The question from a classic British comedy sketch—"Are we the baddies?"—has become an uncomfortable fit for Democrats this week as they rally behind Graham Platner, the newly nominated Senate candidate from Maine. Platner, a self-described Communist, sports a Nazi SS Totenkopf tattoo on his chest, has praised Hamas, attacked veterans, and faced multiple allegations of abuse from former partners. Yet top Democrats, from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to Senator Elizabeth Warren, have lined up to support him.
The irony is sharp. For years, Schumer and others have labeled political opponents as Nazis, even amplifying a debunked claim that Elon Musk flashed a Nazi salute. But when faced with a candidate who paid for an actual Nazi death head tattoo, Schumer’s response was a pragmatic mantra: winning back the Senate. On ABC's The View, a co-host drew applause by urging the party to ditch the moral high ground in favor of power. Former Biden aide Ron Klain dismissed the tattoo as a "skull and crossbones to remember his fallen comrades," ignoring that the Totenkopf is the emblem of Hitler's Third SS Panzer Division, infamous for wartime atrocities.
Hunter Biden, fresh off a presidential pardon for tax and gun charges, vouched for Platner, saying he'd heard nothing to suggest the candidate is abusive or anti-Semitic. But former friends and girlfriends tell a different story. Lyndsey Fifield, in a 2025 email, said Platner called the tattoo "my Totenkopf." Another ex-girlfriend recounted that Platner kept it as a reminder that "the U.S. was the evil bad guy overseas." Platner denies this, but the pattern of contradictions is hard to ignore.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, who once declared "we must believe survivors, not bully them," now shrugs at the abuse allegations, calling them "a lot of nothing" and noting one accuser is a Republican. The party's #MeToo stance appears to have shifted with the political winds.
As Democrats push for a new healthcare agenda and eye the 2028 bench with figures like Jon Ossoff, the Platner saga threatens to undercut their messaging. The party has compared Trump to Hitler and his followers to brownshirts, but now embraces a candidate with a Nazi tattoo. Meanwhile, at a San Antonio protest against Turning Point USA, an organizer urged the crowd to be "obnoxious" and "make sure they know we hate them," as a man dressed as death swung a sickle.
The comedy sketch ends with one Nazi soldier asking if their skull insignia really comes across as harmless. Democrats face the same question: are they the baddies now?
