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Graham Platner, presumptive Democratic Senate nominee in Maine, once stated that some people should be killed for their political beliefs, according to a newly surfaced Reddit post.
“There are times in this world when, for the good of tolerance and humanity, you need to kill a motherf—er,” Platner wrote on his now-deleted Reddit account in September 2013. “Sadly most people who are true believers in tolerance and humanity find that activity repulsive. Which I suppose is morally good, but pragmatically a shortfall.”
Platner was responding to a blog post about left-wing antifascist (Antifa) protestors attacking the offices of a far-right nationalist political party in Greece.
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The Platner campaign did not respond to a request for comment when reached by Fox News Digital on Wednesday.
Platner is running effectively unopposed in Maine’s Democratic primary in June with the ultimate goal of flipping one of Maine’s Senate seats blue in the 2026 midterms in November.
As recently as April 2020, Platner claimed on Reddit that he was a member of his local chapter of the Socialist Rifle Association — a leftist response to the National Rifle Association. The SRA, a nonprofit based in Wichita, Kansas, provides firearms training and education to leftists to further the goal of providing a “rebuff against reactionary right wing firearms culture,” according to its website.
In a post describing his left-wing drift after leaving the military, Platner stated “still got the guns though, I don’t trust the fascists to act politely.” Platner had described Republicans, such as President Donald Trump, as fascists using his Reddit account.
He also classified himself as a “socialist” and “communist” in comments made under the moniker “P-Hustle” on Reddit, but has since tried to distance himself from those labels during his run for U.S. Senate.
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Platner has issued a general apology for the thousands of controversial and vulgar resurfaced posts.
In addition to repeatedly expressing support for political violence, the former Marine also identified as a communist, used slurs, complained about black people not tipping and called white people living in rural America “stupid.”
“I’m sorry for this. Just know that it’s not reflective at all of who I am,” Platner said of his previous comments posted online.
“I don’t want you to judge me on the dumbest thing I ever wrote on the internet. I would prefer if people could judge me on the person I am today,” he added.
While Platner used homophobic slurs and made some politically incorrect comments, he also expressed support for gay rights and opposition to racism in his Reddit comments.
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He explained his coarse language as a byproduct of the “crude humor” and “offensive language” he had become accustomed to while serving as a Marine in Afghanistan.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills dropped out of the state’s Senate primary on April 30, leaving behind only minor opponents for Platner and clearing the way for him to run in the general election. Polling generally shows Platner ahead of incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins, though she has significantly outperformed polls in past elections.
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