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Graham Platner, Anti-Israel Senate Candidate in Maine, Covers Tattoo Recognized as Nazi Symbol
Graham Platner, a Maine Democrat running for the US Senate, in October 2025. Photo: Screenshot
Graham Platner, a Democratic candidate for US Senate in Maine, on Wednesday said that a skull and crossbones tattoo on his chest has been covered to no longer reflect an image widely recognized as a Nazi symbol.
“Going to a tattoo removal place is going to take a while,” he told the Associated Press. “I wanted this thing off my body.”
Platner, a 41-year-old oyster farmer and military veteran, said that while his campaign initially said he would remove the tattoo, he decided to cover it up with another tattoo due to the limited options where he lives in rural Maine.
The first-time political candidate has come under fire after downplaying revelations that he possessed a tattoo resembling a symbol of Hitler’s paramilitary Schutzstaffel, or SS, which was responsible for large-scale atrocities against millions of Jews and other victims in Europe during World War II.
The controversy intensified on Monday, when Platner, who has been mounting a progressive campaign against Republican incumbent Susan Collins, appeared on the left-wing podcast “Pod Save America.” Host Tommy Vietor played a clip shared by Platner’s campaign from a decade ago of the now-candidate dancing shirtless, with the tattoo visible, at a bar while lip-syncing to a Miley Cyrus song at his brother’s wedding. Vietor noted that “political opponents” had been telling reporters that Platner had a tattoo “with Nazi affiliation.”
Platner attempted to downplay the revelation, explaining that he requested the tattoo 18 years ago during a night of drunken partying with a group of fellow Marines in Croatia. He claimed that he and his fellow Marines did not recognize the tattoo as having any connection to the Nazis.
“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.”
Platner added that he is not a “secret Nazi” and has a history of publicly advocating against antisemitism and racism.
“I am not a secret Nazi,” Platner said. “Actually, if you read through my Reddit comments, I think you can pretty much figure out where I stand on Nazism and antisemitism and racism in general.”
He later said he was unaware of the tattoo’s associations with Nazi Germany until his Senate campaign.
“It was not until I started hearing from reporters and DC insiders that I realized this tattoo resembled a Nazi symbol,” Platner said in a statement to Politico on Tuesday. “I absolutely would not have gone through life having this on my chest if I knew that — and to insinuate that I did is disgusting. I am already planning to get this removed.”
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) called Platner’s tattoo choice “troubling” and suggested that the candidate “repudiate its hateful meaning.”
“This appears to be a Nazi Totenkopf tattoo, and if true, it is troubling that a candidate for high office would have one,” said Jessica Cohen, an ADL spokesperson. “We do understand that sometimes people get tattoos without understanding their hateful association. In those cases, the bearer should be asked whether they repudiate its hateful meaning.”
Platner launched his Senate campaign in August, framing his insurgent candidacy as an anti-establishment challenge to unseat Collins. The progressive firebrand has focused on the Israel-Hamas war during his campaign, accusing the Jewish state of committing “genocide” in Gaza and vowing not to take any money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the preeminent pro-Israel lobbying group in the US.
Platner has come under fire after recently surfaced Reddit comments showed the candidate making disparaging remarks about black people, asking why the racial group “don’t tip.”
“I work as a bartender and it always amazes me how solid this stereotype is,” he wrote. “Every now and again a black patron will leave a 15-20% tip, but usually it [is] between 0-5%. There’s got to be a reason behind it, what is it?” he wrote on Reddit in 2013.
In 2021, Platner called himself a “communist” and repudiated white, rural voters as “racist” and “stupid.”
Despite Platner’s assertions that he did not know the Nazi affiliation of the tattoo, his former political director claimed that the candidate knew of its meaning.
“Graham has an antisemitic tattoo on his chest. He’s not an idiot; he’s a military history buff. Maybe he didn’t know it when he got it, but he got it years ago and he should have covered it up because he damn well knows what it means,” Genevieve McDonald, Platner’s former political director, wrote in a social media statement.
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Rep. Ilhan Omar says Stephen Miller’s comments on immigrants sound like how ‘Nazis described Jewish people’
Rep Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, on Sunday likened the Trump administration’s immigration rhetoric to Nazi depictions of Jews.
“It reminds me of the way the Nazis described Jewish people in Germany,” Omar said in an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation, commenting on a social media post by Stephen Miller, President Donald Trump’s senior adviser, in which he suggested that “migrants and their descendants recreate the conditions, and terrors, of their broken homelands.” Miller, who is Jewish, is the architect of the Trump administration’s immigration policy.
Omar called Miller’s comments “white supremist rhetoric” and also drew parallels between his characterization of migrants seeking refuge in the U.S. to how Jews were demonized and treated when they fled Nazi-era Germany. “As we know, there have been many immigrants who have tried to come to the United States who have turned back, you know, one of them being Jewish immigrants,” she said.
Now serving as Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy, Miller is central to the White House’s plans for mass deportations and expanded barriers to asylum. During Trump’s first term, Miller led the implementation of the so-called Muslim travel ban in 2017, which barred entry to the U.S. for individuals from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, and pushed to further reduce a longtime refugee program.
Rep. Ilhan Omar: “When I think about Stephen Miller and his white supremacist rhetoric, it reminds me of the way the Nazis described Jewish people in Germany.” pic.twitter.com/GAjIMqFq26
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 7, 2025
Miller’s comments echoed similar rhetoric by Trump after an Afghan refugee was accused of shooting two National Guard members near the White House last month, killing one.
Trump told reporters at a cabinet meeting last week that Somali immigrants are “garbage” and that he wanted them to be sent “back to where they came from.” The president also singled out Omar, a Somali native who represents Minnesota’s large Somali-American community. “She should be thrown the hell out of our country,” Trump said.
In the Sunday interview, Omar called Trump’s remarks “completely disgusting” and accused him of having “an unhealthy obsession” with her and the Somali community. “This kind of hateful rhetoric and this level of dehumanizing can lead to dangerous actions by people who listen to the president,” she said.
The post Rep. Ilhan Omar says Stephen Miller’s comments on immigrants sound like how ‘Nazis described Jewish people’ appeared first on The Forward.
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Nigeria Seeks French Help to Combat Insecurity, Macron Says
French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, Sept. 15, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/Pool
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has sought more help from France to fight widespread violence in the north of the country, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday, weeks after the United States threatened to intervene to protect Nigeria’s Christians.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, has witnessed an upsurge in attacks in volatile northern areas in the past month, including mass kidnappings from schools and a church.
US President Donald Trump has raised the prospect of possible military action in Nigeria, accusing it of mistreating Christians. The government says the allegations misrepresent a complex security situation in which armed groups target both faith groups.
Macron said he had a phone call with Tinubu on Sunday, where he conveyed France’s support to Nigeria as it grapples with several security challenges, “particularly the terrorist threat in the North.”
“At his request, we will strengthen our partnership with the authorities and our support for the affected populations. We call on all our partners to step up their engagement,” Macron said in a post on X.
Macron did not say what help would be offered by France, which has withdrawn its troops from West and Central Africa and plans to focus on training, intelligence sharing and responding to requests from countries for assistance.
Nigeria is grappling with a long-running Islamist insurgency in the northeast, armed kidnapping gangs in the northwest and deadly clashes between largely Muslim cattle herders and mostly Christian farmers in the central parts of the country, stretching its security forces.
Washington said last month that it was considering actions such as sanctions and Pentagon engagement on counterterrorism as part of a plan to compel Nigeria to better protect its Christian communities.
The Nigerian government has said it welcomes help to fight insecurity as long as its sovereignty is respected. France has previously supported efforts to curtail the actions of armed groups, the US has shared intelligence and sold arms, including fighter jets, and Britain has trained Nigerian troops.
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Netanyahu Says He Will Not Quit Politics if He Receives a Pardon
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu participates in the state memorial ceremony for the fallen of the Iron Swords War on Mount Herzl, Jerusalem on Oct. 16, 2025. Photo: Alex Kolomoisky/POOL/Pool via REUTERS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that he would not retire from politics if he receives a pardon from the country’s president in his years-long corruption trial.
Asked by a reporter if planned on retiring from political life if he receives a pardon, Netanyahu replied: “no”.
Netanyahu last month asked President Isaac Herzog for a pardon, with lawyers for the prime minister arguing that frequent court appearances were hindering Netanyahu’s ability to govern and that a pardon would be good for the country.
Pardons in Israel have typically been granted only after legal proceedings have concluded and the accused has been convicted. There is no precedent for issuing a pardon mid-trial.
Netanyahu has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in response to the charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, and his lawyers have said that the prime minister still believes the legal proceedings, if concluded, would result in a complete acquittal.
US President Donald Trump wrote to Herzog, before Netanyahu made his request, urging the Israeli president to consider granting the prime minister a pardon.
Some Israeli opposition politicians have argued that any pardon should be conditional on Netanyahu retiring from politics and admitting guilt. Others have said the prime minister must first call national elections, which are due by October 2026.