Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner blasted the ongoing American and Israeli attacks on Iran at a protest in Brewer Sunday evening.
Platner’s military career and his anti-establishment campaign converged in his speech emphasizing the toll of war on working class Americans.
About 100 people gathered for the rally, which was held inside the Eastern Maine Labor Council building.
Platner contended that “nobody wants this war,” saying the operation was being pushed by Israel and Saudi Arabia and used by the Trump administration as a distraction from the Epstein files.
Trump and other elites named in the files are “terrified that we’re going to start wondering why the hell we let them stay in power,” Platner told the crowd, encouraging them to urge their representatives to pass a war powers resolution and “prepare ourselves to get in the streets.”
Platner also said Congress should rescind the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force Against September 11 Terrorists, which ceded some power over military decision to the executive branch and has been used to justify military operations in at least 22 countries.
Speakers at the rally emphasized the effect that an extended war in the Middle East would have on military servicemembers and families in the U.S.
“It is the American people who have to bear the brunt of combat,” Platner said. “It is American friends who have to watch their best friends come home from a war and struggle for years with physical and mental trauma. That is who bears the brunt of all this. Never those in power.”
The Marine veteran held a moment of silence for the three American servicemembers confirmed dead and the Iranian civilians killed in the attacks thus far.
“Everybody in this room has more in common with an Iranian working class person, or a Cuban working class person, or a Venezuelan working class person, than any of the Epstein class that run this country,” said Adam Toothaker, a retired U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer and president of a local chapter of Veterans for Peace.
Toothaker and others referenced the children killed in a strike on a girls’ elementary school Saturday, which killed more than 100 people, according to Iranian state media.
Speakers also linked U.S. military actions to class inequality in the U.S.
“We keep being told there’s no money for housing, for healthcare, or for food, but there is always money for bombs and there is always money for war in the Middle East,” congressional candidate Paige Loud said.
Other speakers included state representative Amy Roeder and state auditor Matt Dunlap, who are currently campaigning for state Senate and the 2nd Congressional District seat, respectively, and several veterans involved in local advocacy.
Attendees said they were motivated by Platner’s focus on working people and his stance against the attacks on Iran.
“What’s happening in this country is what my parents ran away from,” said Andrei Yermakov, who has been canvassing for Platner and said his parents immigrated to the U.S. from Russia and Ukraine to escape war and persecution.
“I’m glad they’re not here to see this,” he said.