Maine’s anti-war Dem Senate candidate deleted years of Reddit posts before launching his campaign, and CNN helped trace them back to him

Graham Platner, a Democratic Senate candidate in Maine, had years of controversial Reddit posts traced back to him by CNN’s KFile. Platner, a Marine veteran and oyster farmer, had deleted most of these posts from his Reddit account before launching his campaign in August and has since disavowed the comments.

Platner, 41, entered the race to challenge Republican Sen. Susan Collins, saying he is running “to fight for working people” and “topple the oligarchy that’s destroying our country.” His campaign raised over $4 million in just weeks and earned an endorsement from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who appeared with him at a Labor Day rally in Portland.

According to CNN, among the deleted posts, a 2021 comment stood out where Platner wrote, “I got older and became a communist,” posted on r/Antiwork, a far-left forum. In another 2021 post, he wrote, “I’m 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.” He added, “Still got the guns though. I don’t trust the fascists to act politely.”

The deleted posts reveal a candidate whose online history sharply contradicts the image he is now trying to present to voters

When confronted with these posts, Platner disavowed them, calling his online activity “me f—ing around the internet.” He said, “I don’t want people to see me for who I was in my worst Internet comment, or even frankly who I was in my best Internet comment … I don’t think any of that is indicative of who I am today, really.”

He added that he deleted the posts because he no longer wanted to be associated with comments from what he called a “darker time” in his life. He also told voters, “I’m not a communist. I’m not a socialist. I own a small business. I’m a Marine Corps veteran.” This case is a reminder that old social media posts resurfacing unexpectedly can have serious consequences for public figures.

Platner also made strong comments about law enforcement in threads about police shootings and the 2020 protests following the murder of George Floyd. In one deleted comment, responding to a user who called cops “Bastards,” he replied, “All of them, in fact.” He also wrote “F— these cops” after the killing of Daunte Wright.

He later walked back these comments, saying, “I can honestly say that that is me just being an a—hole on the Internet. I have an immense amount of friends who are police officers. They’re not all bastards because they’re literally buddies of mine.” His Reddit history also included offensive generalizations.

In a 2020 post, he wrote, “Living in white rural America, I’m afraid to tell you they actually are,” in response to a thread titled “White people aren’t as racist or stupid as Trump thinks.” He said he couldn’t recall the exchange but suggested he was angry online at the time. He also used slurs on multiple occasions, including the word “retarded” to insult other users in various posts.

Platner also wrote extensively about his military service, expressing deep disillusionment. In a 2021 post, he wrote, “My time in America’s imperial wars definitely radicalized me further, and I’m significantly more left today than I was back then. It is difficult to see all that horror, as well as all the grift and corruption, and not find the entire thing utterly bankrupt.”

According to The New York Post, he also wrote, “I did used to love America, or at least the idea of it. These days I’m pretty disgusted by it all.” His sentiments reflect a broader trend of veterans growing disillusioned after military service, a topic that has drawn significant attention on platforms like Reddit.

However, earlier posts from 2013 to 2020 showed very different views on combat. He described war as the “most enjoyable experience of my life” and wrote in 2020, “Wanted to have an adventure and kill some people. Joined up in ’04, did Fallujah and Ramadi, and managed both. Hell of an excellent experience.”

In 2014, after the ISIS beheading of American journalist James Foley, he wrote, “We are going to kill thousands. By the end of it, it may be millions. Our way of life is better, and if that is what it takes to prevail, let’s get this show on the road.” Platner now says he no longer feels the same disillusionment, though he remains “very angry still about the wars I had to fight in.”

He also faced scrutiny over a Nazi-linked tattoo resembling a Totenkopf, or “death’s head” symbol. Platner says he got it in Croatia in 2007 while drunk and has since covered it with a “Celtic knot with some imagery around dogs,” insisting he is “not a secret Nazi.” He will first face Governor Janet Mills in the Democratic primary before a potential general election matchup against Sen. Susan Collins.