Politics

Graham Platner tries to turn the page on his online comments

Published

9 months ago

October 18, 2025

Graham Platner is trying to move on from the divisive online posts that threaten to derail his insurgent candidacy for Senate.

The Maine business owner seeking the seat now held by GOP Rep. Susan Collins released a video Friday offering a lengthy explanation and expressing regret for Reddit comments that endorsed political violence, minimized rape in the military and disparaged police.

Platner said his online views were a reflection of his mental state following his return from military service in Afghanistan, and that his views have since evolved.

“When I got back from Afghanistan in 2011, I stayed in the Army for another year. I got out in 2012. Some of the worst comments I made, the things that I’m — I think are least defensible, that I wouldn’t even try to defend, come from that time,” he said in the video message. “When I got out, I still had the crude humor, the dark, dark feelings, the offensive language that really was a hallmark — hallmark of the infantry when I was in it.”

Platner’s social media posts, including messages from as recently as 2021, have gained widespread media attention in recent days.

Blue Light News reported Platner suggested political violence is necessary to affect social change in a 2018 post. The Washington Post reported Platner downplayed concerns about sexual assault in posts from 2013. BLN reported he labeled all White Americans in rural areas as racist and stupid in one 2020 post and said all cops are “bastards” in a 2021 post. The Bangor Daily News reported Platner asked why Black people “don’t tip” in a 2013 post.

The Reddit posts were deleted prior to announcing his campaign. Platner acknowledged making the posts and has apologized for them.

Platner said in his video statement that he stopped posting on Reddit “around 2020 or 2021” when he returned to Maine.

“I went from thinking that people were bad to knowing that people are good. I went from thinking that there was no hope to having nothing but hope — a hope that is rooted in the fact that it was in my community, here in Sullivan, Maine, that I got to come home and build a nice life,” he said.

Platner, who’s been endorsed by progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders, is hoping to defeat Senate Democrats’ preferred candidate Gov. Janet Mills and win the party’s nomination in Democrats’ best opportunity to pick up a Senate seat in the midterms.

Republicans quickly dismissed Platner’s video apology.

“Five minutes in which Graham Platner blames HIS FELLOW SERVICEMEN for things he said,” National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesperson Joanna Rodriguez said in a social media post.

Politics

The messy standoff driving a wedge between a bipartisan Senate duo

Published

6 minutes ago

July 1, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Susan Collins and Patty Murray have been increasingly at odds as the midterms approach and spending priorities diverge…
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Politics

Progressive Manny Rutinel wins primary in battleground Colorado House district

Published

41 minutes ago

July 1, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Progressive state Rep. Manny Rutinel will take on GOP Rep. Gabe Evans this fall, setting up a contentious general election in one of Democrats’ top pickup targets — and giving Republicans the candidate they hoped to face.

Rutinel defeated the more-moderate former state Rep. Shannon Bird in Tuesday’s primary for Colorado’s 8th District, bolstered by big spending from his campaign and its allies, including prominent Latino groups that see Rutinel as the best candidate to court the key voting bloc back to Democrats. The district is 40 percent Latino.

But Republicans believe they have a better chance at beating Rutinel than they would have Bird in the battleground seat. They’ve boosted pictures of the progressive rallying alongside democratic socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and are quickly recycling statements from Bird’s allies who said Rutinel would be unable to win in November.

Rutinel has softened his positions on some of the left’s top issues, including his previous support for Medicare for All and opposition to fracking.

The primary was defined by the Democratic Party’s ongoing ideological civil war. While Bird racked up endorsements from moderate establishment Democratic groups, like EMILYs List and the centrist Blue Dogs, Rutinel was able to capitalize on a committee vote Bird took as a state legislator that he argued didn’t do enough to stand up to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

Democrats remain bullish they can flip the district, which President Donald Trump won by less than a 2-point margin in 2024. Democrats’ top House super PAC has already reserved millions of dollars in ads ahead of November.

Meanwhile, Evans, a freshman Republican who flipped the district for his party in 2024, has stockpiled $3.4 million for the general election as Democrats duked it out in the primary.