Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., was confronted in a new interview about campaigning with Graham Platner, a Democratic candidate for Senate in Maine who has come under fire over having a tattoo viewed as a Nazi symbol among other controversies and saying he’s her “kind of man.”
CNBC host Sara Eisen pressed Warren during “Squawk on the Street” Wednesday about her support for Platner, saying, “This is a guy that had a chest tattoo with a Nazi symbol. OK, he apologized for it. It’s a guy that reportedly wrote that people concerned about rape should take some responsibility for themselves and not get so f—ed up that they wind up having sex with someone they don’t mean to.
“He praised military tactics used by Hamas, reportedly in comments online and read it when they were murdering Israeli soldiers. So, I’m just curious why you think he’s your kind of man?”
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Warren responded, “So, as you rightly point out, he has apologized. He’s out meeting with the people of Maine every single day so they can evaluate not who Graham Platner was, but who Graham Platner is today.”
The liberal senator went on to explain the context of her comment and said at first she didn’t know anything about Platner.
“I’m reading an interview with him, and he’s asked, ‘When did you first know that the game was rigged?’ And he harks back to the 2008 crash, when 10 million families lost their homes, when 8 million people lost their jobs, when millions of people lost their savings and when big banks cheated folks, when non-bank financial institutions tricked them, robbed them of their homes. And Graham Platner’s answer on when he knew the game was rigged was when not one banker went to jail. And I said, ‘That’s my kind of man,’” Warren said.
Eisen pushed back further and asked whether the Democrats wanted to be the “party of inclusivity.”
“I want to be the party that stands up for hard-working people,” Warren said. “I want to be the party that is transformative of an economy that right now is hip-deep in corruption and an economy that’s working for a handful of billionaires and multi-multi-multimillionaires and not working for much of anyone else.
“I want us to be the party that actually delivers on lowering costs and that expands opportunities. And that’s what Graham Platner wants to do. And I’m there to stand with him and to help in that fight.”
Warren joined Platner in Portland, Maine, Saturday, where she said he was her “kind of man.”
Maine’s Democratic primary is June 9, with Platner working to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November’s general election. Platner is running against Maine Gov. Janet Mills for the party’s nomination in an effort to unseat Collins, a moderate swing vote in the Senate.
Platner’s past controversies have been political fodder for the Mills campaign, including directing voters to his decade-old Reddit posts in which he appeared to place blame on sexual assault victims and defended Hamas military moves, among other messages from the 2013 and 2014 era. Platner also came under fire for having a chest tattoo recognized as a Nazi symbol, which he has since apologized for and covered.
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Fox News’ Ashley J. DiMella contributed to this report.
