Old Jokes About Jesus and Mary Come Back To Haunt Gaffe-Plagued Maine Senate Hopeful

The front-runner for the Democratic nomination for Senate in Maine, Graham Platner, is facing new criticism over a resurfaced social media post in which he “crudely” joked about Jesus and called Jesus’ mother, Mary, a “skank.”Mr. Platner has previously weathered criticism over some of his social media posts, including those in which he called himself a communist and said white Americans are racist and stupid. He also apologized for a tattoo of a skull and crossbones that resembled a symbol used by the Nazi SS. He later said he did not know it was a Nazi symbol and had it covered up. Ahead of the holiest day of the year for Christians, Easter, Mr. Platner is facing backlash over a recently resurfaced post on Reddit in which he called himself “crudely atheist.”The Senate hopeful responded in 2012 to a post about a soldier who claimed he had been denied a promotion for not embracing “fundamentalist Christianity.”“What units is this [expletive] in? I’ve spent 8 years in the infantry,” Mr. Platner wrote. “I’ve been about as crudely atheist as one can be the entire time (zombie jesus jokes and Mary sucking at covering up being a skank, as examples).”The post is still visible online, and the Washington Free Beacon reported it was posted by an account associated with Mr. Platner.The Maine Republican Party posted on X, “This SHOULD be disqualifying but Maine’s leftist base has given Platner a pass on literally everything.”“Now this. But the left will love him more,” the post said.Mr. Platner’s campaign did not respond to a request from The New York Sun for comment by the time of publication.Polls show that Mr. Platner, a former oyster farmer who has received endorsements from several prominent, far-left Democrats such as Senator Bernie Sanders, has a significant lead over his primary rivals.Maine’s Democratic governor, Janet Mills, the establishment favorite in the race, has warned that the “Republican machinery, which has already put … $42 million behind TV advertising this fall, would make mincemeat of him.”Whoever wins the primary will face Senator Susan Collins in the general election, a race that could determine which party controls the Senate. Despite the candidate’s controversial posts, a recent poll released by Emerson College last month found Mr. Platner leads Ms. Mills by about 27 points. A Democratic strategist, Christy Setzer, told the Hill that Mr. Platner’s lead appears to be the result of “an anti-Mills phenomenon.”“Fairly or not, Mills represents the current Democratic Party to voters — too old, too weak to fight [President] Trump, [which] may be unfair, but the rep nonetheless, not understanding where the base is,” Ms. Setzer said. Apart from the Emerson poll, RealClearPolitics shows Mr. Platner with an average 7.2-point lead over Ms. Collins. She trailed her Democratic opponent by 5.5 percentage points in 2020 but wound up winning reelection that year by roughly 8 percentage points.

Old Jokes About Jesus and Mary Come Back To Haunt Gaffe-Plagued Maine Senate Hopeful

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