Progressive frontrunner in crucial Senate race faces backlash over comments praising Hamas raid

Graham Platner's past controversial comments are once again garnering negative attention for the surging progressive candidate in a crucial Senate race in Maine that could determine the chamber's majority.

Platner, a U.S. Marine and Army veteran who served four combat tours of duty in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, praised the military tactics used by Hamas in comments he made on Reddit about a graphic video posted online of a 2014 Hamas raid in which terrorists killed at least five Israeli soldiers.

The archived posts from Platner's now-deleted Reddit profile under the username "P-Hustle" were reported this week by the Jewish Insider.

Commenting on the deadly raid by Hamas, Platner wrote, "Looks like an all around well executed and successful small unit raid to me." His comments appeared on the Reddit forum r/CombatFootage, a discussion board for video and photographs of past and current military actions.

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The Jewish Insider highlighted in their report that Platner, responding to another Reddit user who criticized the Hamas "execution" of the Israeli soldiers, said "Pragmatically I have little problem with killing an enemy combatant who you attempt to capture but for whatever reason cannot. From a strictly professional standpoint, this was a damn fine looking and successful raid against a superior opponent, I dig it."

Fox News reached out to Platner's campaign for comment, but didn't receive a response at the time this story published.

Platner, an oyster farmer who is backed by progressive champions Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, is the clear polling and fundraising frontrunner as he faces off in a June primary against two-term Gov. Janet Mills, who enjoys the support of Senate Democratic Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

The winner of the Democratic primary will take on moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November's midterm elections. Democrats view Collins as vulnerable as she seeks a sixth six-year term in the Senate in the left-leaning Northern New England state, and the race is considered a must win for Democrats as they try to claw back the chamber's majority from the GOP.

Platner, 41, has campaigned in front of large and energetic crowds across Maine since launching his outsider campaign, thanks to support from a Democratic base angry with President Donald Trump's second-term agenda and mad at their party's leaders in the nation's capital. Platner is being advised by Morris Katz, who was a top consultant last year on New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's historic campaign.

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The conflict between Israel and Hamas dates back four decades, with the fighting persisting to the present day.

Hamas killed roughly 1,200 people in a sneak attack on Israel Oct. 7, 2023. Israel's ensuing military campaign in Gaza over the past two and a half years has resulted in more than 72,000 people being killed, according to health officials in the Palestinian territory.

Platner has joined other progressive Democrats in labeling the Israeli attacks on Palestinians living in Gaza a genocide, and in criticizing ongoing U.S. military support for Israel.

"History is going to remember what our leaders did not do, the power they did not use to save the lives of innocent people. They’re going to be remembered for it, and as we move forward, we’re going to have to get people in positions of power who do not believe that the mass slaughter of children is an acceptable behavior of an ally," he said at a recent candidate forum.

Past Platner comments on Reddit regarding rape have also stirred controversy. Among them is one from 2013, which Platner later deleted, that people concerned about rape should not "get so f---ed up they wind up having sex with someone they don’t mean to."

Platner apologized for his controversial Reddit posts after they made headlines last fall soon after he launched his Senate campaign.

"For those of you who have read these things and been offended, have read these things and seen someone that you don’t recognize, I am deeply sorry," he said in a video that went viral.

Platner also grabbed plenty of negative attention for a tattoo on his chest that resembled a Nazi symbol. The candidate said last fall that he got the skull and crossbones tattoo in 2007 while drinking with fellow Marines stationed in Croatia. He said that he covered up the tattoo with a new design after learning it resembled a Nazi symbol.

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Pointing to the multiple controversies, Platner campaign manager Ben Chin said that month that "Mainers know that Graham should not be defined by the worst thing he said on the internet over a decade ago."

But National Republican Senatorial Committee Regional Press Secretary Samantha Cantrell on Thursday told Fox News Digital in a statement, "When someone shows you who they are believe them: Graham Platner has a Nazi tattoo and cheers on Hamas as they murder Israeli soldiers."

Platner, in an interview last week, attributed some of his prior views to the "culture" he experienced during his military service.

"I came out of a hyper-masculine, hyper-violent place," Platner told host Major Garrett on CBS News' "The Takeout" podcast. "We have a crude sense of humor in the infantry… we certainly have a, I would say, narrow view of a lot of topics. And that colored my opinions and my beliefs."

"Once I left and came out and interacted in the civilian world with lots of different people with very different experiences than my own," Platner explained. "Many of those beliefs and thoughts and even just language changed significantly over time."

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The remarks drew criticism from Republican officials with military backgrounds, who pushed back on the suggestion that such views are reflective of American military culture.

Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska a retired Air Force general, responded to the comments on social media by rejecting the characterization outright.

"I served nearly 30 years and never saw a Nazi tattoo on one of our servicemen or women," Bacon said.

 Sen. Tim Sheehy of Montana, a former Navy SEAL, also criticized Platner’s explanation in a post on X.

"I must have missed the day in basic training where they taught us to get Nazi tattoos and say women deserve to be raped," Sheehy said.

Fox News' CJ Womack contributed to this report.