U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner is disavowing a series of now-deleted social media posts in which he criticized police and said that white rural Americans “actually are” racist and stupid.
Platner, a veteran and oyster farmer from Hancock County, is running to challenge Sen. Susan Collins. His Reddit posts from 2020 and 2021 were resurfaced this week by CNN, which reported that they were deleted prior to Platner’s campaign launch in August.
In an interview with the Press Herald Thursday, Platner said the posts came from a time when he was disillusioned and angry, and expressed those sentiments online. He said the comments don’t reflect who he is today.
“A lot of it isn’t even things I believed then,” Platner said. “A lot of them are just stupid joke comments. I look back now and I don’t mean to be flippant, but it was just dumb stuff on the internet and when I stopped being lonely and isolated I didn’t use that as an outlet anymore.”
In one since-removed post from 2020, Platner responded to a thread titled “White people aren’t as racist or stupid as Trump thinks” by writing, “Living in white rural America, I’m afraid to tell you they actually are.”
In another comment from 2021, Platner responded in a thread about a Black army lieutenant who was held at gunpoint and pepper-sprayed by police during a traffic stop. One Reddit user wrote, “Bastards. Cops are bastards,” to which Platner replied, “All of them, in fact.”
Other posts addressed Platner’s political views and how his military service reshaped his perspective. Platner served three deployments to Iraq with the Marine Corps and was deployed to Afghanistan with the Army National Guard before settling in Sullivan, where he grew up.
In one post, he reflected on his life after the military, saying he was “a vegetable growing, psychedelics taking socialist these days. After the war, I’ve pretty much stopped believing in any of the patriotic nonsense that got me there in the first place, and am a firm believer that the best thing a person can do is help their neighbors and live a loving life.”
Platner is a leading contender for the Democratic nomination to challenge Collins. Governor Janet Mills, who is finishing up her second term, announced Tuesday that she is also running.
This story will be updated.
https://www.pressherald.com/2025/10/16/graham-platner-dismisses-old-reddit-posts-as-stupid-joke-comments/
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