When walking scandal Graham Platner dropped out of the Maine Senate race, one might have expected the leftist media to stop pretending that rape allegations and Nazi tattoos are no big deal. Instead though, they’ve opted to continue rewriting history, reframing the giant Totenkopf symbol he had emblazoned on his chest into just some tattoo “that some say resembled a Nazi symbol.”
The media were using this weaselly “resembling” hedge well before Platner’s campaign buckled under the weight of his own unelectability. But there’s something particularly jarring about these journalists continuing to muddy the waters around Platner’s many controversies now that they (seemingly) have lost any reason to run PR for him.
Graham Platner was a leftist media darling before he dropped out of the Maine Senate race.
If the media like you enough, a giant Totenkopf inked on your chest can magically become a tattoo "that some say resembles a Nazi symbol." pic.twitter.com/FFnuU3ybwB— MRC NewsBusters (@newsbusters) July 15, 2026
It’s not nitpicking to fixate on the word “resembling,” because the reality is that Platner’s tattoo resembled a Nazi symbol in the same way that a Big Mac resembles a hamburger. It’s technically true, but it also inserts needless ambiguity into a matter of settled fact. The vagueness is not an accident, but rather a deliberate attempt to mislead by muddying the waters.
Platner’s tattoo, a large Totenkopf crest on his right pectoral, was the official uniform emblem of the Schutzstaffel (SS), an elite paramilitary organization from Hitler’s Germany. It’s not just associated with the SS; it originated with them, and has only ever been used in that context. Epistemologically speaking, the Totenkopf is more of a pure Nazi symbol than even the Swastika, due to the latter having predated Nazi Germany by several thousand years.
The media’s framing, therefore, is intentionally dishonest. It’s the kind of half-lie one expects lefty journalists to tell during a tense midterm season in order to help drag their favored Democratic candidate across the finish line. But again, Platner is no longer the Democratic candidate.
Yet still, the lying continues apace. On the July 12 edition of NBC’s Meet The Press, host Kristen Welker prefaced a question to Congressman Ro Khanna (D-CA) with this preamble:
I want to ask you about something else that has been under a microscope: your endorsement of Senate candidate Graham Platner in Maine. He has since dropped out amid a swirl of controversies. Congressman, you stood by him during a series of previous controversies, from a tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol…
This quote contains a clue about why the ambiguous framing of Platner’s didn’t die with his Senate bid.
Khanna, along with the vast majority of his fellow Democrats in both the House and Senate, had remained steadfast in his support of Platner even after the tidal wave of controversies came rushing in. The only reason their support for his campaign has since ended is because the campaign itself has ceased to exist. So while Platner is no longer a vulnerable politician in need of the media’s protection, his allies in Congress still have their own elections they need to win.
Platner’s tattoo still merely “resembles” a Nazi symbol because elected Democrats turned a blind eye to it. When Welker used that terminology on Sunday, she was extending a helping hand — not to the former Senate candidate in Maine, but rather to the Democratic Congressman sitting in front of her.
That’s the reason this terminology hasn’t gone away yet, and that’s why it’s not going to go away before the midterms. Or ever, realistically. Until the media and the Democratic Party stand something to gain from ceasing this rewriting of history, there’s no reason to expect it should stop.
