Republicans are intensifying attacks as the Maine Senate race gains national attention…
Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner is facing another round of backlash after resurfaced Reddit comments in which he joked about military contractors using time in Thailand with prostitutes to avoid federal taxes.
According to the Daily Wire, Platner allegedly wrote under the Reddit username “P-Hustle” in 2019 that contractors could “spend your leave banging hookers in Thailand instead of getting b*tched at by the wife back home” while benefiting from overseas tax exemptions.
The comments appeared tied to discussion of the IRS “330-day rule,” which can exempt portions of overseas income from federal taxation if Americans spend significant time abroad. Platner reportedly complained that Afghan taxation policies eventually “f***ed everybody on the 330 game.”
During the final decade of the United States’ military operation in Afghanistan, contractors said the Afghan government taxed their income significantly more than the bilateral agreements between the two countries allowed. In 2013, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction found that the Afghan government had levied $93 million in taxes on money that should have been exempt.
Platner went to Afghanistan multiple times, including once with the Maryland Army National Guard as an infantryman in 2010 and later in 2018 as a contractor for the State Department.
The Democrat has faced a barrage of criticism over past posts and statements in his bid to unseat Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME). These comments have ranged from posts calling the Virgin Mary a “skank” to discussions on masturbating in portable public toilets.
“I still have to jerk off every time I sit in a portash*tter… that blue water smell conditioned me,” he wrote in March 2017 in a thread on nostalgic military smells. In another thread titled “GWOT Dick Art,” Platner described graffiti of a penis as “beautiful,” “engorged and veiny,” and moving “towards its penetrative glory,” according to Fox News.
Platner has characterized the online comments as crude jokes. Nevertheless, he has faced mounting scrutiny for months over resurfaced posts containing vulgar sexual remarks, comments about wounded soldiers, and a tattoo resembling the Nazi Totenkopf symbol, which was later covered following public backlash.
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