(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The legacy media has effectively declared that bearing a Nazi tattoo is acceptable, so long as the person wearing it is a Democrat. This is a stark contrast to the countless headlines devoted to attacking War Secretary Pete Hegseth over a similar, yet false, accusation.
The hypocritical coverage has been on full display in the tattoo scandal of Graham Platner, the leftist darling running for the Democratic nomination to challenge Maine GOP Sen. Susan Collins.
Platner came under fire after being busted with a skull-and-crossbones tattoo, the same symbol used by Adolf Hitler’s paramilitary police, the Schutzstaffel.
In remarks to the media, Platner said he got the tattoo in 2007 in Croatia, but moved to cover it just this week.
A recently surfaced video shows Maine Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner with a chest tattoo of the SS Totenkopf, the skull-and-crossbones emblem used by Nazi “Death’s Head” units.
Platner has stated he got the tattoo while drunk as a young Marine on shore leave in… pic.twitter.com/euH926eTgA
— Maine State Press (@MaineStatePress) October 21, 2025
“I am not a secret Nazi,” he insisted in a leftist podcast. He added that he was unaware of the tattoo’s ties to Nazi Germany until recently.
“I absolutely would not have gone through life having this on my chest if I knew that — and to insinuate that I did is disgusting,” he said, as quoted by the leftist New York Times.
The media quickly accepted Platner’s excuse and widely ignored the scandal. This contrasted sharply with their treatment of Hegseth, whose Jerusalem cross chest tattoo they falsely linked to white supremacist groups.
In the following video compilation by the Media Research Center, outlets can be seen pushing the baseless claim against Hegseth.
Leftist media logic:
If a Republican cabinet official has Christian tattoos, he's a white supremacist.
But when a Democratic Senate candidate has a Nazi tattoo, it isn't newsworthy. pic.twitter.com/ZztcswooEU
— MRC NewsBusters (@newsbusters) October 22, 2025
In fact, the Jerusalem cross is one of the most widely recognized Christian symbols, featuring a large Greek cross with smaller crosses in each corner.
As Headline USA reported earlier this year:
The five parts of the cross have been given different meanings throughout history, all of which focused on Christ, according to the National Catholic Register.
Interpretations range from the cross representing the Gospels and Christ to symbolizing the wounds on Christ’s feet and hands when he was crucified.
The Jerusalem cross is so prominent that it’s inlaid in the chancel floor of the Washington National Cathedral, where [the late Jimmy] Carter’s body was placed during his funeral on Thursday.
