One of my favorite AA sayings is, “Those who have nothing to hide, hide nothing”. What got my immediate attention about something squirrelly was his stint with Blackwater after getting out of the service. Who does that? Also, he may be “just” an oyster farmer not but he did come from a pretty nice family background. I just think, if I were a Mainer, the first thing I’d be asking myself would be, what qualifies this man to jump headlong into a US Senate race with so little prior experience? Yes, he has a populist message but as a reminder, so did Fetterman and so did Trump. Look where that’s gotten us. And for all those Bernie Bros who are bitching about Janet Mills’ age, tell me again please, how old is your hero, again? At least Gov. Mills has accomplishments to talk about. Not too sure about Bernie in all his time in the Senate.
As mentioned, the republican machine will be digging deep into Platner’s background so any Democratic candidate will have to be purer than Caesar’s wife and new-fallen snow. So far, Platner is proving to be a bit problematic.
To tug at the blackwater claim a bit, it seems like he was a state dept contractor through the company Corvellis (which 2 or 3 iterations and 15 years earlier was Blackwater). His job role in Kabul was likely private security for embassy staff. Not necessarily a job to be proud of given its connotations but not bad or disqualifying in my opinion.
Taking responsibility for your actions means owning up to them before someone catches you out because it’s actually the right thing to do. Not “apologizing” for posts after they’ve already been uncovered. Not getting a tattoo covered because someone else was about to drop photos of it nearly 20 years after you got it. Not in the same breath saying you didn’t know what it was as you say that it’s disgusting that people are skeptical about your true beliefs. That is not taking responsibility for your actions or conveying contrition.
He’s framing this as an attack on him by the “establishment” even though it’s his actual statements and actions that were revealed. Nobody is making anything up.
His response to this reminds me of Trump, to be honest. Six months ago, nobody had ever even heard of him. Now people are acting like there isn't still time in this Senate race for someone else to rise. It's weird. We don't actually know him and he has no record of public service. All there is to weigh are short speeches, social media posts, and what journalists have uncovered.
Platner has neither the name, family, power, or political connections to conviently sweep this under the rug, a-la Ted Kennedy and Chappaquiddick.
If all of this drip, drip, is bubbling to the surface now, just imagine what Susan Collins will reveal if Platner is the Democratic nominee.
The pre-race social media scrubs were the first whiff that something didn't smell right, but if nothing seriously damaging came up, it would be easy enough to chalk that up to a new, inexperienced candidate that didn't understand the optics of those scrubs.
And as unfortunate as it is to acknowledge this, the "others" are often easy fodder for the punchlines of jokes. Psychologists will tell us that such jokes reflect our true inner beliefs towards those "others", but sometimes it's nothing more than a lazy excuse to make a lame joke work.
I'd need to know more about his LGBT comments, but the absolute best thing Platner could do right now is to lay bare every last skeleton that's hanging in his closet. If he thinks these things will stay hidden, he's too naive to hold any elected office.
He's a rugged guy and a military veteran. MAN UP or fold up the tent. An open and honest confession might allow him to actually gain credibility. None of us are near perfect, and it's possible that he can connect with voters by revealing his own imperfections.
To repeat myself , this is god awful with him! I want to wake up to no news story from him and I swear he's going to be in the news forever at this rate. I'm a bisexual American and people ranting and raving online using slurs like this is awful! Nobody should be acting like that and he was a grown man in his 30s, not a confused teenage! Do I think people can change? yes. It means a lot to me in my personal life that I know friends and family who went down very bad roads, truly changed and are now very graceful humans. Having a Reddit poster who has never held office go up against one of the smartest people in the Senate is not a good idea! I strongly dislike Collins politics last 15+ years but make no mistake, she know's the game and her and her team know how spin what she does. The biggest fear in 2026 Maine election cycle is the Republicans (might even be Bobby Charles the bigot) win the election LePage style , with sub 50 percent of the vote. If that happens they WILL try to strip Maine Human Rights protections from trans kids as well LGBTQ adults and go after abortion rights. Republicans hate women and queer people more than ever! As I worry about that, we have otherwise decent progressive and left wing people say "no no Planter is gonna be fine", the same people pretend he's the first person in the history of American or Maine politics to talk about single payer healthcare ha ha ha ha sure. If the Republicans run Maine, they will attack abortion and LGBTQ rights!! We are now over 10 years into the social media era, Sanders type political handers seem to be doubling down on him and its awful he won't drop out! David Costello, Janet Mills and Jordan Wood haven't been slurring gay people online and know abortion and LGBTQ rights are critical.
As someone living in Downeast Maine, this slowed nothing down.
Last night he had 700 people at his town hall.
He has spoken at length about holding views once that he doesn’t today. Like most men I know that are 41.
He has PTSD and spoke openly about that. He asked 1.2k volunteers on a zoom call on Sunday to hold him accountable and not loose site of what we are fighting for—voter rights currently here in Maine.
If this was ever about Susan Collins seat turning then people would be writing and covering the voter suppression question here in Maine being voted on next week. That will have the most impact in de-throning Collins. NO ON ONE ☝️
One of my favorite AA sayings is, “Those who have nothing to hide, hide nothing”. What got my immediate attention about something squirrelly was his stint with Blackwater after getting out of the service. Who does that? Also, he may be “just” an oyster farmer not but he did come from a pretty nice family background. I just think, if I were a Mainer, the first thing I’d be asking myself would be, what qualifies this man to jump headlong into a US Senate race with so little prior experience? Yes, he has a populist message but as a reminder, so did Fetterman and so did Trump. Look where that’s gotten us. And for all those Bernie Bros who are bitching about Janet Mills’ age, tell me again please, how old is your hero, again? At least Gov. Mills has accomplishments to talk about. Not too sure about Bernie in all his time in the Senate.
As mentioned, the republican machine will be digging deep into Platner’s background so any Democratic candidate will have to be purer than Caesar’s wife and new-fallen snow. So far, Platner is proving to be a bit problematic.
To tug at the blackwater claim a bit, it seems like he was a state dept contractor through the company Corvellis (which 2 or 3 iterations and 15 years earlier was Blackwater). His job role in Kabul was likely private security for embassy staff. Not necessarily a job to be proud of given its connotations but not bad or disqualifying in my opinion.
Taking responsibility for your actions means owning up to them before someone catches you out because it’s actually the right thing to do. Not “apologizing” for posts after they’ve already been uncovered. Not getting a tattoo covered because someone else was about to drop photos of it nearly 20 years after you got it. Not in the same breath saying you didn’t know what it was as you say that it’s disgusting that people are skeptical about your true beliefs. That is not taking responsibility for your actions or conveying contrition.
He’s framing this as an attack on him by the “establishment” even though it’s his actual statements and actions that were revealed. Nobody is making anything up.
His response to this reminds me of Trump, to be honest. Six months ago, nobody had ever even heard of him. Now people are acting like there isn't still time in this Senate race for someone else to rise. It's weird. We don't actually know him and he has no record of public service. All there is to weigh are short speeches, social media posts, and what journalists have uncovered.
Platner has neither the name, family, power, or political connections to conviently sweep this under the rug, a-la Ted Kennedy and Chappaquiddick.
If all of this drip, drip, is bubbling to the surface now, just imagine what Susan Collins will reveal if Platner is the Democratic nominee.
The pre-race social media scrubs were the first whiff that something didn't smell right, but if nothing seriously damaging came up, it would be easy enough to chalk that up to a new, inexperienced candidate that didn't understand the optics of those scrubs.
And as unfortunate as it is to acknowledge this, the "others" are often easy fodder for the punchlines of jokes. Psychologists will tell us that such jokes reflect our true inner beliefs towards those "others", but sometimes it's nothing more than a lazy excuse to make a lame joke work.
I'd need to know more about his LGBT comments, but the absolute best thing Platner could do right now is to lay bare every last skeleton that's hanging in his closet. If he thinks these things will stay hidden, he's too naive to hold any elected office.
He's a rugged guy and a military veteran. MAN UP or fold up the tent. An open and honest confession might allow him to actually gain credibility. None of us are near perfect, and it's possible that he can connect with voters by revealing his own imperfections.
To repeat myself , this is god awful with him! I want to wake up to no news story from him and I swear he's going to be in the news forever at this rate. I'm a bisexual American and people ranting and raving online using slurs like this is awful! Nobody should be acting like that and he was a grown man in his 30s, not a confused teenage! Do I think people can change? yes. It means a lot to me in my personal life that I know friends and family who went down very bad roads, truly changed and are now very graceful humans. Having a Reddit poster who has never held office go up against one of the smartest people in the Senate is not a good idea! I strongly dislike Collins politics last 15+ years but make no mistake, she know's the game and her and her team know how spin what she does. The biggest fear in 2026 Maine election cycle is the Republicans (might even be Bobby Charles the bigot) win the election LePage style , with sub 50 percent of the vote. If that happens they WILL try to strip Maine Human Rights protections from trans kids as well LGBTQ adults and go after abortion rights. Republicans hate women and queer people more than ever! As I worry about that, we have otherwise decent progressive and left wing people say "no no Planter is gonna be fine", the same people pretend he's the first person in the history of American or Maine politics to talk about single payer healthcare ha ha ha ha sure. If the Republicans run Maine, they will attack abortion and LGBTQ rights!! We are now over 10 years into the social media era, Sanders type political handers seem to be doubling down on him and its awful he won't drop out! David Costello, Janet Mills and Jordan Wood haven't been slurring gay people online and know abortion and LGBTQ rights are critical.
As someone living in Downeast Maine, this slowed nothing down.
Last night he had 700 people at his town hall.
He has spoken at length about holding views once that he doesn’t today. Like most men I know that are 41.
He has PTSD and spoke openly about that. He asked 1.2k volunteers on a zoom call on Sunday to hold him accountable and not loose site of what we are fighting for—voter rights currently here in Maine.
If this was ever about Susan Collins seat turning then people would be writing and covering the voter suppression question here in Maine being voted on next week. That will have the most impact in de-throning Collins. NO ON ONE ☝️
Please send your email. jtierney10@gmail.com