Maine Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner isn’t backing down from his comments that GOP Sen. Susan Collins “sent me” to fight in Iraq, charging her with “trying to offload her mistakes” for pointing out that he chose to enlist.
Platner told Semafor that he “did my best to stop” the war by protesting against it — for doing so, he was removed from an event with then-President George W. Bush.
“The war came anyways, and I did feel a kind of deep sense of duty to the nation that even though I was against it,” he added. “I’d wanted to join the infantry since I was three.”
Collins and Republicans argue that Platner’s old Reddit posts about his desire to fight in a war undermined his criticism of her vote to invade Iraq.
A spokesperson for Collins, who trails Platner in early polls of their November matchup, did not return a request for comment.
Republicans had spent the week around Memorial Day accusing Platner of being anti-veteran, citing an old Reddit post where he’d made fun of a soldier exchanging fire with the Taliban.
“I made a whole bunch of comments throughout my life that I certainly don’t stand by now,” Platner said, noting that he’d received no local criticism from veterans over the post.