Nazi-tattoed senate candidate Graham Platner lands on cover of Time magazine

Graham Platner on the cover of Time magazine.

Graham Platner, the Democrat leading the primary race for U.S. senator in Maine, has had quite a week. Old social media posts surfaced in which he crassly discussed his masturbation habits came to light. Previous remarks on "Latin American hookers" and "Thai prostitutes" also were resurfaced, as well as racially provocative comments he made online. As recently as five years ago, he even admitted, "I got older and became a communist," which was another gem revealed this week. So, naturally Time magazine put him on the cover of its June 8 edition.

The magazine touts him as a "party crasher," but many observers pointed out that Time, along with the vast majority in the mainstream media, for years demonized Donald Trump as Hitler, and his supporters as Nazis.

Scrolling through the reactions on X, many people pointed out the irony that Trump, who has a Jewish son-in-law and Jewish grandchildren, was cast as a Nazi, while a man with an actual Nazi tattoo on his chest, which he covered up after people found out about it, is exalted as a candidate "with with flaws, faded ink, and redemption arcs," as the accompanying Time story professes. 

Some pointed out the double standard over the scrutiny Pete Hegseth drew over his tattoos, one of which is a Jerusalem cross, a Christian symbol. No such scrutiny for the man with the Nazi iconography inked onto his chest. With Platner facing no real scrutiny from the mainstream press, he's a genuine contender to oust incumbent Republican Senator Susan Collins.

A poll release earlier this week showed Platner with a seven-point lead over Collins.