Graham Platner confronted over controversial tattoo on MS NOW back and forth

Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner was confronted about his controversial tattoo during an interview on MS NOW on Saturday.

MS NOW's Elise Jordan pressed Platner about a CNN KFile investigation alleging that he had previously acknowledged the meaning of his tattoo, identified as the “3rd Panzer,” a Nazi military unit linked to concentration camps, despite publicly stating that he was unaware of its meaning. Jordan cited Reddit posts that appeared to show Platner discussing and justifying the symbol, saying they conflicted with his account.

“Could you respond to KFiles, CNN, the great investigation they did that said you knew the meaning of your tattoo: the '3rd Panzer,' the unit that ran the concentration camps?” Jordan asked. “Pretty egregious. You know, if you're going to get a Nazi tattoo, it's basically the worst tattoo you could get. But you said you didn't know what it was. But then they have all this documentation of you on Reddit talking about what it is and somehow justifying it.”

Platner denied the allegation, calling it “fundamentally false.” He said the tattoo was intended to be a skull and crossbones symbol representing his service in the Marine Corps, which he got while deployed to Croatia with other Marines.

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“I landed in Croatia with a group of other Marines. We were machine gunners. We had served two deployments together and we wanted to put together a skull and crossbones to represent our time in the Marines. That's what we got,” Platner said.

Platner said he was later cleared by the State Department to protect the ambassador to Afghanistan and was examined for “hate and gang-related tattoos.”

“I've been taking my shirt off for 17 years, in front of my family, in front of friends at the gym, all that stuff, it never came up,” Platner said. “Not until this.

Platner's campaign shared a video with the “I could save America” podcast in October that showed Platner lip-syncing to Miley Cyrus' “Wrecking Ball” at his brother's wedding about a decade ago. In the video, Platner is shirtless and appears to have a skull tattoo on his chest that resembles the “Totenkopf,” a symbol used by Adolf Hitler's SS.

Jordan pressed Platner about a Reddit thread in which he commented on the Totenkopf emblem.

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Graham Platner, Democratic Senate candidate in Maine, was confronted about his controversial tattoo on January 31, 2026 on MS NOW. (MS NOW/TheWeekend Primetime)

Platner said his comments were not about his tattoo, but about Marine Corps scout snipers, noting that the images were once common within that community.

“The Marine Corps cracked down on this, rightly so, because it doesn't look good. And scout snipers don't understand that today. But when I was in the Marine Corps, it was popular with scout snipers,” he said.

CNN's KFile reported in October that the Democratic Senate candidate's comments on Reddit, as well as an interview with an acquaintance of Platner, contradicted his original claim that he recently learned of the tattoo's ties to Nazism.

During an interview with the “Pod Save America” ​​podcast in October, Platner said he was not a secret Nazi.

Graham Platner, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Maine, points out a covered tattoo that had previously been an image recognized as a Nazi symbol, during an interview Wednesday in Portland, Maine. (GTME via AP)

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“I'm not a secret Nazi,” Platner said. “Actually, if you read my comments on Reddit, I think you can understand where I stand on Nazism and racism in general. I would say I'm a lifelong opponent.”

Platner also identified himself as a “communist” in Reddit posts from years ago. The Democratic Senate candidate said it was just “bullshit posts on the Internet.”

Members of the Democratic Party regularly compare President Donald Trump's administration, specifically his deportation efforts, to Nazi Germany.

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Many have compared ICE agents to Nazis. Late night host Stephen Colbert suggested during his show last week that ICE agents might be worse than Nazis because Nazis were willing to show their faces.

Fox News' Lindsay Kornick contributed to this report.