were reacting to will make your jaw drop.
A Nazi Tattoo Was Just the Beginning
Graham Platner seemed like a dream candidate on paper – Marine veteran, oyster farmer, blue-collar appeal in a state Republicans need to hold.
Then the Nazi tattoo surfaced.
Platner wore a chest tattoo tied to the 3rd Panzer division – a Nazi military unit linked to concentration camps – for 20 years, including through military service and a federal background check.
His explanation: he got it drunk on leave in Croatia and didn't know what it meant.
His Reddit posts told a different story entirely.
CNN's KFile investigation found posts where Platner discussed the very symbol he claimed to know nothing about, with comments that contradicted his public account nearly word for word.
Maine Democrats shrugged and moved on.
He covered the tattoo with another tattoo in October 2025 and the party handed him its Senate nomination anyway.
Then Came the Rest of It
The Wall Street Journal broke the sexting story last weekend.
Platner's own wife, Amy Gertner, discovered explicit messages he had been sending to multiple women – messages she disclosed to campaign staff during internal vetting in spring 2025 and quietly shelved.
His campaign confirmed the messages were real, then immediately tried to walk that confirmation back.
Platner himself went on camera and called the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times guilty of journalistic malpractice – even after his own team had already authenticated the story.
That was not the end of it.
The Daily Wire then reported that Platner maintains an active profile on Kik – an anonymous messaging app the National Center on Sexual Exploitation has officially labeled a "predator's paradise."
The profile, created in 2016, features a shirtless mirror selfie with a towel around his waist – the Nazi-linked chest tattoo carefully hidden behind his phone.
Roughly 70% of Kik's user base is estimated to be between 13 and 24 years old, according to multiple industry reports.
Child safety advocates have linked the app to more than 2,000 federal criminal cases between 2014 and 2020, with prosecutions continuing through 2026.
One Maine man was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison just last year for producing videos of children being sexually abused and distributing them through a Kik chatroom.
That is the app Graham Platner chose to maintain an active profile on – and left active through this weekend.
Democrats Finally Hit Their Limit
Even Cory Booker – not known for confronting members of his own party – admitted publicly that Platner "has questions to answer."
Rep. Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts went further, calling the Nazi tattoo and Platner's explanation of it "personally disqualifying."
Former Biden White House communications director Kate Bedingfield told CNN there is "a lot about Graham Platner frankly that is unpalatable."
And then The View weighed in.
Ana Navarro – who has spent years on that panel defending Democrat after Democrat regardless of what they did – went on air and declared the situation "disturbing" and "horrible," demanding to know why the party cannot produce better candidates.
She pointed out that Platner is not an outlier – he is representative of a pattern of Democrats running figures loaded with what she called "steamer trunks of ethical questions" and expecting voters to look away.
The View is not a conservative outlet.
These women have defended Anthony Weiner, defended Hunter Biden, defended a parade of Democrat men caught doing things they would have burned a Republican alive for.
When Ana Navarro says your candidate is a disgrace on national television, your candidate is finished.
What Maine Democrats Knew and When They Knew It
This is the story buried under the sexting headlines.
Platner's campaign knew about the texts in spring 2025 – his wife brought them directly to campaign staff before he had the nomination locked up.
Staff reviewed what she found and decided it wasn't a problem worth surfacing.
They handed Maine Democrats a candidate carrying a covered Nazi tattoo, a Reddit history of mocking wounded soldiers, an active account on a child exploitation app, and a sexting trail his own wife had already flagged to the people running his campaign.
And told everyone it was fine.
Susan Collins – who was supposed to be the most vulnerable Republican incumbent in the country heading into 2026 – is now watching her would-be challenger come apart in real time.
The Democrat Party didn't stumble into Graham Platner.
They chose him with full knowledge of what he was carrying – and the only thing that stopped them from getting away with it was a wall of reporting they couldn't contain.
Sources:
- Matt Vespa, "If You're a Dem and The View of All Places Turns Its Back on You, You've Definitely Screwed Up," Townhall, June 1, 2026.
- Joseph Chalfant, "Platner Maintained Sexually-Suggestive Profile on 'Predator's Paradise' App Known For Child Exploitation," Townhall, May 30, 2026.
- Fox News Digital, "Platner Still Has Active Account on Anonymous App Dubbed 'Predator's Paradise' Amid Cheating Scandal," Fox News, June 1, 2026.
- Hanna Panreck, "Democratic Maine Senate Candidate Graham Platner Confronted by MS NOW Host About Tattoo Controversy," Fox News, February 1, 2026.
- Matt Margolis, "Graham Platner's Senate Campaign Is Finished," PJ Media, May 31, 2026.
