A Maine Democratic Senate candidate used a Reddit account to mock a teenage girl's suicide attempt, called a Purple Heart recipient unfit to live, and praised a Hamas attack on Israeli soldiers, all in posts now resurfacing as his campaign faces a widening series of personal scandals.
HRA2 SCHED 9:23PM CSTGraham Platner, 41, commented on a May 2012 Reddit thread that showed a photo of a teenage girl hanging out of an upper-story window while a young man gripped her arms to save her. The original post's caption read: "A girl at my old highschool tried jumping from a window because her cousin died the day before. These students saved her. I have hope."
Platner's response, posted under the screen name P-Hustle, was five words: "Someone clearly isn't trying hard enough." The New York Post reported the comment and additional posts attributed to the same account, which Platner did not address, he did not return the Post's request for comment.
The suicide-attempt comment is not an isolated entry. The Post reported that the same P-Hustle account left a string of posts spanning nearly a decade, each one raising fresh questions about the judgment of a man now asking Maine voters to send him to the U.S. Senate.
In 2014, a video posted on the Subreddit r/combatfootage showed Hamas terrorists shooting at Israeli soldiers and attempting to kidnap one as he screamed for his life. Platner, using the same P-Hustle handle, wrote: "Looks like an all around well executed and successful small unit raid to me."
That was not the only time combat footage drew a troubling reaction. In 2019, Platner commented on famous 2012 helmet cam footage of Pfc. Ted Daniels, a Purple Heart recipient who was shot four times during a Taliban ambush. Platner wrote: "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."
A decorated soldier, shot four times while under enemy fire, reduced to an object of contempt by a man who now wants to represent the people of Maine in Washington.
Other posts were crude rather than hostile. In 2017, Platner posted a graphic remark about masturbating in portable toilets. In 2021, he responded to a user who said adult entertainers should be thanked for their service like veterans with the line: "Thank you for your cervix." The Post also reported that Platner maintained an account on the messaging app Kik that featured a half-naked photo of himself.
The Reddit posts are only the latest problem for Platner's campaign. He has already faced scrutiny over a tattoo that bears the symbol of Hitler's paramilitary unit responsible for the Holocaust. Platner has said he did not know the tattoo's significance until October 2025, when he was mounting his Senate bid.
That claim took a hit Thursday when his former girlfriend, Lyndsey Fifield, came forward with allegations that Platner knew exactly what the tattoo meant well before October 2025. Fifield alleged Platner kept the tattoo to remind himself "the US was the evil bad guy overseas."
Fifield also accused Platner of being physical in their relationship, alleging he grabbed her hard enough to leave marks and once twisted her arm behind her back. Platner has previously denied Fifield's allegations. Former girlfriends have described a disturbing pattern of behavior that extends beyond any single accuser.
Maine State House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham did not hold back. He told the Post:
"Graham Platner is clearly a person with deep and disturbing psychological issues that predate his military service and continue to this day."
Faulkingham's statement frames the controversy not as a single youthful lapse but as a pattern, one that stretches from 2012 Reddit posts through 2019 attacks on a wounded soldier and into the present-day tattoo dispute.
And Faulkingham is not alone in raising alarms. Democrat Rep. Madeleine Dean has said Platner "disqualified himself" from the Maine Senate race, a remarkable statement from a member of his own party.
The pile of red flags has grown tall enough that even prominent Democrats have distanced themselves. Sen. John Fetterman publicly rejected Platner as a real Democrat, calling the Maine nominee a "communist" on Fox News. When a party's own members are running from a candidate on national television, voters should pay attention to what they already see.
The Reddit posts sit alongside a growing catalog of problems that would end most political careers before they started. There is the Nazi-linked tattoo and the shifting explanations around it. There are the ex-girlfriend's allegations of physical mistreatment. There is the crude online behavior spanning nearly a decade.
Even people inside Platner's own operation have sounded warnings. Platner's former campaign director warned Maine voters against him just hours before the primary, a nearly unprecedented move by someone who once worked to elect the candidate.
Separately, other resurfaced Reddit posts attributed to Platner described cocaine purchases and drug use on military leave, adding yet another layer to the accumulating record.
Platner did not respond to the Post's latest request for comment. The silence is becoming its own kind of answer.
Several questions remain unanswered. What evidence beyond screenshots connects the P-Hustle account to Platner? Did Platner truly not know the meaning of his tattoo until October 2025, as he has claimed, or did he know earlier, as Fifield alleges? What happened to the teenage girl whose suicide attempt he apparently found amusing? And why has Platner gone silent rather than face the public record he built under his own screen name?
Maine voters are being asked to trust this man with a seat in the United States Senate. The record he left on Reddit, mocking a suicidal teenager, praising a Hamas raid, savaging a wounded American soldier, tells them everything they need to know about his character. No campaign ad can bury what a man writes when he thinks nobody important is watching.
Character is not what you say on the stump. It is what you type at midnight when the only audience is strangers on the internet.
