Senate Hopeful Mocked Purple Heart Soldier and Veterans Are Making Him Pay

There’s something particularly galling about watching someone who wants to represent you in the United States Senate dismiss the people who’ve actually bled for this country as fat, lazy trash. Yet that’s exactly what Graham Platner, Maine’s Democratic Senate candidate, decided was appropriate commentary about the United States Army.

The posts resurfaced recently, and they’re worse than you’d think. Platner didn’t just criticize military policy or question strategic decisions. He went straight for the troops themselves, mocking a soldier who’d been shot four times in combat before receiving a Purple Heart. Let that sink in for a moment. A man running for Senate thought it was clever to ridicule someone who took four bullets serving this nation.

Veterans across the country aren’t staying quiet about this insult. Holland “Ricky” White, who served with the Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade in Vietnam, spoke with conviction about what these comments really mean. The 173rd was among the first ground combat units deployed to Vietnam. They saw some of the worst fighting that war had to offer, the kind of combat that leaves scars you can’t always see.

White laid out what his service cost him in terms anyone can understand. Congestive heart failure. Bilateral hearing loss. COPD, sleep apnea, high blood pressure, hypothyroidism, and PTSD. That’s the price tag for defending freedom, and it’s one White paid willingly. He’s a decorated veteran who came home to face ridicule not just for serving in an unpopular war, but for being a black man in America during the Vietnam era. He knows what it means to be dismissed and insulted.

“I lost friends over there, and it still hurts to talk about them,” White said. “I often ask God, ‘Why did You spare me and not my friends?'” That’s the voice of someone who’s earned the right to speak about sacrifice. White believes God kept him alive for a reason, which is why he continues working to make a difference today. And it’s precisely why Platner’s comments cut so deep.

This isn’t about political correctness or hurt feelings. This is about respect for the men and women who’ve given pieces of themselves so the rest of us can argue about politics in safety. Rob O’Neill, the Navy SEAL who put down Osama bin Laden, also weighed in on this mess. When warriors of that caliber take time to call out your behavior, you’ve crossed a serious line.

The free market of ideas works beautifully when it comes to exposing character flaws in political candidates. Platner’s own words have created a problem no campaign consultant can spin away. You can’t mock the wounded and expect veterans to shrug it off. You can’t call the Army trash and then ask military families for their votes.

What makes this particularly offensive is the calculated nature of it all. These weren’t private thoughts that accidentally became public. Platner chose to put these views out there for the world to see. He thought this was acceptable discourse. That tells you everything about his judgment and his values.

Maine voters now have a clear picture of who Graham Platner really is when he thinks nobody important is watching. The veterans speaking out against him aren’t doing it for political gain. They’re doing it because some insults demand a response. They’re doing it because silence in the face of contempt for military service would be its own form of betrayal.

White and countless others like him carried the weight of this nation’s defense on their backs. They earned our respect the hard way. Platner’s comments reveal a stunning lack of understanding about what service actually means. And honestly, that disqualifies him from representing anyone, let alone the good people of Maine.