Vile Reddit Blast Roils Maine Senate Race

A Maine Democratic Senate candidate wrote that a wounded U.S. soldier “didn’t deserve to live” — and now a Purple Heart recipient is firing back.

Story Highlights

Graham Platner’s deleted Reddit account contains a 2019 post mocking a wounded soldier, saying he “didn’t deserve to live.”
Purple Heart recipient Teddy Daniels, believed to be the soldier in the video, called Platner an “entitled brat” and spoke out publicly.
The Maine Monitor preserved roughly 2,000 of Platner’s deleted Reddit comments spanning more than a decade.
Platner called the posts “crude humor” and “s—posting,” but has not directly addressed the specific words he wrote.

Deleted Posts Surface Before Maine Senate Primary

Graham Platner, the Democratic candidate running for U.S. Senate in Maine, is under fire after a deleted Reddit account linked to him was uncovered. A June 2019 post from the account, named “P-Hustle,” targeted a wounded soldier in a Taliban firefight video. The post read: “Dumb motherf—– didn’t deserve to live. At least his stupidity and fat a– wheezing are available for all future infantrymen to witness and hold in contempt.” ^[1]

The Maine Monitor, a local news outlet, downloaded and preserved the full archive of comments from the “P-Hustle” account. The archive contains roughly 2,000 comments made over more than a decade. The outlet published the full collection so readers could review the record themselves. ^[8] Fox News was first to report the most inflammatory excerpts, and the story quickly spread to national outlets.

Purple Heart Recipient Speaks Out

Army veteran Teddy Daniels, a Purple Heart recipient, is believed by many to be the wounded soldier shown in the video Platner commented on. Daniels went public after the posts surfaced. He called Platner an “entitled brat” and described the comments as deeply hurtful. ^[3] Daniels had been shot during a firefight with Taliban forces in Afghanistan. He later appeared on Fox Business, where he called the posts “vile” and “disgusting.” ^[4]

Fox News noted that the exact identity of the soldier in the video is not confirmed. Commenters on the original Reddit thread suggested it was Daniels, but no on-record document has formally tied the post to him. ^[1] Still, Daniels himself has publicly objected to the posts and said they caused him real pain. His response has drawn wide attention and kept the story alive heading into the Maine primary.

Platner’s Defense Falls Short for Many Voters

Platner responded by saying the posts were jokes taken out of context. “You should read the comments in context. It’s very clear I’m joking,” he said. He called the material “crude humor” and described it as “f—ing around the internet.” ^[9] He has not offered a line-by-line explanation of the specific post about the wounded soldier, nor has he denied writing the exact words.

Platner's Pathethic Parade — it just never quits….

"Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner appeared to cruelly mock a teen’s suicide attempt in a newly resurfaced Reddit post."

"The May 2012 Reddit thread begins with a photo of a distraught teenage girl hanging…

— Naran Row-Spaulding (@NRSmaine) June 14, 2026

Maine’s Republican Senator Susan Collins criticized Platner directly. Collins said it is “never appropriate to mock a downed” soldier. ^[10] Her statement added bipartisan weight to the backlash. For many veterans and their families, the “it was just a joke” defense does not cut it. Mocking a man who was shot while serving his country — and saying he “didn’t deserve to live” — is not something most Americans would brush off as online humor, no matter the platform or the year it was written.

What This Says About Platner’s Character

Platner wants Maine voters to trust him with a U.S. Senate seat. But his own deleted words raise serious questions. Writing that a wounded American soldier “didn’t deserve to live” is not a small slip. It is a window into how he thought about the men and women who fight for this country. Calling it a joke years later, only after getting caught, does not erase the words — it just shows he knew they were wrong enough to delete them.

The Maine Monitor’s archive of roughly 2,000 deleted comments suggests this was not a one-time lapse. ^[8] Voters deserve to know who they are sending to Washington. A candidate who spent years mocking veterans online — then dodges a real apology when confronted — is not the kind of leader who should represent the people of Maine or serve alongside the men and women who earned the Purple Heart.