Editorial: Graham Platner Wants to Write the Laws. Apparently He Has Contempt for Those Who Enforce Them.

By: Jon Fetherston

Graham Platner wants Maine voters to send him to Washington as a United States senator.

Think about that for a moment.

A man seeking one of the highest offices in the country wants to help write the laws that govern 340 million Americans. Yet his own record raises a serious question: Does Graham Platner have any respect for law enforcement?

His own words suggest he does not.

These are not accusations from political opponents. They are not rumors. They are not anonymous allegations.

They are Graham Platner’s own statements.

When someone posted, “Cops are bastards,” Platner responded, “All of them, in fact.”

Not some of them.

Not corrupt officers.

Not officers who abused their authority.

All of them.

That statement alone should stop every Maine voter in their tracks.

Imagine the outrage if a Republican Senate candidate had made a similarly broad and hateful statement about any other profession, group, or community. The media would never stop talking about it. Editorial boards would demand apologies. Political opponents would call for withdrawal from the race.

Instead, many have simply shrugged.

But Platner didn’t stop there.

He reportedly called police officers “opportunistic cowards.” He mocked members of the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office as “overweight pansies.” He attacked the Ellsworth police chief as “thin blue line trash” because the chief declined to kneel during a George Floyd protest.

That is not policy disagreement.

That is contempt.

And these were not the words of an immature teenager posting from a dorm room.

They were the words of a grown man.

A military veteran.

And now a candidate for the United States Senate.

When I asked him about a shooting in Lewiston, he slipped out a back door rather than answer the question.

Does he care about public safety and the safety of children? Does he care about the safety of police officers?

His hostility extends beyond local law enforcement.

Platner has repeatedly called for dismantling ICE. He has referred to federal immigration agents as “thugs” and argued that abolishing the agency is “the moderate position.”

At public events, he has compared ICE operations to kidnapping, abduction, violence, and murder.

Reasonable people can debate immigration policy. Americans do it every day.

But there is a difference between criticizing a policy and vilifying the men and women tasked with carrying it out.

Police officers, sheriff’s deputies, state troopers, corrections officers, border agents, and federal investigators perform difficult jobs that most Americans would never want. They walk into dangerous situations, respond to domestic violence calls, investigate crimes, arrest violent offenders, and often put themselves in harm’s way for complete strangers.

Are there bad officers? Of course.

Should misconduct be investigated and punished? Absolutely.

But condemning an entire profession is something entirely different.

Platner’s comments reveal a worldview where the problem is not a bad officer, a bad policy, or a bad decision. The problem, according to his own words, is law enforcement itself.

That should concern every voter, regardless of political party.

Maine deserves spirited debates about taxes, immigration, healthcare, spending, and foreign policy. Those are legitimate political disagreements.

What Maine does not need is a senator who appears to view the people enforcing our laws with open disdain.

Platner has since attempted to walk back some of these remarks, saying they do not reflect who he is today.

Perhaps voters will believe him.

Perhaps they won’t.

But one fact cannot be disputed: these comments were made, they were public, and they came directly from the man now asking Mainers to trust him with a seat in the United States Senate.

Elections are ultimately about character and judgment.

Graham Platner’s own words have given voters plenty to judge.