Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner opened up to MSNBC on Tuesday about removing a controversial tattoo after it received criticism for resembling a “Nazi symbol.”
During an appearance on MSNBC’s The Briefing with Jen Psaki, Platner told host Jen Psaki that while he had expected his controversial history of Reddit posts to come up during his campaign, he “did not expect” his chest tattoo – which closely resembled a Nazi SS Totenkopf – to cause a scandal.
“The tattoo [controversy] I did not expect. The tattoo thing I’ve had for 20 years,” he said. “I’ve gone through multiple security clearances. I have been taking my shirt off in front of other people and taking photographs the entire time. That had never come up. That one very much caught me by surprise, especially considering that I spent my entire life essentially hating Nazis. So to have that accusation thrown my way was– that was not expected.”
Psaki responded, “I know you’re trying to move forward from this, but there has still been some discrepancy, kind of, about when you knew your tattoo was problematic. There was an anonymous source that said a couple of years ago you may have known. Your former political director said this summer you recognized that it was problematic.”
She then asked, “So help clarify for us, when did you know and recognize it was a problematic symbol, and how did that come to light for you?”
“We were contacted by the New York Times, I believe, a few weeks ago,” said Platner:
We were asked if I had a tattoo that had, you know, Nazi overtones. I have had this thing for ages and it had never once come up. At that point, we looked at it, we saw what they sent, and you know, it’s a stylized skull and crossbones. Stylized skull and crossbones are very popular with military units for obvious reasons, but it looked quite similar, and at that point, I don’t want something like that on my body, that is going to make people think I have any kind of ideological similarity to something that is essentially so antithetical to my politics. So I was more than happy to get it covered up.
Psaki pressed, “So you learned in October and as soon as you learned, you got it covered up immediately? Within days? Within a day? What was the process there?”
“It was a busy weekend when we found out. I didn’t get to it, I think, until that Tuesday, but yeah it was within a few days,” answered Platner.
During an interview with Pod Save America this month, Platner claimed that he got the tattoo while inebriated after seeing it on the wall of a tattoo parlor during his time in the military.
Watch above via MSNBC.
The post Democratic Candidate Opens Up to MSNBC About Getting ‘Nazi Symbol’ Tattoo Removed: ‘I Don’t Want Something Like That On My Body’ first appeared on Mediaite.
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