Know when to fold ’em

This is no longer a difficult question:

Graham Platner, an upstart Democratic candidate running to challenge Republican Maine Senator Susan Collins, reportedly acknowledged that his skull-and-crossbones tattoo is a Nazi military symbol.

Jewish Insider reported Tuesday that an acquaintance of Platner’s had heard the former Marine refer to his chest tattoo as “my Totenkopf,” a German term referring to a specific skull and crossbones symbol used by a branch of the Nazi S.S. military that has since been resurrected by white supremacists, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

In a statement to Jewish Insider, Platner said that he “absolutely would not have gone through life having this on my chest if” he knew the tattoo resembled the Nazi symbol, and he was “already planning” to have it removed.

Platner first publicly admitted he had the tattoo on his chest during an appearance on Pod Save America last week, after images of it had surfaced on social media. He claimed he got the tattoo in 2007, while he was “very inebriated” on leave with some fellow Marines in Croatia.

“We chose a terrifying skull and crossbones off the wall because we were Marines and skulls and crossbones are a pretty standard military thing,” Platner said. “And then we all moved on with our lives.”

[…]

Genevieve McDonald, Platner’s former campaign director, who resigned last week, suggested Tuesday that the candidate must have known about the image’s origins.

Alas, apparently it’s not obvious to everyone:

One of Platner’s strongest supporters on the Hill was not wavering on him on Tuesday. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who rallied with Platner in Maine last month and has endorsed his campaign, defended the oysterman when asked about the tattoo on Tuesday.

“Look, I understand this whole platoon — I don’t know too much about it — got inebriated,” Sanders said. “He went through a dark period. He’s not the only one in America who has gone through a dark period. People go through that, he has apologized for the stupid remarks, the hurtful remarks that he made, and I’m confident that he’s going to run a great campaign and that he’s going to win.”

Lots of people do indeed go through “dark periods,” and the overwhelming majority of them do not have Nazi symbols tattooed on their bodies these periods.

this also drives me insane, this idea that it is the most normal thing in the world for a young (white) man to have a nazi curious phase. it isn’t!— jamelle (@jamellebouie.net) Oct 21, 2025 at 6:27 AM

Let’s keep this simple. This is not about whether Platner is an irredeemable person, or whether he can be forgiven. This is not about whether people were wrong to find him an intruging candidate in his initial appearances — I agree that he was. It’s about who will be the Democratic candidate in a critical Senate in Maine, and “got a Nazi tattoo and still has it” is transparently disqualifying. You cannot be explaining your Nazi tattoo and defeat a multi-term incumbent who has consistently punched above her party’s weight in the state. His allies are not doing him any favors if they allow him to believe otherwise, and if you don’t like Mills you need to find someone else to challenge her.