Graham Platner, the Democrats' presumptive nominee for U.S. Senate in Maine, is facing fresh scrutiny over a deleted Reddit post in which he appeared to ridicule a Purple Heart recipient who was shot four times during a 2012 firefight with Taliban fighters, calling the wounded soldier a "motherf*****" who "didn't deserve to live."
The post, written in June 2019 from the account "P-Hustle", which Platner has acknowledged he owned, resurfaced after journalist Magdi Jacobs published the deleted entry on X. It referenced a viral helmet-camera video from Pfc. Ted Daniels, who deliberately drew enemy fire to protect fellow soldiers during the engagement and earned a Purple Heart for his injuries.
The post is the latest in a string of deleted social media entries that have dogged Platner's first-time campaign. If he wins the June primary, the Marine Corps veteran will try to unseat five-term Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins this fall, backed by progressive heavyweights Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
The full Reddit comment, preserved in a Maine Monitor database of Platner's deleted Reddit history, leaves little room for charitable interpretation. Responding to the Daniels combat footage, the "P-Hustle" account wrote:
"This video never gets old. Dumb motherf***** didn't deserve to live. At least his stupidity and fat a** wheezing are available for all future infantrymen to witness and hold in contempt. Poor marksmanship on the Taliban's part is the only reason this mouthbreather made it home, he managed to make every possible s*** decision possible when it comes to small unit combat."
Read that again. A man now seeking a seat in the United States Senate looked at footage of an American soldier absorbing four bullets in combat, a soldier who later said he put himself in the open on purpose, and called it entertainment. He lamented the Taliban's poor aim.
Daniels, in later interviews, said his decision to move into the open was deliberate. He acknowledged it was "not a sound thing to do" tactically, but said plainly: "I put my a** on the line for other guys."
Platner has previously responded to questions about his social media history by dismissing the posts as humor. Fox News Digital reported that in a recent interview with The New York Times, where other posts from the account were discussed, Platner said:
"You should read the comments in context. It's very clear I'm joking."
He went further, offering a term for his behavior:
"It's called s***posting. It's when you argue with people on the internet and try to bother them. So, yeah, no, it's very obviously not true."
That explanation covers a lot of ground. It asks voters to believe that a Marine Corps veteran with four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan was merely trolling when he said an American soldier shot four times by the Taliban "didn't deserve to live", and that the Taliban's only failure was bad marksmanship.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Platner campaign for comment. No response was reported.
Not everyone in the veteran community is buying the "just joking" defense. Adam Schwarze, a former Navy SEAL and Marine veteran now running for U.S. Senate as a Republican in Minnesota, rejected Platner's framing outright.
"We don't make jokes about our brothers and sisters dying, that's not something we do, that's not normal. We don't post about our brothers getting wounded in action."
Schwarze, who served 21 years and completed nine deployments, pushed back specifically on the idea that Platner's comments reflect how veterans talk among themselves:
"I think it's very dangerous to say, 'Hey, this is how veterans think and talk' because that's just not true. I served 21 years, nine deployments, I don't know one combat veteran who makes comments like cops are bastards."
That last line references other deleted posts from the same account, part of a broader pattern that has followed Platner's campaign. Schwarze described the behavior as reflecting possible "mental issues" and said he felt sympathy for Platner but drew a firm line.
"I feel bad for him. I think he should get some help. He deserves help from his time down range, from his PTSD and his mental health issues, but he certainly shouldn't be running for the United States Senate."
The Daniels post is not the only deleted entry creating problems. Fox News reported that Platner's Reddit account included a post from roughly five years ago in which he described himself as a "communist" and "socialist." Another deleted post, from 2013, reportedly said people concerned about rape should not "get so f***ed up they wind up having sex with someone they don't mean to."
Platner has dismissed that language, too, as jokes taken out of context.
Journalist Magdi Jacobs, who first surfaced the Daniels post on social media, offered a different read. "That's what Platner thinks about his fellow Americans at war," Jacobs wrote. "If they're not good at killing or broader tactics, he has contempt for them. He displays no empathy. The opposite, in fact."
The National Republican Senate Committee wasted no time. NRSC regional press secretary Samantha Cantrell issued a statement that framed the controversy in the starkest terms:
"Anyone who makes fun of the American soldiers who gave their lives for freedom and cheers on terrorists has no place serving in the United States Senate."
That line, "cheers on terrorists", may sound like campaign hyperbole until you go back and read Platner's own words about the Taliban's marksmanship. He didn't criticize the enemy. He criticized the American who survived them.
Platner became the Democrats' presumptive nominee after two-term governor Janet Mills ended her campaign last month, trailing him in both polling and fundraising. He now stands as the party's best shot at flipping Collins' seat, a top Democratic target.
Sanders and Warren have both backed him. The progressive left has invested in this race.
But the deleted Reddit account keeps pulling the curtain back. Every time the campaign tries to move forward, another post surfaces, and the candidate's only answer is that he was kidding. That defense works once, maybe. It does not work when the posts span years, cover topics from combat casualties to sexual assault to self-described communism, and share a consistent tone of contempt.
Maine voters will have to decide whether a man who watched footage of an American soldier getting shot and typed "didn't deserve to live" was really just having fun on the internet, or whether those words reveal something the delete button can't fix.
There's an old rule in politics: when someone tells you who they are, believe them. Platner told us. He just thought he'd deleted the evidence.
