{"id":2613541,"date":"2026-06-12T07:55:01","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T11:55:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/graham-platner-is-a-far-left-persons-idea-of-a-far-right-person\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T07:55:01","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T11:55:01","slug":"graham-platner-is-a-far-left-persons-idea-of-a-far-right-person","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/graham-platner-is-a-far-left-persons-idea-of-a-far-right-person\/","title":{"rendered":"Graham Platner Is A Far-Left Person&#8217;s Idea Of A Far-Right Person"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgraham-platner-is-a-far-left-persons-idea-of-a-far-right-person%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2613541&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>As The New York Times\u2019 Michelle Goldberg <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/01\/12\/opinion\/resistance-libs-trump-fascism.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wrote<\/a> in January, \u201cFor the last decade there\u2019s been a debate, among people who don\u2019t like Donald Trump, about whether he\u2019s a fascist.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The \u201cdebate\u201d isn\u2019t a debate in the normal sense of the word. That is, it wasn\u2019t a good faith disagreement between two sides weighing evidence. It was a decade-long screaming fest from half the country who insisted that anyone they disagreed with politically was Hitler. Of course now more than ever we know that it was simply their way of trying to retain power and keep it out of the hands of Republicans, because when presented with an <em>actual <\/em>Nazi, Democrats have suddenly lost an appetite for \u201cdebate.\u201d In fact, Goldberg herself <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/05\/08\/opinion\/graham-platner-nazi-tattoo-maine.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">emphatically declared<\/a>: \u201cGraham Platner is no Nazi.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Platner is the Democrat candidate for Senate from Maine. Platner spent 18 years bearing a Nazi tattoo and only had it removed a few months ago. He also said women worried about rape should not \u201cget blacked out, f*cked up around people\u201d they aren\u2019t \u201ccomfortable\u201d with. He also\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/jun\/04\/graham-platner-maine-new-york-times-report\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">allegedly<\/a>\u00a0said that if someone ever broke into his home, he would \u201crape them \u2026 [but] not in a sexual way, not in a gay way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In other words, Platner is everything the left insisted Republicans were. <\/p>\n<p>The Washington Post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2023\/11\/13\/how-trumps-rhetoric-compares-hitlers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">told us<\/a> in 2023 that Trump\u2019s rhetoric was comparable to \u201cHitler.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>An MSNBC op-ed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ms.now\/opinion\/msnbc-opinion\/trump-immigrant-comments-hitler-mein-kampf-poisoning-blood-rcna130251\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a> \u201cDonald Trump has truly earned comparisons to Adolf Hitler.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The New Republic ran a cover of Trump portrayed as Hitler and <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/newrepublic\/status\/1810009748697448541?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a> this is what \u201cAmerican fascism\u201d \u201cwould look like.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The examples are so numerous that compiling all of them would require an article the size of a phone book. <\/p>\n<p>Yet when Democrats finally encountered a politician with an actual Nazi emblem tattooed on his chest, the conversation was remarkably different. Platner <em>is<\/em> the caricature the left created of Republicans. For years we have been told that Republicans and Trump were extremists, Hitler, Nazi sympathizers, authoritarians, radicals, you name it. Then along comes Platner, a man who spent nearly two decades with a Nazi tattoo, made horrific remarks about the victims of rape, and is facing sexual misconduct allegations. In other words, Platner isn\u2019t just a flawed candidate, he is the embodiment of the left\u2019s stereotype of Republicans. It\u2019s why so many have now rushed to explain away these problems or dismiss them or outright ignore them entirely. Because to acknowledge Platner for what he is would be to admit that their warnings about \u201cfascism\u201d and \u201cNazism\u201d were never actually about those things, because if they were, Platner would be a five alarm fire.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps nowhere is the double standard more clear than in the coverage of Platner\u2019s actual Nazi tattoo compared to the coverage of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth\u2019s Jerusalem Cross. <\/p>\n<p>In November of 2024, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/2024\/11\/14\/headlines\/trumps_pick_to_lead_us_military_has_tattoos_linked_to_white_supremacists_and_nazis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Democracy Now<\/a> wrote: \u201cTrump\u2019s Pick to Lead U.S. Military Has Tattoos Linked to White Supremacists and Nazis.\u201d The tattoo in question was the Jerusalem Cross, a Christian symbol. But according to Democracy Now, it\u2019s tied to \u201cwhite supremacist[s] and neo-Nazi[s].\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When describing Platner\u2019s <em>actual<\/em> Nazi tattoo, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/2026\/6\/8\/graham_platner_maine_primary\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Democracy Now<\/a> said it was a \u201ccontroversy\u201d and that the tattoo merely \u201cresembled a Nazi symbol\u201d (it was not a resemblance, it was the actual Nazi symbol). Platner \u201chas since apologized for and covered up\u201d the tattoo,\u201d Democracy Now wrote before moving on from the tattoo and its meaning. <\/p>\n<p>The New York Times\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/12\/05\/us\/hegseth-church-crusades.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">linked<\/a> Hegseth\u2019s Jerusalem Cross tattoo to white supremacists as well and cited an unidentified \u201cfellow service member\u201d who flagged Hegseth as a \u201cpotential \u2018insider threat&#8217;\u201d because of the tattoo. When covering Platner\u2019s Nazi tattoo, The Times published things like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/05\/08\/opinion\/graham-platner-nazi-tattoo-maine.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Goldberg\u2019s op-ed titled<\/a> \u201cGraham Platner Is No Nazi.\u201d To save you the time reading it the argument goes: even though Platner had a Nazi tattoo for 18 years, he probably didn\u2019t know it was a Nazi symbol and therefore the man with the Nazi emblem isn\u2019t really a Nazi. It doesn\u2019t pass the smell test for anyone capable of critical thinking, but we\u2019re talking about Goldberg here. <\/p>\n<p>Who can forget the hysteria from the left when Trump nominated Matt Gaetz to serve as attorney general? Gaetz was accused of \u201csalacious allegations involving child sex trafficking,\u201d as The Federalist\u2019s Editor-in-Chief <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/11\/17\/house-probe-into-matt-gaetz-relies-on-witnesses-doj-found-lacked-credibility\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Mollie Hemingway<\/a> explained in these pages. But the \u201ctwo central witnesses had serious credibility issues\u201d and the DOJ dropped their investigation into Gaetz during the Biden years.<\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, his nomination was framed as evidence of a moral collapse within the evil Republican Party. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cTrump\u2019s Cabinet picks, and the morality problem,\u201d The Washington Post\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2024\/11\/18\/trumps-cabinet-picks-morality-problem\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Aaron Blake wrote<\/a> in November of 2024. \u201cA number of Trump\u2019s selections have major personal skeletons, including troubled sexual histories, but does the GOP care?\u201d Blake goes on to list the \u201cmorality\u201d problems with Trump\u2019s picks, like Gaetz.<\/p>\n<p>Yet when Blake <a href=\"https:\/\/us.cnn.com\/2026\/06\/05\/politics\/politicians-scandals-graham-platner-trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wrote<\/a> about Platner, the emphasis was notably different. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s fair to say ugly personal problems don\u2019t matter the way they once did,\u201d Blake wrote. Even when discussing the allegations against Platner, Blake largely framed the race around broader considerations (even claiming that a recent New York Times report about Platner\u2019s alleged sexual harassment \u201ccould make people believe he\u2019s anti-woman\u201d rather than Platner\u2019s own words and actions.)<\/p>\n<p>Blake ultimately arrived at the question that seems to compel most of the media\u2019s coverage of Platner: \u201cThe question likely comes down to what voters think is more important: potentially disqualifying behavior or having an additional check on Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Or take how Bret Stephens described the allegations against Gaetz versus Platner. When <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/11\/19\/opinion\/trump-gaetz-investigation-report.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">discussing Gaetz<\/a>, Stephens wrote that \u201cHe is the proverbial tip of the spear in a larger effort to define deviancy down.\u201d For Platner? \u201cThe Good That Can Come From Platner\u2019s Candidacy,\u201d Stephens <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/06\/09\/opinion\/graham-platner-moral-hypocrisy.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">headlined<\/a> his piece. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe first is absolution \u2014 not only for Platner, but for every nominee or candidate, Republican or Democratic, with a blemished personal history \u2014 on the grounds that we elect or install people in high office to achieve the results we desire, not to serve as paragons of moral rectitude. If nothing else, this could make our politics less repellent to talented if imperfect people who now steer clear of public service because they don\u2019t want to put themselves or their families through the inevitable media inquisition that comes with every campaign,\u201d Stephens wrote. <\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s an interesting argument since conservatives spent years being told that being a Nazi \u2014 or in the case of Republicans, falsely being accused of being a Nazi \u2014 was disqualifying. <\/p>\n<p>Which brings us back to Platner. He\u2019s not just a Democrat with some flaws. He is literally everything the left told us Republicans are: Nazi\u2019s, fascists, threats to America. <\/p>\n<p>The left strained to find Nazi symbolism in Republicans. It accused everyone of being a Nazi. And yet when presented with Platner, they emphatically tell you he is no Nazi.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>   Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As The New York Times\u2019 Michelle Goldberg wrote in January, \u201cFor the last decade there\u2019s been a debate, among people who don\u2019t like Donald Trump, about whether he\u2019s a fascist.\u201d The \u201cdebate\u201d isn\u2019t a debate in the normal sense of the word. That is, it wasn\u2019t a good faith disagreement between two sides weighing evidence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":2613542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Screenshot-2026-06-11-at-4.57.12-PM-scaled-e1781211547477.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2613541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Screenshot-2026-06-11-at-4.57.12-PM-scaled-e1781211547477.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2613541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2613541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2613541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2613542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2613541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2613541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2613541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}