Below is my column in The Hill on the Democratic establishment and media rallying around Graham Platner. As Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has repeatedly stressed, Platner is needed for them to retake power. The allegations of domestic abuse, the Nazi tattoo, and other controversies are secondary to that single overwhelming goal. The question is, when they take power by any means necessary, what will they be other than the majority?
Here is the column:
“Are we the baddies?”
That line from a famous comedy sketch came to mind this week as Democrats struggled to embrace Graham Platner, the Nazi-tattooed, Hamas-praising, veteran-bashing, sex-texting, self-described Communist who was just nominated to be the next U.S. senator from Maine.
The hilarious sketch from the British show “That Mitchell and Webb Look” portrays two Nazi soldiers suddenly questioning whether they might be the bad guys in World War II. Among other things, they notice the telltale death head or “Totenkopf“ insignia on their caps and uniforms. At one point, an officer asks his friend: “Hans — are we the baddies?”
It is a question that more Democrats should be asking as their leaders from House Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) back Platner.
For years, Schumer and others have been calling their political opponents “Nazis.” With help from an enabling media, they even fueled outrage over a false claim that Elon Musk had given a Nazi salute at an inauguration celebration.
Yet presented with a man who paid to have an actual Nazi death head tattooed on his chest, Schumer would only repeat the same mantra to reporters, that a Platner victory means Democrats will “win back the Senate.”
The co-host of ABC’s “The View” was cheered by the studio audience after declaring that Democrats have to abandon “the moral high ground. … Let’s get some power!”
Former Biden aide Ron Klain dismissed Platner’s tattoo as “a skull and crossbones to remember his fallen comrades.” But the SS-Totenkopfverbände was not a grief support group, and the Nazi Totenkopf is not a Jolly Roger symbol. Rather, it is the well-known symbol of Adolf Hitler’s Third SS Panzer Division, famous for committing multiple war crimes and massacres during World War II.
Klain, an aide who helped conceal President Joe Biden’s incapacity, might seem like the worst possible character witness. But he was soon surpassed by Hunter Biden, pardoned by his father to avoid federal prison time related to his years of drug-saturated, prostitute-laden, influence-peddling scandals. In joining Platner’s defenders, Biden the Younger wants the public to know that “I have not heard anything in any way that would say to me that he is an abusive, misogynistic, anti-Semitic, or racist person.” So that settles that.
Both Democratic politicians and the media lined up to repeat Platner’s dubious claim that he had no idea that this was a Nazi symbol. According to Platner, he apparently had no curiosity about the actual meaning of the large tattoo on his chest for years. But this claim (like a number of other claims about his background) was quickly debunked by his former friends.
One woman insists that he knew it was a Totenkopf and spoke to her about it, calling it “my Totenkopf.” Lyndsey Fifield told friends in an August 2025 in an email that Platner “has a Nazi tattoo on his chest” and that “it’s a Totenkopf.”
When asked how his former girlfriend could have been discussing the meaning of his tattoo before he announced for Senate, Platner just continued to deny any such knowledge. Then another former girlfriend came forward to say that he is lying and knew the symbol’s significance. She had been attracted to Platner for his leftist politics, but she still shared Platner’s reasoning behind the tattoo: He told her that he had decided to keep it to remind himself “the U.S. was the evil bad guy overseas.”
Platner insists that these are all lies. Democratic leaders are clearly choosing not to believe them. They are also dismissing the accounts of former girlfriends alleging that Platner physically and mentally abused them.
Once again, politicians and pundits are assuring voters that these women, like the tattoo, are not critical to their voting for Platner. This includes figures like Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who previously insisted that “we must believe survivors, not bully them.”
Whitehouse now says he is “unimpressed” by the allegations and the multiple women coming forward “seems like a lot of nothing.” He also reminded voters that one of the alleged victims is a Republican. So “MeToo” is apparently now “meh” in the new Platner party.
The question is whether Democrats will put their rhetoric through a certain denazification. Democrats have repeatedly analogized Trump to Hitler and his followers to brownshirted neo-Nazis. Indeed, defeating Republicans today has been compared to stopping Hitler in 1933.
So, for a party that literally sees Nazis around every tree, the one possible Nazi that they cannot see is the Democrat who had the Nazi tattoo on his chest.
In the meantime, Democrats keep openly cultivating hatred. This week, during protests in San Antonio against the Turning Point USA Women’s Leadership Summit, one organizer called on protesters to be “obnoxious” and “make sure they know we hate them.” As he spoke, a man dressed as death chopped the air with a sickle. Another protester mimicked Charlie Kirk being assassinated, to the delight of the crowd.
All of this still leaves Democrats in the same position as the characters in the skit where Hans (like Klain) tries to say that maybe a Totenkopf is just like a harmless skull and crossbones. After all, he notes, pirates have skull symbols, and “Pirates are fun!”
But his friend then asks if that is really “how it comes across?”
The same question could be asked of fellow Democrats as speakers call for hate, as a guy dressed as the Grim Reaper hacks at invisible Republicans.
When you start dismissing Nazi tattoos, alleged female abuse victims, and calling for abandoning any moral high ground, you might want to ask, “Are we the baddies?”
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the New York Times best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.“
What this proves to any sane person, the Democratic National Communist Party are the actual Facists.
If only Graham Platner were gay. That would be the final straw for Democrats. Just ask Pete Buttigieg…
Buttigieg who wants to pack the SCOTUS. We are one election away from tyranny.
No, no. THIS is how dumbocrats get their masculinity injection they determined was needed after their ‘autopsy’. They unfortunately kinda went right past, into toxic masculinity and then support actual barbarism but it’s undeniably masculine like “Attila the Hun masculine”.
The Democrats are perfectly happy being the baddies. All that matters is power.
” All that matters is power”
All that matters is CONTROL
whether it is Right or Wrong.
Say Whaaaaat? You cannot be a NAZI if you are Democrap, right? You are merely misunderstood by low brow, low IQ EVERYONE ELSE types! They have to seize power using any tool (including Platner types) necessary BECAUSE THE DEMS KNOW WHAT IS BEST FOR YOU AND THE WORLD AT ALL TIMES. Now repeat that mantra until it is gospel and you beat it into EVERYONE ELSE!!! Desperate times call for Dems to try desperado moves! All Bandito’s report for duty!!
“In the meantime, Democrats keep openly cultivating hatred. This week, during protests in San Antonio against the Turning Point USA Women’s Leadership Summit, one organizer called on protesters to be “obnoxious” and “make sure they know we hate them.” As he spoke, a man dressed as death chopped the air with a sickle. Another protester mimicked Charlie Kirk being assassinated, to the delight of the crowd.”
THEY HATE US AND WANT US DEAD! I DO NOT WANT TO DIALOG, UNDERSTAND OR RECONCILE WITH THESE PEOPLE. I WANT A DIVORCE BUT MY ABUSIVE BOYFRIEND WON’T GIVE ME ONE.
antonio
People who still support Trump after all of the bad things he has ever said and done are the baddies.
The Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6 were the baddies.
WRONG… If the Capitol police had followed the rules of engagement. This would have never happened. Like knowing which way the wind is blowing before you fire CS gas.
A new concept – the peaceful marchers were forced to seek shelter in the Capitol to escape the CS gas. That is a tremendously creative interpretation of events.
You know when it is bad, when the entire thing reads like a sketch comedy or a Bee article . . . but it is not.
The Nazi tattoo, switching from the “believe all women!” to “meh,” his longingly looks at port-o-potties, pro-Hamas stance, and justifying it with, “Let’s get some power!”
And so long as it is, “Let’s get some power!” then that makes all those things okay!
“But, he is our Nazi!”
‘When you start dismissing Nazi tattoos, alleged female abuse victims, and calling for abandoning any moral high ground, you might want to ask, “Are we the baddies?”’
I always appreciate the Professor’s objectivity, but, uh, … ‘start’? This has been the DNC for quite some time, and unequivocally, unquestionably out in the open since 2015. I guess this is what it takes for even a tiny crack of light to penetrate the blinders of generational dems. Sadly, it doesn’t matter a whit to spoiled and ignorant younger ones.
The fact is most of us disapprove of what the modern left represents, but you see: they cheat. And wherever they can, they create safeguards to preserve their cheating. The fact of the matter is, the modern DNC can’t win elections anywhere voters don’t resemble Violet after gorging on too many ill-advised treats, so they lie, cheat, and employ any means necessary to ensure that is preserved.
That they think Platner is somehow an asset shows both their madness and their disdain for people (‘See, MAGA? He’s wife beating buck tooth nazi, just like you! Vote for us!).
The modern left are now officially on par with past regimes in their middle stages. They are the ignorant and privileged ones, and they will not succeed. They are delusional and insane.
James,
Right.
Just when I did not think it was possible for the far leftists to take their party any lower, they prove us wrong.
Schumer, rather than addressing any of this, just keeps saying “We are going to take the Senate!” Not a good look for the guy who is supposed to be the leader of the party.
Same goes for the Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse flip from “believe all women!” to “unimpressed” with the allegations, despite the text messages, emails, and people who can corroborate the allegations.
Not a good look for Democrats.
Trump has done a ton of things that are not a “good look”, too.
Biden and Billy boy Clinton did too.
“Not a good look” is truly in the eyes of the beholder – drag queens prancing in the rose garden is the height of distasteful yet that didn’t stop the obama/autopen white house from disgracing this nation with a celebration of perversion on the white house lawn for all the world to see and snicker at behind our backs.
I don’t think they care what we “deplorables” think of them any more than Xerxes cared what his slaves thought of him. Heaven help us if this crew of demented megalomaniacs ever achieve power on a federal level.
As a test of integrity, the Platner case could not be clearer. My own sister in Bangor admitted he’s viable “because he’s not Republican,” because he is a veteran, and because “some Republicans support him.” That is not a standard, that is a jersey.
When I ran the simplest ethical control in the world, the jersey flip, the whole scaffolding collapsed. Same man, same Totenkopf tattoo, same Hamas‑friendly rhetoric, same alleged abuse, same sexting, same record, but with an R after his name. Would you still be excusing the Nazi iconography, minimizing the women, and sermonizing about “context”? The moment I insisted on that hypothetical, the argument could not be defended.
At that point you are not applying principles to facts, you are laundering facts to protect your side.
And that is the core hypocrisy Turley is putting his finger on. If a Nazi‑adjacent symbol, multiple abuse allegations, and documented deceit would properly disqualify a Republican, then they disqualify a Democrat as such. If #MeToo, “believe women,” and “anti‑fascism” evaporate the moment a Democratic pickup is at risk, then those were never principles. They were weapons. Once you concede that the Totenkopf is “complicated” when your seat is on the line, you have already answered the Mitchell and Webb question. You do not need a sketch to tell you whether you are the baddies.
Good analysis, Olly!
OLLY,
Well said.
The lack of self-reflection, MSM coverage, the NYT lame piece that failed to follow up and corroborate the allegations, and attack the victims, just goes to show how they can and will justify anything in their desperation for power.
The best thing we can do is to point out the hypocrisy, how they use #metoo as a weapon when it is convenient for them, their lowering of standards or disregarding them all in the name of power.
And, let us not forget what they intend to do if and when they do get that power: Destroy America, the Republic and the Constitution.
THAT should scare any and all Americans regardless of what jersey they are wearing.
Upstate, I agree with you, but at this point I do not think we need more exhibits for the record. The Platner affair is not an outlier. It is a closing argument. The Democratic Party has already supplied all the evidence anyone could reasonably need about its relationship to power, principle, and truth. The case is comprehensible to any citizen willing to look.
The problem is no longer a lack of proof. It is a lack of formation. When voters can watch years of “believe women” and “fight fascism” rhetoric evaporate the moment the right jersey is at risk, and still shrug and pull the same lever, the issue is not the message but the receiver. We are dealing with a citizenry that has not been trained to recognize hypocrisy as disqualifying or to prize constitutional limits above partisan victory. At that stage, simply adding more examples of bad faith is a dead end. The task is not to “own” the Democrats. It is to rebuild the moral and civic vocabulary of the people who consent to be governed.
Oh i like hypotheticals. would you hypothetically vote for a pedo? serial cheater? demogague? liar? racist? theif? chicken hawk? oh wait it was a hypothetical. you racist boomers need to just go away. You voted probably three times for a convicted rapist, credibly accused pedo, a fake christian, serial cheater, grifter and like literal racist. He got sued for not selling apartments to minorities (they literally settled in 73 and had violted by 75). like for real youse are not serious and i cant wait till youre all 86’d
Oh! Poor! Poor annony! Just look how upset it is!
Cannot wait till we are all 86’d!
But then who will you take with you to job interviews? Negotiate pay raises? Pay your bills? Do your laundry?
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!
Your mom. is how i get rides
Yes, but look at who was his opponent.
By opponent, you must mean the dozen or so other Republicans who were handily beaten in the primary because Republicans liked how terrible a person Trump is. The ones who, after calling Trump every awful name they could manage, turned 180 degrees and knelt to kiss his ring and pledge unwavering fealty, because that’s the sort of character that rises to the top of the Republican Party.
He may be Nazi cosplayer, but he’s trying to replace a Nazi policy supporter.
Perhaps if the Republicans didn’t run such a string of loathsome people it would be easier to find a Democrat who would appeal to them. But that’s where the US is stuck right now. Ruled by an authoritarian tangerine, copying from the book 1984, with glowering posters plastered on Federal buildings and putting on gladiatorial games as a birthday present to himself while hundreds of millions suffer from his terrible decisions.
Were the situation flipped, would Republicans have voted for anyone else? No. They would vote for him 100%.
Certainly not the party of FDR or Harry Truman or even JFK and LBJ. Maybe not even the party of William J. Clinton.
Definitely is the party of the Screech Owl (oh, pardon me! Hilary Clinton) and others.
They certainly had a chance in 2024 with Shapiro on the ticket but went with Gov Walz and now they have going even further with a supposed real Nazi. Sort of the antithesis of Shapiro.
If it quacks like a Nazi Duck and has tattoos like a Nazi Duck, then I suspect most people are going to think he is a Nazi Duck.
You look over at the Republicans with a real possibility of a non nuclear Iran, a high tech billionaire who has become a trillionaire and likely dragged 4000 plus SpaceX employees into millionaire status along with him, a military that now knows how to fight with extreme lethality and efficiency and recruiting that fills the ranks. And I would ask who you would pick between the parties?
Ragin’Cajun James Carville is the unofficial spokesperson for the crazy conglomeration of misfits we call the Democrat Party these days. Watch his rants – that’s the mentality of the Left. Trump has broken them and Platner is their hope. Sick.
Read the urban legend about LSU graduates, like Carville, and how they all smell like corn dogs. Hilarous
Democrat Mainers do no have to ask anything. These self-deprecating, reprehensible sacks of moral turpitude have shown us that Platner is the best they can muster, and that THEY are the kind of ‘stuff’ he represents.. Its speaks to more than any outsider may. It should serve as the proverbial ‘Lantern in the Old North Church.’ Let the rest of the nation carefully ponder this carefully going forward as they consider their vote in the midterms.. …..”A Constitutional Republic…..if you can keep it”…Benjamin Franklin
Why should the Democrats forgive all Platner’s sins: misogyny, Nazism, Fascism, anti-Semitism, rape, homophobia, and abuse ? It is because he is a he-man, a commodity Dems just don’t have any more, because he is strictly obedient to the far-left agenda, and because he’s “dangerous”. The latter seems to titillate all those post-middle-aged women seen supporting him at rallies. Likely, as well, because the Dems believe Maine residents are terribly stupid.
@gdonaldallen
It’s a (likely focus-grouped) message to non-dem voters: ‘Yes, he’s an awful person just like all non-dem voters, but through the church of the DNC he has found redemption. Vote fur us, stray MAGAS (a group they lump us all into even if we aren’t, such are their double digit IQs. Their kids’ are even lower, statistically) and you too, can enjoy ‘redemption’! Or ELSE!’
Pathetic, hubristic, transparent, and offensive. 🤷🏽♂️
gdonaldallen,
IF he is the embodiment of what Democrats think a “he-man” is, then Democrats have lower themselves even further than I thought.
Then again, the average Gen Z Democrat is a soy-boy, failure to launch, who’s only relation with a girl is a AI chatbot.
Platner can do little damage when elected to office, but he can help stop future massive damage the Republican majority has planned to wreak on America.
Introspection has never been a strong suit of the Democratic party. Most of them need some sort of mental health therapy, and this whole shindig pretty well illustrates why.
Platner just forced Democrats to cede the moral high ground to Republicans on misogyny, Nazism, Fascism, anti-Semitism, rape, homophobia, and the abuse of women. Good job, Democrats. You know, because Trump.
wait so youre profacist? and trump voter sounds right.
How does one cede the moral high ground to a party that has dug deeper into the cess pit than was previously thought possible? Trump was elected on misogyny, Nazism, Fascism, anti-Semitism, rape, homophobia, and the abuse of women.
If you vote Democrat…you hate America…it really is that simple!
actually us here in real america love the country. you gop pedo supporters hate america. OG 13 or get out
only real nazis will do for today’s dumocrat party.
“. . .Oh what a tangled web we weave, when at first we practice deceiving” (paraphrased), which comes from a nineteenth-century Scottish author Sir Walter Scott who wrote novels, plays, and poems.
Liberals will so anything (and everything) to disparage those who are conservatives. Look no further than Elizabeth Warren who proudly declared she was a descendant of native Americans, even while there are those who still vote for her are being duped.
Since they have also told us what they plan to do when they return to power, we know they are the baddies!