Purple Heart recipient criticizes Maine Senate candidate for funny post

A Purple Heart recipient who was wounded in Afghanistan is speaking out after a Reddit comment linked to Democratic Maine Senate member Graham Platner resurfaced, saying that PTSD does not justify mocking a wounded U.S. service member.

Speaking on “The Ingraham Angle,” Pfc. Ted Daniels, who received a Purple Heart after surviving a Taliban attack, pushed back at attempts to explain Platner’s comments by citing PTSD.

“Right now it looks like Graham Platner is a child of PTSD sufferers, and it’s a shame for veterans, for first responders, for victims of sexual assault, for everybody who’s going through it,” Daniels said Tuesday.

The controversy started after a Reddit comment linked to Platner surfaced. The comments refer to a helmet-cam video of Daniels fighting Taliban operatives in 2012 before being shot four times.

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The Reddit account “P-Hustle,” linked to Platner, posted, “The dumb mother—– didn’t deserve to live. At least her stupidity and fat a– wheezing is available for all future infantrymen to witness and despise. Bad marking on the part of the Taliban is the only reason this mouth was able to make a small decision when he could make a small decision that could be made at home. fight.”

The post has since been removed but remains available in the Maine Monitor’s archive of Reddit posts attributed to Platner, a former US Marine who served three combat tours in Iraq and four in Afghanistan with the Maryland Army National Guard.

But Daniels said Platner’s past doesn’t warrant comment.

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“I sympathize with the fact that I’m sure he has PTSD. All I can do is make excuses for his poor life choices and disgusting behavior,” Daniels said.

Daniels added that since these comments appeared, he has not heard from Platner or received an apology from his team. However, Daniels said he believes there are other people Platner should apologize to first.

Democratic US Senate candidate Graham Platner participates in a televised interview on May 1, 2026, in Portland, Maine, following a campaign event with the Maine AFL-CIO. (Graeme Sloan/Getty Images)

“I don’t need to apologize. What should be apologized to is every Gold Star family who lost a loved one in the war because people like Graham Platner are on the internet celebrating their death,” said Daniels.

Platner addressed the criticism of what he wrote online in the past in a video posted to X in October 2025, saying, “As I read it, I read things that I totally disagree with. I read and saw things, words and statements that I hate.”

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“I had PTSD. I had depression. I had all the things that come with serving in the war, two wars, I finally started to not believe in it at all. It left me feeling very free. It left me very depressed, very isolated and very isolated. And I think like a lot of people, I went online to post stupid things and go in some way to find my feelings, to find some kind of struggle with my community, to find some kind of struggle, and to find some kind of struggle and my community. to be alone,” he added later.

Platner recently won Maine’s Senate primary and will face GOP Sen. Susan Collins in November.

He also faced criticism for allegedly having sex with multiple women while he was married and for having a tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol.

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Platner said he found the painting “on a drinking night” while on vacation in Croatia and had no idea what it meant at the time.

Fox News Digital reached out to Platner’s campaign for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Fox News Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.