\u201cAre we the baddies?\u201d<\/p>\n
That line from a famous comedy sketch<\/a>\u00a0came to mind this week as Democrats struggled to embrace Graham Platner, the Nazi-tattooed, Hamas-praising, veteran-bashing, sex-texting, self-described Communist who was just nominated to be the next U.S. senator from Maine.<\/p>\n The hilarious sketch from the British show\u00a0\u201cThat Mitchell and Webb Look\u201d\u00a0portrays two Nazi soldiers suddenly questioning whether they might be the bad guys in World War II. Among other things, they notice the telltale death head or \u201cTotenkopf\u201c insignia on their caps and uniforms. At one point, an officer asks his friend: \u201cHans \u2014 are we the baddies?\u201d<\/p>\n It is a question that more Democrats should be asking as their leaders from House Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) back Platner.<\/p>\n For years, Schumer and others have been calling their political opponents \u201cNazis.\u201d With help from an enabling media, they even fueled outrage over a false claim that Elon Musk had given a Nazi salute at an inauguration celebration.<\/p>\n Yet presented with a man who paid to have an actual Nazi death head tattooed on his chest, Schumer would only repeat the same mantra to reporters, that a Platner victory means Democrats will \u201cwin back the Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n The co-host of ABC\u2019s \u201cThe View\u201d was cheered by the studio audience after declaring that Democrats have to abandon \u201cthe moral high ground. \u2026 Let\u2019s get some power!\u201d<\/p>\n Former Biden aide Ron Klain dismissed<\/a>\u00a0Platner\u2019s tattoo as \u201ca skull and crossbones to remember his fallen comrades.\u201d\u00a0But the SS-Totenkopfverb\u00e4nde was not a grief support group, and the Nazi Totenkopf is not a Jolly Roger symbol. Rather, it is the well-known symbol of Adolf Hitler\u2019s Third SS Panzer Division, famous for committing multiple war crimes and massacres during World War II.<\/p>\n Klain, an aide who helped conceal President Joe Biden\u2019s incapacity, might seem like the worst possible character witness. But he was soon surpassed by Hunter Biden, pardoned by his father to avoid federal prison time related to his years of drug-saturated, prostitute-laden, influence-peddling scandals. In joining Platner\u2019s defenders, Biden the Younger wants the public to know that \u201cI have not heard anything in any way that would say to me that he is an abusive, misogynistic, anti-Semitic, or racist person.\u201d So that settles that.<\/p>\n Both Democratic politicians and the media lined up to repeat Platner\u2019s dubious claim that he had no idea that this was a Nazi symbol. According to Platner, he apparently had no curiosity about the actual meaning of the large tattoo on his chest for years. But this claim (like a number of other claims about his background) was quickly debunked by his former friends.<\/p>\n One woman insists that he knew it was a Totenkopf and spoke to her about it, calling it \u201cmy Totenkopf.\u201d Lyndsey Fifield told friends in an August 2025 in an email that Platner \u201chas a Nazi tattoo on his chest\u201d and that \u201cit\u2019s a Totenkopf.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked how his former girlfriend could have been discussing the meaning of his tattoo before he announced for Senate, Platner just continued to deny any such knowledge. Then another former girlfriend came forward to say that he is lying and knew the symbol\u2019s significance. She had been attracted to Platner for his leftist politics, but she still shared Platner\u2019s reasoning behind the tattoo<\/a>:\u00a0He told her that he had decided to keep it to remind himself \u201cthe U.S. was the evil bad guy overseas.\u201d<\/p>\n Platner insists that these are all lies. Democratic leaders are clearly choosing not to believe them. They are also dismissing the accounts of former girlfriends alleging that Platner physically and mentally abused them.<\/p>\n Once again, politicians and pundits are assuring voters that these women, like the tattoo, are not critical to their voting for Platner. This includes figures like Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who\u00a0previously insisted<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cwe must believe survivors, not bully them.\u201d<\/p>\n Whitehouse now says he is \u201cunimpressed\u201d by the allegations and the multiple women coming forward \u201cseems like a lot of nothing.\u201d He also reminded voters that one of the alleged victims is a Republican. So \u201cMeToo\u201d is apparently now \u201cmeh\u201d in the new Platner party.<\/p>\n The question is whether Democrats will put their rhetoric through a certain denazification. Democrats have repeatedly\u00a0analogized Trump to Hitler<\/a>\u00a0and his followers to\u00a0brownshirted neo-Nazis<\/a>. Indeed, defeating Republicans today has been compared to\u00a0stopping Hitler<\/a> in 1933.<\/p>\n So, for a party that literally sees Nazis around every tree, the one possible Nazi that they cannot see is the Democrat who had the Nazi tattoo on his chest.<\/p>\n In the meantime, Democrats keep openly cultivating hatred. This week, during protests in San Antonio against the Turning Point USA Women\u2019s Leadership Summit, one organizer called on protesters to be \u201cobnoxious\u201d and \u201cmake sure they know we hate them.\u201d As he spoke, a man dressed as death chopped the air with a sickle. Another protester mimicked Charlie Kirk being assassinated, to the delight of the crowd.<\/p>\n All of this still leaves Democrats in the same position as the characters in the skit where Hans (like Klain) tries to say that maybe a Totenkopf is just like a harmless skull and crossbones. After all, he notes, pirates have skull symbols, and \u201cPirates are fun!\u201d<\/p>\n But his friend then asks if that is really \u201chow it comes across?\u201d<\/p>\n The same question could be asked of fellow Democrats as speakers call for hate, as a guy dressed as the Grim Reaper hacks at invisible Republicans.<\/p>\n When you start dismissing Nazi tattoos, alleged female abuse victims, and calling for abandoning any moral high ground, you might want to ask, \u201cAre we the baddies?\u201d<\/p>\n Jonathan\u00a0Turley\u00a0is a law professor and the New York Times best-selling author of \u201cRage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution<\/a>.\u201c<\/p>\n Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n