JUST IN: Dems’ Pick For Must-Win Senate Race Embroiled In Controversy As Scandalous Tattoo Is Revealed

Democratic Senate hopeful Graham Platner is in damage control mode — again — after admitting that a tattoo on his chest looks eerily similar to a Nazi symbol.

The Maine Democrat, already reeling from a wave of backlash over old social media posts, now says he’ll have the ink removed and insists he had “no idea” of its connection to Nazi iconography.

“It was not until I started hearing from reporters and DC insiders that I realized this tattoo resembled a Nazi symbol,” Platner said in a statement to POLITICO. “I absolutely would not have gone through life having this on my chest if I knew that — and to insinuate that I did is disgusting. I am already planning to get this removed.”

Platner’s campaign tried to get ahead of the story by releasing a video Monday showing him shirtless and dancing on the liberal “Pod Save America” podcast — a stunt that backfired fast once viewers noticed the skull-and-crossbones tattoo, which critics say looks like a Nazi “Totenkopf.”

Platner said he got the tattoo nearly 20 years ago while drinking with fellow Marines in Croatia, picking it off a wall at a tattoo parlor. He claimed the resemblance to Nazi imagery never came up — not even when he joined the Army, which bans hate symbols.

“In the nearly 20 years since, this hasn’t come up,” he said. “I enlisted in the Army which involved a full physical that examines tattoos for hate symbols. I also passed a full background check to receive a security clearance to join the Ambassador to Afghanistan’s security detail.”

But not everyone’s buying it. His former political director, Genevieve McDonald, blasted her ex-boss on Facebook after quitting his campaign last week. “Maybe he didn’t know it when he got it, but he got it years ago and he should have had it covered up because he knows damn well what it means,” she wrote.

Jewish Insider reported that one acquaintance recalled Platner referring to the tattoo as “my Totenkopf,” a German term for skull-and-crossbones used by Nazi police during World War II and still embraced by white supremacists. Platner’s campaign didn’t deny or confirm whether he ever used the term.

The ink scandal is just the latest headache for Platner, who recently apologized for a string of offensive Reddit posts — including one from 2013 that downplayed sexual assault in the military and another in 2018 suggesting violence might be needed for social change. In a video, Platner said the comments came from a “disillusioned” period in his life and “do not reflect” who he is today.

Platner, once a political nobody, has become a lightning rod in Maine’s high-stakes Senate race as Democrats scramble to find someone who can take on Republican Sen. Susan Collins. His controversies have even sparked questions about whether Gov. Janet Mills should have jumped into the race — which she did earlier this month.

One big-name backer isn’t bailing: Sen. Bernie Sanders. The Vermont independent, who campaigned with Platner last month, brushed off the uproar. “Look, I understand this whole platoon — I don’t know too much about it — got inebriated,” Sanders said. “He went through a dark period… he has apologized for the stupid remarks, the hurtful remarks that he made, and I’m confident that he’s going to run a great campaign and that he’s going to win.”

Whether Maine voters agree is another story.

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