Democrat Graham Platner Rejects PTSD as Excuse for Bad Behavior in Unearthed Reddit Post

Democrat Graham Platner has cited his post-traumatic stress disorder from multiple combat deployments to account for inflammatory social media posts before his Senate campaign, where he justified political violence and insulted law enforcement.

But the 41-year-old progressive candidate said PTSD and combat trauma do not excuse offensive behavior in a now-deleted 2020 post on the Reddit forum r/SocialistRA, obtained by Fox News Digital. Platner made the comment five years before challenging Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, in the midterm elections.

Posting under an anonymous handle, Platner responded to a Portland Press Herald report on two former police officers who admitted killing porcupines with batons on duty. One officer, a Marine veteran deployed to Afghanistan, blamed PTSD from his service.

"Don’t buy into that bull----. I did 4 tours in the infantry to Iraq and Afghanistan, saw all kinds of awful things, have a PTSD diagnosis and STILL manage not to beat defenseless animals to death for fun," Platner wrote. A Marine and Army veteran turned oyster farmer, he added, "That’s just cops giving excuses for their garbage behavior."

CNN first reported Platner’s activity on r/SocialistRA and other Reddit forums. He deleted the posts months before announcing his Senate bid.

During the campaign, Platner has linked his past remarks to PTSD from deployments, which he called the darkest chapter of his life. He said the statements do not reflect his current self but show a man struggling to adjust to a society he felt had betrayed him after fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"This was a time in my life where I was struggling deeply," Platner said in a late 2025 social media video. "I got out of the Army in 2012, I had PTSD, I had depression, I had all of the things that come with serving in a war, two wars that I eventually began to not believe in at all."

"It left me feeling very unmoored. It left me feeling very disillusioned, very alienated and very isolated," he said. "And I think, like a lot of people, I went on the internet to post stupid things and get in fights and find some form of community in some way, some outlet for my feelings."

In 2013, Platner commented on a video about rape-preventing underwear in a deleted post obtained by The Washington Post. "Rape is a real thing. If you’re so worried about it to buy Kevlar underwear you’d think you might not get blacked out f----- up around people you aren’t comfortable with."

In 2018, he appeared to defend political violence for "economic justice" in a deleted post reported by Politico.

Platner’s recent controversial statements include 2020 Reddit posts reported by CNN calling rural white Americans racist and stupid and all law enforcement officers bastards. The next year, he wrote that he "got older and became a Communist."

He also drew scrutiny for a chest tattoo of a Nazi-linked skull-and-crossbones symbol, inked in 2007 while drinking with Marines in Croatia. Platner covered it up and said he did not know its meaning, though some reports say he denied awareness of its Nazi ties.

Platner expressed remorse for some posts. Fox News Digital sought comment from his campaign.

The Maine Senate race matters to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s, D-N.Y., effort to regain control of the chamber. Platner told Fox News Digital on Monday he would not back Schumer as Democratic leader, joining progressives seeking change.

He predicted backlash over his posts would not slow his campaign. Gov. Janet Mills, D-Maine, 78, highlighted his rape comments in ads but dropped out in late April after polls showed her trailing. Schumer had endorsed Mills.

"The Democratic establishment tried to use all those attacks against me and failed miserably," Platner said of Mills’s ads. "Now the Republican establishment is going to try to use the exact same attacks, and that will also fail miserably."