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Embattled Senate candidate Graham Platner is facing backlash for calling law enforcement “opportunistic cowards” in a since-deleted Reddit post.
Platner, a far-left populist vying to become Maine’s next senator, made the comments in June 2020 in response to a post criticizing the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department for seeking approval to purchase “riot gear.” At the time, Black Lives Matter protests were spreading around the state, with some demonstrations turning violent, including vandalized storefronts and looting.
Platner, then 35, dismissed the sheriff’s request as “ridiculous.”
“I guess the Sheriffs [sic] Department is so full of overweight pansies that they now need taxpayer dollars to protect themselves from George Stevens Academy sophomores and aging hippies,” he wrote.
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“Cops are opportunistic cowards,” he continued.
The post, which is available in The Maine Monitor’s archive of Platner’s since-deleted messages, but has not been previously reported, was published under Platner’s handle “P-Hustle” on the Reddit forum R/Maine.
The comment is the latest in a string of anti-law enforcement remarks Platner made well into adulthood that have raised questions about his fitness for office as he seeks to unseat Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.
“It just shows a complete lack of understanding of the way law enforcement operates,” state Rep. Donald Ardell, R-Maine, told Fox News Digital in an interview. “They have to be prepared for eventualities.”
Ardell, a retired federal special agent and criminal investigator, said conversations with current law enforcement officers and former colleagues reflected widespread disgust with Platner’s comments disparaging men and women in uniform.
“It’s a series of consistent bad decisions, and it seems to be continuing,” Ardell said.
Also in June 2020, Platner denounced a Maine police chief as “thin blue line trash” for declining to kneel with demonstrators protesting the death of George Floyd. That month, he wrote “all cops are bastards” in remarks first reported by CNN.
In April 2021, Platner questioned whether there is a problem within policing “that extends into the profession as a whole” in a since-deleted post.
Platner has also faced scrutiny over comments declaring himself a communist, disparaging rural White people as “racist” and “stupid” and mocking a female teenager’s suicide attempt.
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Platner has said many of his comments were taken out of context and attributed some of them to struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder after multiple overseas deployments.
“You should read the comments in context. It’s very clear I’m joking,” he previously told Fox News Digital when asked about them. “It’s called s—posting. It’s when you argue with people on the internet and try to bother them.”
Ardell questioned whether Platner, who was largely in his 30s during the nearly decade-long period of online trash-talking, could have “made such a quick turnaround” in the past six years.
“If Graham Platner is interested in sort of working on himself, he can do it on his own time — not on Mainers’ time, and not in the U.S. Senate,” Ardell said.
The Platner campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
The newly resurfaced Reddit post comes as Platner is attempting to weather mounting scrutiny over his past treatment of women, including an allegation of abuse from former girlfriend Lyndsey Fifield. In May, the campaign acknowledged a period of infidelity during Platner’s marriage to Amy Gertner — whom he wed in 2023 — which involved sending sexually explicit texts to at least half a dozen women.
Platner also maintained an active account on the private messaging platform Kik, an app widely used for sexual encounters. His campaign said he had long deleted it from his phone.
Adding to Platner’s troubles, he has not provided a clear explanation for why several ex-girlfriends knew about his since covered-up Nazi-linked tattoo prior to the candidate publicly disclosing it last year.
A former girlfriend who dated Platner in 2021 showed The New York Post text messages she sent in September 2025 that discussed the “Nazi tattoo on his chest.”
The Senate hopeful has said he first learned about the black skull-and-crossbones tattoo’s links to Nazi SS units in October 2025. He wore it for nearly two decades after getting it while out drinking with fellow Marines in Croatia.
Asked if more negative information about Platner would come to light before November, Ardell did not hesitate.
“This is not a guy that has a skeleton in the closet,” he said. “This is a guy that has a whole graveyard.”
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