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Rep. Auchincloss publicly splits from his party's extremist wing over Nazi-tattooed Senate candidate who mocked a wounded Marine and bashed rape victims

Tuesday, May 26, 2026•
5 min read
MDN Staff
•
Rep. Auchincloss publicly splits from his party's extremist wing over Nazi-tattooed Senate candidate who mocked a wounded Marine and bashed rape victims

Saikat Chakrabarti — AOC's ex-chief of staff now challenging Nancy Pelosi — wants Auchincloss primaried for saying Platner's SS Totenkopf tattoo should disqualify him from the Senate.

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BOSTON — Massachusetts Congressman Jake Auchincloss said Monday what no other Democrat from his state has been willing to say out loud: Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner's SS Totenkopf chest tattoo, and his answers about it, should disqualify him from federal office.
It was a one-sentence answer on CNN. The progressive wing of his party responded by calling for him to be primaried.

The party's reaction: primary him

Saikat Chakrabarti — the former chief of staff to Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, co-founder of Justice Democrats, and current candidate for Nancy Pelosi's House seat in California — went on X within hours of the CNN clip.
Chakrabarti is currently endorsed in his California primary by Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib — the same wing of the party that has absorbed Platner without flinching.
Elections analyst Drew Savicki put the position in plainer terms.

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Tribalism over tattoos. Beat the Republican. Get behind whichever Democrat is on the ballot, even if he wore a Nazi SS insignia on his chest for 18 years.

Common sense replied

It did not go over well, even with people who don't like Platner.

What Auchincloss won't endorse

Platner, a 41-year-old oyster farmer and Marine Corps veteran, has spent the last month in damage control over a cascade of disclosures.
  • The tattoo. Bangor Daily News reported in October 2025 that Platner carried a Totenkopf — the "death's head" insignia adopted by the SS units that ran the Nazi concentration camps — on his chest for nearly 18 years. He has since had it covered with a Celtic-style design and says he didn't know what it meant when he got it.
  • The rape-victim posts. In a 2013 Reddit post, Platner argued sexual assault victims should "just take some responsibility for themselves and not get so f---ed up they wind up having sex with someone they don't mean to" and "act like an adult for f---s sake." The Washington Post reported the posts in October 2025. A sexual assault survivor confronted Platner over them on the campaign trail. Maine Governor Janet Mills, his Democratic primary opponent, has built an attack ad around them.
  • The wounded Marine. In 2019, Platner logged into Reddit to mock Pfc. Ted Daniels, a Purple Heart recipient who was shot in combat in Afghanistan, writing "Dumb motherf---er didn't deserve to live" and adding that "at least his stupidity and fat a-- wheezing are available for all future infantrymen to witness and hold in contempt." A separate post called Army soldiers "fat, lazy trash."
  • The Reddit slurs. A long-deleted Reddit account, unearthed and reported on by Fox News, shows years of slurs — including the word "gay" used derogatorily on multiple occasions, the R-word aimed at the mentally disabled, and a 2013 post that asked "Why don't black people tip?" Platner has apologized.
  • The communism. A November 2021 post in which Platner wrote, "I got older and became a communist." In April 2020, he posted that he belonged to his local chapter of the Socialist Rifle Association.
  • The NDA offer. Platner offered a former staff member $15,000 in severance pay if she signed a non-disclosure agreement. She refused.
  • The staff exodus. Campaign manager Kevin Brown resigned October 27, citing family reasons. Finance director Ronald Holmes resigned October 31.
Platner has attributed the worst of it to combat-related PTSD from his service in Iraq and Afghanistan. Senator Elizabeth Warren endorsed him on May 19 anyway, joining Senator Bernie Sanders as the second high-profile progressive backing the bid.

Auchincloss was the only one

Of every Democrat in the Massachusetts congressional delegation, Auchincloss is the only one who has publicly said Platner's record should disqualify him. The four-term Newton congressman is a Marine Corps officer himself.
He has now drawn a line that the senior leadership of his party — including two sitting senators — will not.
The reward, as Chakrabarti and Savicki made clear, is supposed to be a primary.

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