Sen.
Susan Collins (R-Maine) hit back on Thursday at a comment from the top Democratic challenger in Maine’s Senate race about her past support of U.S. military foreign intervention.
Graham Platner, a Marine veteran and oyster farmer, told
The New York Times earlier this month that the incumbent senator “voted to send me to Iraq.”
“The fact is, that was Platner’s decision to serve,” Collins told The Maine Wire on Thursday, adding, “He was not drafted.”
Additionally, the GOP senator cited Platner’s decision to work for the security company Blackwater, which was investigated by the U.S. government over allegations that it violated international law.
On Thursday afternoon, Platner responded to Collins’s criticism in a
video posted to social media.
“Susan Collins voted to support starting the war in Iraq,” he said. “On three occasions after that, she voted against withdrawing troops. On at least two occasions, she voted to fund the war.”
“Now all these years later, instead of acknowledging that she was wrong, she’s decided that she’s going to blame all of us who — in our late teens and early twenties — signed up to serve our country,” he continued. “That somehow it’s our fault that she and establishment politicians like her, wanted to abuse our willingness to serve, to go send us off to fight in stupid wars that did nothing but make some people very, very rich at the expense of American taxpayer dollars.”
The Democratic candidate has previously come under fire for social media posts he made several years ago and a chest tattoo that some critics said resembled a Nazi symbol.
Collins referenced one of these Reddit posts, in which Platner mocked Purple Heart recipient Ted Daniels in posts and said he “didn’t deserve to live.”
Platner
refused to apologize for the since-deleted post when asked by Fox News Digital on Sunday.
“This offends me deeply as well, but I can’t tell you the number of veterans who have contacted us to say how deeply offended they were by Platner’s comments, and how disgraceful they were,” Collins said on Thursday. “These are men and women who are risking their lives for our country, and for him to ridicule this soldier and saying that he doesn’t deserve to live is just appalling.”
Daniels told Fox News on Wednesday that he does not “need an apology” from the Democratic candidate.
“I’m the type of person that in order for me to worry about what you say, first I have to respect you,” the veteran said. “And there’s zero to no respect for a self-proclaimed communist.”
Platner is polling far ahead of the rest of the Democratic field, garnering 76 percent support among likely Maine voters in a recent survey from the
University of New Hampshire. The state will hold its primary election on June 9.
