Graham Platner, the 41-year-old progressive running to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins in Maine, has a consistency problem, and it starts with his own words. In 2020, the Marine and Army veteran mocked the idea that PTSD could excuse misconduct. Now, facing a trail of deleted social media posts that include dismissive comments about rape, calls for political violence, and self-described communism, Platner says his own PTSD and post-war depression explain the whole thing.
The contradiction is not subtle. And Maine voters deserve to see it laid out plainly.
Fox News Digital obtained a since-deleted Reddit post from 2020 in which Platner, writing under a handle that did not identify him, responded to a Portland Press Herald report about two former police officers who admitted to killing porcupines with their batons while on duty. Platner's response was blunt:
"Don't buy into that bulls***. I did 4 tours in the infantry to Iraq and Afghanistan, saw all kinds of awful things, have a PTSD diagnosis and STILL manage not to beat defenseless animals to death for fun."
He added: "That's just cops giving excuses for their garbage behavior."
Five years later, Platner is the presumptive Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in Maine. And his explanation for a string of inflammatory, since-deleted online posts? PTSD.
The 2020 Reddit comment is far from the only entry in Platner's digital record that has drawn scrutiny. The Washington Post first obtained a since-deleted 2013 message in which Platner, discussing a video promoting female underwear designed to prevent rape, wrote:
"Rape is a real thing. If you're so worried about it to buy Kevlar underwear you'd think you might not get blacked out f***ed up around people you aren't comfortable with."
That message drew sharp criticism and became a focal point in the Democratic primary. Maine Gov. Janet Mills, who challenged Platner for the nomination with backing from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, attempted to spotlight the comment in campaign advertising.
It didn't work. Mills, 78, dropped out of the race in late April after significantly trailing Platner in public polling. The collapse of Schumer's preferred candidate in Maine reflected a broader pattern of Democratic frustration with party leadership meddling in primaries.
But the deleted posts kept surfacing. Politico reported a since-deleted 2018 post in which Platner appeared to justify political violence to achieve "economic justice." In 2020, beyond the Reddit comment about police, Platner also wrote that white people living in rural America are "actually" racist and that all law enforcement officers are "b******." The following year, he said in another since-deleted post that he "got older and became a Communist."
CNN first reported Platner's activity on the Reddit forum r/SocialistRA and other forums.
In late 2025, Platner posted a video to social media offering his explanation. He described himself as "having a very difficult time settling into a society that he felt betrayed by and left behind by after having a fight in Iraq and Afghanistan."
"I got out of the Army in 2012, I had PTSD, I had depression, I had all of the things that come with serving in a war, two wars that I eventually began to not believe in at all."
He continued: "It left me feeling very unmoored. It left me feeling very disillusioned, very alienated and very isolated."
And then the line that is supposed to close the book on everything from rape commentary to communist self-identification to justifying political violence:
"And I think, like a lot of people, I went on the internet to post stupid things and get in fights and find some form of community in some way, some outlet for my feelings."
Set aside, for a moment, whether that explanation is persuasive. The more pressing question is why Platner himself rejected the very same defense when someone else used it. In 2020, when police officers pointed to the stresses of their work, Platner called it "bulls***" and said his own PTSD diagnosis didn't excuse bad conduct. Now, when the spotlight is on him, the rules have changed.
That is not growth. That is convenience.
Rather than retreat, Platner has leaned into confrontation. He told Fox News Digital on Monday that he would not support Schumer remaining as Democratic leader, a stance that puts him at odds with the party establishment that tried to stop him in the primary. The broader erosion of Schumer's grip on the Democratic caucus has been a recurring theme in recent months.
Platner framed his defiance as evidence of independence. He cast the scrutiny of his past posts as a coordinated attack, first from within his own party and now from Republicans.
"The Democratic establishment tried to use all those attacks against me and failed miserably. Now the Republican establishment is going to try to use the exact same attacks, and that will also fail miserably."
That confidence may be premature. The Democratic primary electorate in Maine is one thing. A general election against Collins, who has won statewide four times, is another.
Platner's willingness to break with Schumer fits a pattern of Democrats publicly distancing themselves from their own leadership, a dynamic that has played out in other high-profile cases across the party. Whether that positioning reflects genuine conviction or political calculation is a question voters will have to sort out for themselves.
The social media posts are not the only item Platner has tried to put behind him. The article notes he covered up a chest tattoo he got in 2007 while out drinking with fellow Marines stationed in Croatia. The nature of the tattoo was not detailed, but the decision to cover it tracks with the broader effort to sand down a past that doesn't fit a Senate campaign.
The timeline matters. Platner's deleted posts span from 2013 to at least 2021, nearly a decade. The 2013 rape comment, the 2018 endorsement of political violence, the 2020 attacks on rural white Americans and police, the 2021 communist self-label, these are not the product of a single bad week. They represent a sustained pattern of online conduct that Platner now attributes entirely to post-service mental health struggles.
Veterans who have dealt with PTSD deserve empathy and support. But invoking a diagnosis to explain away a decade of inflammatory rhetoric, after publicly ridiculing someone else for doing the same, is not a mental health story. It is a credibility story.
The late Barney Frank, speaking from hospice, recently warned Democrats that embracing their far-left flank would cost them elections. Platner's record, self-described communism, justifications for political violence, contempt for law enforcement, is exactly the kind of baggage Frank had in mind.
Collins is set to face Platner in November's midterm elections. The Republican senator has not yet responded publicly to Platner's latest comments, at least not in available reporting.
Several questions remain unanswered. What specific polling numbers drove Mills out of the race? What exactly did Platner's covered-up tattoo depict? And does Platner's refusal to back Schumer reflect a genuine ideological break, or simply a recognition that Schumer's standing within his own party has deteriorated to the point where loyalty carries no upside?
Platner is betting that Maine voters will accept the PTSD explanation, forgive the deleted posts, and focus on his populist pitch against Collins. He may be right. Primary voters already gave him a pass.
But general election voters tend to notice when a candidate holds others to a standard he refuses to meet himself. And no amount of deleted posts can erase that contradiction.
