Graham Platner’s New Campaign Manager Quits After 4 Days

Last week, Politico reported that Graham Platner’s campaign team was undergoing a shake up in the midst of the PR disaster about his old Reddit posts and Nazi tattoo. One of the things that had changed was the appointment of a new campaign manager, Kevin Brown, who was described as a longtime friend.

Graham Platner is shaking up his campaign amid a swirl of controversy, bringing in a longtime friend to function as his Maine Senate campaign’s new manager, hiring a compliance firm and sending non-disclosure agreements to staffers.

Kevin Brown — who became the campaign manager this week and whose past campaign work includes the presidential bids of Elizabeth Warren and Barack Obama, though he has not worked in Maine — is only one of the changes…

That follows Platner expressing regret over getting a Nazi symbol tattooed on his chest 20 years ago, along with previously unearthed offensive Reddit posts, including one from 2013 downplaying sexual assault in the military and another since-deleted 2018 one suggesting violence is necessary to enact social change. Platner has apologized for the posts and said they do not represent his growth in recent years.

Brown, the new campaign manager, declined to comment on the record.

Today, Axios reports the longtime friend didn’t last a long time in the job. In fact, he quit last Friday after four days on the job.

Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner’s campaign manager is stepping down from his position after only days on the job, according to two people familiar with his plans…

“Graham is a dear friend,” Brown said in a statement to Axios. “I started this campaign Tuesday but found out Friday we have a baby on the way. Graham deserves someone who is 100% in on his race and we want to lean into this new experience as a family, so it was best we step back sooner than later so Graham can get the manager he deserves.”

This is a version of the candidate (or staffer) who suddenly decides to spend more time with his family, a classic way to exit the political stage which sounds folksy and noble but is in fact almost always cover for something shameful and embarrassing. 

In this case, four days is just about long enough for Brown to find out that there are a bunch more scandals waiting to be revealed and to decide there’s now way Platner can survive them. Why become the face of a collapsing campaign? Better to bow out before that happens.

But even in this story where Platner’s campaign is clearly on the defensive, Axios does him a favor which is hard to explain. Here’s how they report his Nazi tattoo scandal: [emphasis added]

Platner previously had a skull-and-crossbones tattoo that experts said resembled the “Totenkopf” logo used by Nazis. Platner said he got it while drinking in his twenties with fellow Marines, and that he didn’t know until recently that the image was linked to Nazis.

Platner announced last week that he had covered up the tattoo.

Axios isn’t alone in reporting it that way. New York Magazine is doing the same, including Platner’s excuse as part of the story.

Soon after, Platner was under fire after it was revealed he had a skull and bones tattoo on his chest that resembled the Nazi symbol for the SS…As for the tattoo, Platner was emphatic that he was unaware of the tattoo’s resemblance to the Nazi insignia and has since covered up the image with a new design.

It’s true that Platner claimed he didn’t know what the symbol meant until recently. He made that claim to the Associated Press. However, since then there are at least three sources that have contradicted that claim. Why is the media sidestepping this? First, from Jewish Insider:

…according to a person who socialized with Platner when he was living in Washington, D.C., more than a decade ago, Platner had specifically acknowledged that the tattoo was a Totenkopf, the “death’s head” symbol adopted by an infamous Nazi SS unit that guarded concentration camps in World War II. 

“He said, ‘Oh, this is my Totenkopf,’” the former acquaintance told Jewish Insider recently, speaking on the condition of anonymity to address a sensitive issue. “He said it in a cutesy little way.”

Second, his former political director, Genevieve McDonald:

“Graham has an antisemitic tattoo on his chest. He’s not an idiot, he’s a military history buff,” she wrote in a post on Facebook. “Maybe he didn’t know it when he got it, but he got it years ago and should have had it covered up because he knows damn well what it means.”

The claim that Platner knew is backed up by more Reddit messages uncovered by CNN in which he discussed the Totenkopf and SS-style lightning bolt tattoos, both of which he said had been adopted by US service members during the time he served. And finally, CNN spoke to two more people who knew about the totenkopf tattoo before it became public (and thus before Platner himself claims he knew).

CNN also spoke with an acquaintance of Platner from more than a decade ago who said Platner spoke about his tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol. A second person told CNN that they learned of the tattoo years ago from the acquaintance, who told them that Platner had described it as a Nazi-style design.

CNN also reviewed a text chain between the acquaintance and another person discussing Platner’s Nazi-like tattoo several months ago, before the story became public.

Platner’s campaign declined to comment for this story.

It’s possible one of those acquaintances is the same one mentioned by Jewish Insider, so to avoid double-counting let’s say that at least two individuals say he admitted this years ago, plus his own political director says he knew and his own Reddit posts suggest he not only knew but defended the practice. 

That’s a lot of evidence that he is lying about not know what the tattoo was. So why is Axios (and New York Magazine) leaving all of that out of their stories about this? This is the most important takeaway from all of this. It’s not that Platner was an idiot when he got drunk and chose the tattoo, it’s that he knew for decades after what it was and never had it removed. And then when he finally got caught he lied rather than admit it.

Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is here. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this.

Help us continue to report the truth about the Schumer Shutdown. Use promo code POTUS47 to get 74% off your VIP membership.