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A soldier who Graham Platner once mocked over a viral video of him getting wounded in a Taliban firefight years ago called the U.S. Senate candidate an “entitled brat.”
Teddy Daniels leveled his criticism against the presumptive Democratic nominee in Maine’s U.S. Senate race in a Thursday OpEd about an “identity crisis” among Democratic men published in the Wall Street Journal.
“A real man by the lights of the Democratic Party, he presents himself as ‘relatable’ to working-class Americans, but in reality he’s a typical elitist who believes blue-collar, hardworking, salt-of-the-earth rural Americans are stupid and racist,” Daniels wrote.
A video of the firefight went viral in 2013. It showed Daniels drawing fire away from another group of soldiers, and during the exchange, gunfire from the Taliban hit his rifle and nearby rocks, which exploded and peppered his arms. Other bullets hit his eye protection and helmet, according to CBS News.
Daniels received a Purple Heart.
In an early morning post on June 5, 2019, Platner weighed in on the video in a now-deleted Reddit post under his P-hustle handle.
“This video never gets old. Dumb motherf****r didn’t deserve to live. At least his stupidity and fat ass wheezing are available for all future infantrymen to witness and hold in contempt. Poor marksmanship on the Taliban’s part is the only reason this mouthbreather made it home, he managed to make every possible shit decision possible when it comes to small unit combat,” he wrote.
The Sullivan oyster farmer was approached earlier this week by a Fox News Digital reporter who asked whether he regretted a post seen as disrespectful to veterans.
“I did four tours in the infantry, any attempt to say that I disrespect veterans is slanderous and offensive,” Platner said, adding that he has friends who have received the Purple Heart.
In a Friday afternoon statement, a Platner campaign spokesperson fired back at U.S. Sen. Susan Collins and Republicans, hitting the Maine senator for her past votes on wars in the Middle East.
“The only tactic Susan Collins and the GOP have is to turn this election into a personal referendum on someone who served four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, leading infantrymen in combat as both a machine gunner and a rifle squad leader. Notice what they are not disputing: that Susan Collins has spent 30 years signing off on wars that sent young Americans like Graham to the Middle East. Graham knows the true cost of those wars because he lived it. Susan Collins only voted for them while her donors have profited from the bloodshed,” the campaign spokesperson said.
It’s not the first time that Platner has faced criticism over his internet postings.
The insurgent candidate who stormed onto the political scene last year came under fire last fall over unearthed inflammatory internet posts and revelations that he had a chest tattoo depicting a skull superimposed over crossbones, resembling the Totenkopf symbol adopted by the Nazi SS during World War II.
Platner denied knowing that his tattoo was a Nazi symbol. He got the tattoo in 2007 while deployed abroad with the U.S. Marines. While on leave, Platner and other Marines went to Croatia, where they got “very inebriated” and decided to get tattoos. He said that they all picked “terrifying” designs off the wall.
He has since gotten it covered.
Platner has tried to distance himself from his past internet posts, including numerous deleted posts in which Platner asked why Black people “don’t tip,” suggesting that women concerned about rape not drink around certain people, and alluding to jokes about a “zombie” Jesus and his mother Mary being a “skank,” among others.
Gov. Janet Mills, who suspended her U.S. Senate campaign in April and hit Platner hard over his internet posts in a series of campaign ads, has said that Republicans would make “mincemeat” of Platner if he emerges as the party’s standard-bearer for the November election.
Old Town native David Costello also will be on the Democratic June primary ballot.
It will be an uphill battle for Democrats to unseat Collins, who officially announced her historic bid for a sixth term in February. While recent polls have given Platner a lead over Maine’s senior senator, the Republican has handily beaten back challengers, including in 2020 when she defied polls and expectations to secure a fifth term in the Senate. But Collins, who has been ranked the country’s most bipartisan senator, has seen her popularity slump since Republican President Donald Trump’s first term in the White House.
If Collins is successful in winning a sixth term, she would be Maine’s longest-serving U.S. senator.
Daniels ran unsuccessfully as a Republican to represent Pennsylvania’s 8th District in Congress in 2020 and to be lieutenant governor in 2022.
During his 2022 campaign, Daniels’ then-wife Jaime Daniels received a temporary protection order against him for allegedly threatening and verbally abusing her and their young son. A judge later tossed that order, according to the Standard Speaker.
They later separated, and Jaime Daniels died last year.
Teddy Daniels now lives in North Carolina, where he ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for Dare County sheriff, coming in last in a four-way race.