January 1, Sanders-Backed Senate Candidate’s SHOCKING Military Attacks Explode

Wyatt’s Take

• Bernie Sanders’ handpicked Senate candidate in Maine called our Army soldiers ‘fat, lazy trash’ and said a wounded Purple Heart veteran ‘didn’t deserve to live’ — all while claiming to be a fellow veteran.
• Graham Platner’s now-deleted Reddit posts reveal a pattern of vicious attacks on the very men and women who serve alongside him, raising serious questions about his fitness for office.
• Despite apologizing and blaming combat trauma, Platner’s extreme anti-military rhetoric — including accusing Navy SEAL Chris Kyle of murdering civilians — shows a disturbing disrespect for American warriors that Maine voters deserve to know about.

Graham Platner, the Democrat running to unseat Maine Senator Susan Collins, is facing a firestorm over resurfaced social media posts where he brutally attacked U.S. Army soldiers and mocked a wounded combat veteran.

In posts from his now-deleted Reddit account, Platner — a Marine Corps and Army National Guard veteran himself — described the United States Army as “absolute trash” and “full of fat, lazy trash who would rather not be in uniform.”

“I spent another 4 in the Army after the Corps, and while I was very lucky to serve in some sh–t hot units with good dudes, as a whole the organization is absolute trash,” Platner wrote in April 2019. “I am not one to totally bad mouth the Army. It does have some squared away fighting units and good guys, as well as some better doctrine here and there. But it is absolutely lacking in the warrior ethos and leadership obsession that the Corps has, and generally attracts a lower standard of person.”

But the most disturbing revelation involves Platner’s comments about Teddy Daniels, a wounded Army veteran who was shot by the Taliban and later awarded the Purple Heart. In a separate 2019 post, Platner criticized Daniels’ battlefield tactics and wrote that the “dumb motherf—er didn’t deserve to live.”

These shocking attacks on fellow service members have become a major campaign liability for Platner, who’s been endorsed by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in his bid to flip the Maine Senate seat. The posts are part of a broader pattern of controversial statements, including using racial slurs, demeaning rural white Americans, and identifying as a Marxist.

Platner served multiple combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan with both the Marine Corps and Maryland Army National Guard. While inter-service rivalry and trash talk is common among military branches, his comments crossed a line that many veterans find unacceptable.

“The Army does things differently, and as a whole, they do things much worse,” Platner wrote in March 2019. “As an organization it’s awful. Full of fat, lazy trash who would rather not be in uniform.”

He did offer some praise, acknowledging the Army has “some solid light infantry, reconnaissance, and SOF units that are s— hot, as well as access to some great schools.”

Platner also defended his harsh criticism as necessary for military readiness.

“Civilians can be as dumb f–k ret—ed as they want, but WE have a duty to be brutally honest,” Platner wrote in 2013. “I want civilians to think our ability to fight is unmatched, but I also want us to be brutal in our internal criticism.”

The posts were made under the Reddit username “P-Hustle,” which Platner has previously confirmed belonged to him.

“I’m sorry for this. Just know that it’s not reflective at all of who I am,” Platner said of his resurfaced Reddit posts back in October. “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.”

Other veterans aren’t buying the apology.

“We don’t make jokes about our brothers and sisters dying, that’s not something we do, that’s not normal,” Adam Schwarze, a former Navy SEAL and Marine veteran running for Senate as a Republican in Minnesota, said of Platner.

Platner has blamed his offensive behavior on psychological trauma from Middle East deployments and the “crude humor” culture in the Marines. But critics point out that in 2020, Platner himself dismissed PTSD excuses as “bull.”

The controversial statements didn’t stop with Reddit. During a 2024 podcast interview, Platner implied that deceased Navy SEAL Chris Kyle — the legendary American Sniper — killed civilians to inflate his confirmed kill numbers.

“[Kyle’s] stories about how many people he was shooting certainly tracked with the behavior I witnessed,” Platner said. “It’s relatively easy to get high numbers like that if you’re a little less discriminating in your fire than, say, a more professional unit would be.”

He also accused Navy SEALs broadly of being incompetent, though he praised Army Rangers.

“Graham Platner’s vicious attacks on wounded service members and open contempt for the Army are disgusting and disqualifying,” National Republican Senatorial Committee press secretary Bernadette Breslin said. “The more we learn about him, the more his top Democrat allies like Elizabeth Warren are forced to dodge questions on why they ever supported him in the first place.”

The Platner campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

Wyatt Matters

When someone running for the U.S. Senate shows this kind of contempt for the brave men and women who serve our country — calling them trash, mocking the wounded, and accusing American heroes of war crimes — it tells you everything about their character. Maine families who’ve sacrificed for this nation deserve better than a Sanders-backed radical who talks like this about our troops. Our veterans gave everything. The least we can do is refuse to send their attackers to Washington.