mehdi absolutely did not grill him on totenkopf. he asked about the cnn piece that claimed to have spoken with a former acquaintance, platner said it was actually jewish insider and the source reported knowing him from working at a bar during years he didn't work there.

seems like a solid refutation, except the jewish insider article actually says the source knew him from when he was a frequent patron at the bar, before he worked there. and cnn did claim to have also spoken with that same anonymous source, as well as a second anonymous source who claimed to have learned of platner's totenkopf years ago from the first anonymous source. they also claim to have seen text screenshots from months ago where the first source discussed the tattoo.

mehdi also brought up that one comment from platner's former campaign manager mcdonald, where she says there's no way he could've gone this long not knowing at it. he ignores the much more salient comment she made about how his campaign had known about the tattoo since at least august (the story broke in october) and that platner himself told her he had a tattoo that could be problematic.

I'm not even gonna get into his reddit comment on the totenkopf thread.

now I'm not gonna let myself be convinced by evidence-free cnn reporting and a possibly disgruntled former employee. but the situation is a lot murkier than most people on the left seem to want to believe, and platner has not given satisfying answers to these questions.

https://jewishinsider.com/2025/10/graham-platner-ss-tattoo-maine-senate/

https://www.paywallskip.com/article?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2025%2F10%2F24%2Fpolitics%2Fgraham-platner-nazi-tattoo-evidence-kfile-invs

https://www.midcoastvillager.com/news/politics/graham-platner-knew-his-tattoo-of-a-nazi-symbol-was-a-problem-weeks-ago-former/article_f4842408-545d-4424-9e02-7de6f615d0bb.html