Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told Fox News Digital he is sticking with Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, even after thousands of deleted Reddit posts surfaced showing Platner mocking a U.S. soldier who was shot four times, making crude sexual remarks, endorsing political violence, and dismissing rape in the military.
When pressed on whether he would rescind his support given the volume and nature of the posts, Murphy didn't address the content. He pointed to the polls.
"What's the polling in Maine right now? I think he's still winning, right?"
That response tells you everything about where the Democratic Party's moral compass points in 2025: toward the scoreboard. Platner leads Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins 51% to 42% in the latest Pine Tree State poll from the University of New Hampshire. And for Murphy, that nine-point margin apparently outweighs whatever Platner wrote under the Reddit handle "P-hustle" across years of anonymous posting.
The Reddit posts, created between 2013 and 2021 according to AP News, ranged from endorsing political violence to dismissing sexual assault in the military to calling police officers "b******s" and criticizing rural Americans. One post referenced a U.S. soldier shot four times, with Platner reportedly writing the soldier "didn't deserve to live," as the Washington Examiner reported.
Platner deleted thousands of the posts. But the internet has a long memory, and his opponents made sure voters saw them.
Former Maine Gov. Janet Mills, who was Platner's chief rival in the Democratic primary before suspending her campaign in late April, released a video ad featuring women reading Platner's old Reddit posts aloud, including remarks that dismissed sexual assault. Breitbart reported that Platner's campaign dismissed the ad as a "desperate attempt for relevance" from a "D.C. insider."
Peggy Schaffer, former vice chair of the Maine Democratic Party, saw it differently:
"Graham Platner's comments aren't just disgusting or disturbing, they are disqualifying."
Platner himself offered a brief apology, citing mental health struggles after leaving the Marine Corps. "I'm sorry for this. Just know that it's not reflective at all of who I am," he said. The apology did not address specific posts in detail.
The Reddit posts aren't Platner's only liability. Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass., publicly broke with his own party by refusing to endorse Platner, not over the posts, but over a chest tattoo resembling the Totenkopf, a skull insignia associated with the Nazi SS. Platner has said he covered the tattoo after learning of its connection, but Newsmax reported that Auchincloss called the tattoo and Platner's commentary about it "personally disqualifying."
"Values and principles always come before party," Auchincloss said. Progressive Democrats criticized him for effectively helping Collins by withholding support from their nominee.
That internal split mirrors the broader dysfunction inside the Democratic Senate caucus, where leadership struggles have consumed the party's attention even as it tries to flip Republican-held seats.
Back to Murphy. Fox News Digital confronted the Connecticut senator about the controversy directly. His answer was to reframe Platner as a champion of ordinary Americans.
"It seems like the people of Maine like the fact that he's talking about the struggles that regular people are going through. And don't like the fact that their current senator seems to be empowering a pretty corrupt agenda in this administration."
Murphy said flatly: "I'm supporting him." He acknowledged he has not yet formally endorsed Platner, though the distinction between informal support and formal endorsement remains unclear.
Before the Reddit posts came to light, Murphy had called Platner's progressive campaign "killer" and said the candidate "seems pretty impressive." He has not retracted either characterization.
The senator's framing is worth examining. He wants voters to believe Platner's "struggles", the mental health challenges Platner cited in his apology, make him relatable to "regular people." But regular people don't post anonymously about how a wounded soldier didn't deserve to live. Regular people don't dismiss sexual assault in the ranks. Regular people don't call cops "b******s" and then run for the United States Senate.
Murphy's real calculus is simpler. Democrats hold a 47, 53 minority in the Senate. Maine is one of their best pickup opportunities. Collins, first elected in 1996 and the longest-serving Republican woman in the chamber, is running unopposed for the GOP nomination. The Cook Political Report rates the race "Lean Republican," but that nine-point polling lead has Democrats salivating.
And so the posts get waved away. The tattoo gets covered. The apology gets accepted at face value. The party moves on.
Democrats have mostly avoided publicly distancing themselves from Platner. DNC Chair Ken Martin acknowledged the posts were "not right" and "offensive" but told reporters he didn't consider them "disqualifying." That formulation, bad but not bad enough, has become the party's unofficial position.
Platner's own political director resigned over the posts, a detail that suggests even people inside the campaign found the content indefensible. But the candidate himself is staying in the race, and the party apparatus is letting him.
Mills, despite suspending her campaign, still holds 10% support in polling and will appear on the June 9 primary ballot because she withdrew too late to be removed. David Costello, a former state and federal government official, sits at 3%. Platner commands 76% among Democratic primary voters.
The primary is all but over. The general election fight against Collins is what matters now. And Democrats have decided that winning matters more than vetting. This pattern of tolerating problematic candidates when the math looks favorable is not new for the party. Sen. Bernie Sanders recently lashed out at a reporter who asked about Platner's Reddit history, suggesting the question itself was out of bounds.
That reaction, treating legitimate scrutiny as an attack, has become a reflex among Democrats defending Platner.
Several questions remain unanswered. Platner has not explained in detail which posts he stands behind and which he disavows. He has not addressed the Totenkopf tattoo in a way that satisfies even some members of his own party. His campaign has not released a full accounting of what was deleted or why.
Collins and her campaign have not publicly commented on the controversy in the material available. The race is expected to be one of the most closely watched Senate contests in the country, and Democratic leadership turmoil over candidate quality and party direction only adds to the stakes.
Fox News Digital spoke to Platner near his home in Maine on Saturday, though his direct comments from that interview were not included in the reporting.
Meanwhile, Platner has also positioned himself as something of a maverick within the party, refusing to back Chuck Schumer as leader even as the party rallied behind his candidacy. That posture may play well in independent-minded Maine. Whether it survives a full general election campaign, with every deleted Reddit post as potential opposition research, is another matter entirely.
Murphy's defense of Platner is not really about Platner at all. It's about the Senate math. It's about the willingness to overlook conduct that would end a Republican's campaign overnight, mocking wounded soldiers, dismissing sexual assault, flirting with political violence, because the alternative is admitting your candidate is unfit and losing a winnable seat.
Imagine a Republican Senate candidate with thousands of deleted anonymous posts calling cops "b******s," saying a shot soldier didn't deserve to live, and bearing a tattoo linked to Nazi imagery. The calls for withdrawal would be instantaneous, bipartisan, and deafening.
For Platner, the party line is: he apologized, he cited mental health, and he's ahead in the polls. Case closed.
When your standard for office is nothing more than a polling lead, don't be surprised when the people you elect have nothing more to offer.