Attorney Jake Auchincloss faces bipartisan backlash after softening criticism of Graham Platner
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A House Democrat has received backlash from political parties after appearing to tone down his criticism of Graham Platner, the Democratic nominee for the Maine Senate.
Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass., initially it burned to be angry on the left when he criticized Platner’s Nazi-related painting and said, “I hope the voters of Maine agree with me.”
But after clarifying that he was not in favor of Platner’s opponent, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine — while backtracking on her earlier call for Maine voters to oppose Platner — Auchincloss found herself under fire from both sides.
Platner has faced increasing scrutiny since he revealed last year that he once had a black skull-and-crossbones tattoo, which he says he got while drinking during a Marine deployment in Croatia and did not recognize at the time as a Nazi symbol.
Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass., called Sen. Graham Platner’s Nazi-linked tattoo “self-defeating” during an interview with CNN. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images; WGME via AP)
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“Susan Collins is a rubber stamp for the worst president in history. Claims that I would support her, openly or otherwise, ignore my history of supporting Democrats to take back both chambers,” Auchincloss wrote on social media Tuesday. “As I’ve said months ago, I find Platner’s Nazi tattoo and his comments about it inappropriate. If it were me, I would vote for someone else in the Maine Democratic primary.”
“No matter what happens in Maine, Democrats need to take back the Senate, and I will continue to work hard to make it happen,” he added.
Left-wing journalist Peter Beinart denied, “This is completely out of line. The race is between Platner and Collins.”
“If @JakeAuch opposes both, he doesn’t care if Maine elects a Democratic Senator,” he continued. “And if it doesn’t matter if Maine elects a Democratic senator, it doesn’t matter much if the Democrats take the Senate.”
Progressive commentator Rachel Bitecofer mocked Auchincloss, a Jewish Democrat, for focusing on Platner’s Nazi-like design instead of discussing what she described as “real policy Nazis” in the Republican Party.
“We must bring back the Senate, but not vote for D because I want to make myself a tattoo and not the positions that make him Nazis when we are dealing with real Nazis,” wrote Bitecofer.
Tommy Vietor, Platner’s friend and co-host of the influential Democratic Party-aligned podcast “Pod Save America,” asked whether Auchincloss’ objections to Platner could be resolved by having a heart-to-heart with him.
“Have you called or met him to talk?” Vietor said.
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On the other hand, the Conservatives accused Auchincloss of drifting to the left after his criticism of Platner.
“It only took 24 hours for you to bend the knee to a Nazi tattoo boy?” Will Chamberlain, a senior adviser to the Article III Project that is aligned with Trump, wrote on social media. “Your ancestors are rolling in their graves.”
“He’s a real profile of courage, brother,” Republican spokesman Tim Murtaugh said of Auchincloss.
Conservative journalist Curtis Houck wrote sarcastically, “Well, look who’s back with his tail between his knees.”
Houck compared Auchincloss’ comments to Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., similarly faced backlash after breaking with Democrats on transgender issues following the 2024 election.
Moulton has since toed the party line on transgender rights during his Senate term in deep blue Massachusetts.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Auchincloss for comment ahead of publication.
Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, left, faces a damaging re-election challenge from Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, right. (Fox News; Getty Images)
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Auchincloss was among a handful of Democrats to call on Platner to drop out of the Democratic primary after Senate hopefuls revealed his Nazi-related tattoo in an episode of “Pod Save America” in October 2025.
A left-leaning candidate backed by Sens. Bernie Sanders, Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., emerged as the Democratic nominee after Gov. Janet Mills, D-Maine, suspended her campaign ahead of the June 9 primary election.
Platner, 41, got the tattoo nearly two decades after getting it in 2007 while drunk with other Marines in Split, Croatia.
He has since kept the design under wraps and has again claimed he was unaware of the symbol’s Nazi origins.
CNN again The Jewish Insider reported that Platner was aware of the project’s association with the Nazi SS.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, Vt., shakes hands with Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner during a “Fighting Oligarchy” rally in Portland, Maine, on May 25, 2026. (WFVX/WVII)
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Platner has come under fire for since-deleted Reddit posts from 2021 in which he called himself a communist, said that white rural Americans are “really” racist and stupid and called all law enforcement officers “bastards,” among other deleted messages.
He also discussed masturbating in portable toilets and mocked a Purple Heart recipient who was shot multiple times in combat in evacuation zones, Fox News Digital first reported.
Collins is widely considered the GOP’s most vulnerable candidate for re-election and the battleground race is likely a must-win for Democrats if they are to retake control of the Senate during the midterm elections.
