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Graham Platner said that President Donald Trump is “scared” after the Democrat’s victory in the U.S. Senate primary this week.
That comes after Trump made one of his first attacks against the Sullivan oyster farmer while taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office in Washington.
“He’s a thug. And they’re trying to make excuses for him. I mean, he’s worse than any human being that’s ever run for office, probably,” said Trump, who has, since he first ran for office, attacked, insulted or threatened prisoners of war, fallen World War I soldiers, a disabled reporter and other journalists, immigrants, judges, longstanding allies, the country of Greenland and others.
In a Friday video posted to the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, Platner called the attack from Trump possibly “the highest compliment that I’ve ever received.”
“The reason he’s doing it [is] that he’s scared. He knows. He knows that we’re coming after him,” he said.
“He should be,” Platner went on, “because we are coming because we’re building something here in Maine the likes of which has not been before. We are really building a true broad-based, working-class coalition to build power the old-fashioned way.”
Platner’s record vote-getting win Tuesday came despite a barrage of negative press since last fall, when his deleted posts on the website Reddit became public, including inflammatory statements about rural white Americans, Black people and women.
Then it came out that Platner had a chest tattoo of a skull over crossbones resembling a symbol adopted by the Nazi SS during World War II.
Platner denied knowing the meaning of the tattoo, which he got in 2007 while deployed abroad with the U.S. Marines. He has since had it covered.
Despite that, support for Platner hasn’t wavered and he led in numerous polls ahead of Tuesday’s primary.
His chances for clinching the nomination seemed at risk last week when the Wall Street Journal reported that he had exchanged sexually explicit texts with other women early in his marriage to Amy Gertner, who disclosed those messages to his campaign last summer, and then a New York Times story wherein his ex-girlfriends described volatile and toxic behavior, including instances of physical intimidation.
On the campaign trail, Platner has cast his story as one of redemption and a struggle to overcome post-traumatic stress disorder, assuring supporters that his past behavior doesn’t reflect who he is today.
Nonetheless, Democrats have worried that Platner’s baggage could turn him into an albatross for the party during the midterms, and outgoing Gov. Janet Mills proclaimed earlier this year that Republicans would make “mincemeat” of Platner.
It will be an uphill battle for Democrats to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Susan 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 Trump’s first term in the White House.
Trump, who has recently sunk the careers of other Republican senators for not voting lockstep with him and directed his ire toward Collins, struck a friendlier tone toward Maine’s senior senator Wednesday, calling her a “sane person” when a reporter asked whether he’d support her reelection.
The Republican Party will be defending narrow majorities in both the U.S. House and Senate this November.
If Collins is successful in winning a sixth term, she would be Maine’s longest-serving U.S. senator.
