00:00The skull. That was a skull and now it is.
00:03Okay.
00:04You can't quite tell, but...
00:05Yeah.
00:06Well, actually, maybe...
00:07Yeah.
00:08It still has its, like, healing thing on it.
00:10Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:11And maybe we shouldn't just because it's...
00:13Well, whatever.
00:14A Democratic Senate candidate in the state of Maine revealed that he has covered up his controversial tattoo
00:19after its Nazi-linked design sparked controversy.
00:22Though judging from the reaction of the reporter interviewing him for WGME-TV, a local Maine outlet,
00:28it's a bit comically unclear what the new design is supposed to represent.
00:32What is that?
00:33This?
00:34Yeah, what is it?
00:34It's literally nothing. It's just a...
00:36Oh.
00:36It's a design.
00:37Is it like a possum or a...
00:38No, it's supposed to be like a dog.
00:40Oh, okay.
00:41But it's based on some, like, ancient Celtic...
00:44Ah, yeah.
00:45Ancient Celtic kind of design.
00:47Right.
00:48Things.
00:48Now, the oyster farmer is facing new questions about another tattoo, the number 1919,
00:54which was spotted on his arm by eagle-eyed viewers during his local news interview,
00:59and can also be associated with neo-Nazis, but actually has a different story in this case.
01:04Here's everything you need to know about the liberal candidate and his tattoo drama.
01:07It all started when, in an apparent attempt to get ahead of bad press,
01:11Graham Plattner went out of his way to disclose the original controversial skull tattoo
01:15on the Pod Save America podcast, where he shared an embarrassing video showing him singing in his
01:21underwear at a wedding celebration for his brother, in which the tattoo was visible on the right side
01:26of his chest. The skull tattoo appears to resemble the Totenkopf, an image adopted as a symbol by
01:31Hitler's SS, but the liberal candidate, who's running for a U.S. Senate seat in Maine, insisted
01:36he is not, nor ever has been, a Nazi. The 41-year-old Marine vet went on to explain how he was very
01:42inebriated when he got the tattoo while on leave in Croatia nearly 20 years ago, and that he had no
01:48idea what it meant. We chose a terrifying-looking skull and crossbones off the wall, because we were
01:54Marines, and you know, skulls and crossbones are a pretty standard military thing, and we got those
01:59tattoos, and we all moved on with our lives, Plattner explained. It was not until I started
02:04hearing from reporters and DC insiders that I realized this tattoo resembled a Nazi symbol,
02:09the embattled candidate told Politico. I absolutely would not have gone through life having this on
02:14my chest if I knew that, and to insinuate that I did is disgusting. His former campaign director,
02:20however, disputed his claim. Maybe he didn't know it when he got it, but he got it years ago,
02:25and he should have had it covered up because he knows damn well what it means, Genevieve McDonald
02:30wrote on Facebook, according to the outlet. If Plattner thought revealing his new tattoo cover-up
02:35design would put the controversy to bed, he was sadly mistaken, as viewers were quick to hone in
02:40on another tattoo that was partly visible during the interview, the number 1919. The number is
02:46sometimes reported to be used by neo-Nazis to symbolize SS, as the letter S is the 19th letter
02:52in the alphabet. He was forced to send a picture of the full tattoo in question to WGME, which they
02:58then shared with the caption,
02:59some have pointed out a second tattoo on his arm with the number 1919 on it. We reached out to
03:05Plattner's people about it, who responded with a full picture, and say that it was a
03:09Trail Forest Crew Tattoo, which began in 1919 by the Appalachian Mountain Club. Plattner's tattoos
03:16aren't the only hard questions he's facing about his past. McDonald resigned from Plattner's campaign
03:21after old offensive Reddit posts made by Plattner surfaced, which include labeling all police
03:26bastards, describing rural white Americans as actually stupid and racist, according to CNN.
03:31In other offensive posts, he reportedly asked why black people don't tip, which he claimed was a
03:35genuine question about a possible cultural explanation, and not malicious. He additionally
03:40insinuated sexual assault survivors should take some responsibility for themselves. In response to the
03:46backlash surrounding the resurfaced posts, Plattner posted an apology video and said he had been
03:50suffering from PTSD when he made the posts.
03:53And so for those of you who have read these things and been offended, have read these things
03:58and seen someone that you don't recognize, I am deeply sorry. It's something that I see someone
04:06that I don't recognize either, not in who I am today. It is somebody that I do recognize though,
04:11somebody who is struggling, somebody who is having a very difficult time settling into a society that he
04:17felt betrayed by and left behind by after having to go fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. I'm sorry for this.
04:24Just know that it's not reflective at all of who I am.
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