Mike Lee

Senator Mike Lee, the Utah Republican, honored the Tuesday night primary victory of Maine’s Graham Platner, his potential Democratic colleague, by associating him with Adolf Hitler.

Platner, whose chest tattoo resembled a Nazi-like skull and crossbones until last fall, advanced to the general election with nearly three-quarters of the vote as of Wednesday afternoon.

“Adolf Hitler is celebrating Graham Platner’s primary victory tonight—perhaps from a particularly dark corner of hell,” Lee said in an X post.

The National News Desk requested comment from Platner but hasn’t received a response.

Platner, a veteran, has denied knowing the tattoo’s associations at the parlor, which he claims to have visited during a drunken night out of a 2007 military visit to Croatia. The candidate said in October, when images of the apparent SS symbol spread on social media, that a skull and crossbones were a “standard” tattoo choice for Marines.

“We got very inebriated, and we did what Marines on liberty do and we decided to go get a tattoo,” Platner explained. “And we went to a tattoo parlor in Split, Croatia, and we chose a terrifying-looking skull and crossbones off the wall because we were Marines and, you know, skulls and crossbones are a pretty standard military thing, and we got those tattoos, and then we all moved on with our lives.”

It’s unclear at what point Platner learned the meaning of the ink. Lyndsey Fifield, one of his ex-girlfriends, told The New York Times earlier this year that Platner taught her the symbol’s name during their relationship in the early 2010s, referring to it as “my Totenkopf.”

Platner weathered the report, published last week, and other revelations over the past year about insulting social media posts and bad treatment of women. His most formidable primary opponent, Governor Janet Mills, suspended her campaign in April, allowing Platner to gather the support of his party’s most powerful members.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who had endorsed Mills, affirmed his allegiance to Platner after his primary win. He said in a joint statement with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, that Platner would help them retake the Senate majority by defeating incumbent Republican Susan Collins in November.

“Over the past year, we have created a path to win a Democratic Senate majority and put a stop to the chaos and damage of the Trump administration by defeating the Republicans who enable his harmful agenda,” the lawmakers said. “Susan Collins has never been more vulnerable after she voted with Trump 96 percent of the time, confirmed his far-right judicial nominees, and took millions from special interests while voting to rip health care away from Mainers.”

Collins hasn’t returned The National News Desk’s request for comment.