What kind of man writes those words about a soldier who took four bullets?
That is the question now trailing Graham Platner, the far-left Democratic Senate nominee in Maine, as a deleted Reddit post from 2019 continues to find its audience.
The post — attributed to his old account, “P-hustle” — targeted a helmet-cam video of Private First Class Ted Daniels, who was shot four times in a 2012 firefight with the Taliban and later received the Purple Heart.
Platner’s commentary was not a critique. It was contempt.
“Dumb motherf*cker didn’t deserve to live,” he wrote. He called Daniels a “mouth breather,” mocked his breathing, and suggested that only “poor marksmanship on the Taliban’s part” had brought the young soldier home. He wanted future infantrymen to hold Daniels “in contempt.”
Daniels has acknowledged, in subsequent interviews, that the decisions he made that day were not textbook. He has also explained why he made them. “I put my *ss on the line for other guys,” he said.
He drew fire. That is a thing soldiers do.
Platner, apparently, found it funny.
The backlash from veterans in the Senate came swiftly and without diplomacy. Army Ranger Senator Tom Cotton called Platner “a lying, antisemitic fraud who has no business serving in the Senate.”
Navy SEAL Senator Tim Sheehy asked, pointedly, whether Democratic veteran colleagues would defend this one.
Retired Navy SEAL and Congressman Derrick Van Orden called Platner “a disgrace to the uniform he previously wore.”
This is not the first time Platner has been asked to explain himself. He recently had a Nazi tattoo covered. His social media history has surfaced before. And yet Maine Democrats made him their nominee. He will face Senator Susan Collins this November.
The voters of Maine will decide what kind of senator they want.
The deleted post, as these things tend to do, survives.
