Graham Platner, the self-described communist hoping to challenge Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine), said in comments on Reddit that accusing him of watching CNN was worse than calling him a "retard."
"Hey, that guy accused me of watching CNN. I’d say that’s even more insulting than calling me retard," Platner wrote in a Reddit thread uncovered this week.
It’s just the latest in a string of posts reported by CNN earlier this week. Platner dismissed the remarks, arguing he was merely "f—ing around on the internet." In older posts, he said he had "got [sic] older and became a communist," insisted white people in rural America are "actually" racist and stupid, and referred to "all" police officers as bastards. He also claimed to keep guns in the house because he didn’t "trust the fascists to act politely."
Platner, who has raised more than $4 million and earned endorsements from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) and other progressives, has attempted to downplay his internet trail, claiming it does not reflect who he is today.
Platner sparked controversy in September, when the Washington Free Beacon uncovered an op-ed he wrote after 9/11 in which he argued that "one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter" and lamented that "every terrorist is portrayed as evil."