Graham Platner is running for the Senate in Maine and will likely win the Democratic nomination. This despite the fact that he sports a "deathshead" SS tattoo on his chest.
His first try at an explanation was to feign innocence. He didn't know the "significance" of the grinning skull and crossbones (the"Totenkopf") he had tattooed on his chest during a trip to Croatia while in the Marines. Then, CNN dug up some old Reddit posts showing that he knew exactly what the tattoo signified, and an old acquaintance who confirmed that Platner bragged about it. Caught in a bald-faced lie, Platner changed his story. Now he blames the Marines.
“Much of it was because of the culture I had come out of… When I left the military, I came out of a hypermasculine, hyperviolent place… I did four tours in the infantry. We have a crude sense of humor in the infantry. We certainly have a, I would say, narrow view of a lot of topics, and that colored my opinions and my beliefs.”
A Republican wears blackface when he's in college and is being asked to resign. Platner wears a Nazi tattoo and brags about it. Don't hold your breath for Democrats condemning him. Senator Elizabeth Warren just endorsed him, and Democrats in Maine love the guy.
Platner also was quoted as saying, "I dig it!" after watching a video of the crack Hamas unit, the Qassam Brigade, attack a small group of Israeli soldiers, executing most of them and taking others prisoner. Not necessarily antisemitic, but a telling reaction to the deaths of Allied soldiers.
I think we can generalize and say that the Democrats not only have an antisemitism problem, but the truly frightening thing is that few in the party seem to give a hoot about it.
Radical left Democrats have embraced Hasan Piker, a radical Jew hater and Democratic Party influencer, despite his making some outrageously antisemitic comments. He also said that America "deserved "9/11, and is a vocal supporter of Hamas. He recently appeared with Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and is in high demand as a speaker at Democratic campaign rallies and fundraisers.
On the podcast, Pod Save America, hosted by Jon Favreau, the two Democrats and radical leftists had an interesting exchange.
“This [quote] is from January,” host Jon Favreau, a former speechwriter to President Barack Obama, told Piker in a segment looking back on some of Piker’s comments that have been picked up by national media. “‘Hamas is a thousand times better than a fascist settler colonial apartheid state,’” Favreau quoted.
Piker responded quickly, “I stand by that.”
Favreau then said, “[T]his is the one that bothered me most when I first heard it …. Even if you believe what happened in Gaza is genocide and what’s happening in the West Bank is apartheid, those are different claims from ‘Hamas is a thousand times better,’ because Hamas is an organization that has massacred, raped, kidnapped civilians on Oct. 7. They’ve also been catastrophic for Palestinians by almost every measure. … Do you actually mean that or is that a rhetorical move or like a solidarity signal?”
“I mean, it’s all of the above. I do mean it,” Piker responded. “I’m a lesser-evil voter and therefore I would vote for Hamas over Israel every single time.” He described Hamas as a “paramilitary organization that has like a political party as well, a politburo as well, that is entirely comprised, not as an alien force, but of orphan children that have had their parents killed by an apartheid state that has been dominating the lives of Palestinians for 80 years at this point.”
What has happened to the Democratic Party? The strong support for the creation of the state of Israel in the immediate aftermath of World War II by Democrats convinced Harry Truman to support the motion at the UN for Israel's creation (among other factors). About 70% of American Jews either identify as Democrats or vote Democratic in elections.
Support for Democratic candidates remains a long-term trend among Jews. Since 1972, the average Jewish vote share for Democrats has been approximately 70%. But as more and more radical left Democrats enter Congress, and their rhetoric becomes overtly antisemitic, you have to wonder how long that support will remain so high?
AP reported that Trump received about one-third (about 33%) of the Jewish vote in 2024, a result similar to his 2020 performance. The Republican Jewish Coalition claimed that Trump received 35% of the Jewish vote, which would be a record for a Republican.
But polls show that most Jewish voters don't vote because of a candidate's position on Israel or Jews. It's one factor among the other issues, like inflation and the economy, that determine who Jews vote for.
That's why Democrats don't really care about antisemitism being a problem. They've got the Jewish vote locked up because Jews are, as a group, more liberal. Even in Maine, Platner has received vocal support from liberal Jewish leaders and the left-wing Jewish organization J Street.
How that will play out in the general election if, as expected, Platner wins the nomination, remains to be seen.
PJ Media will give you all the information you need to understand the decisions that will be made this year. Insightful commentary and straight-on, no-BS news reporting have been our hallmarks since 2005.
Get 60% off your new VIP membership by using the code FIGHT. You won't regret it.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member