Graham Platner, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Maine, is now aiming his attacks at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“Pete Hegseth is literally using the U.S. military to make up for the fact that he’s insecure about his own military service. That’s insane,” Mr. Platner said on NPR.
Mr. Platner, a Marine Corps veteran and oyster farmer, is running as a left-wing populist in a bid to oust longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins. While the presumptive Democratic nominee, Mr. Platner’s campaign has been rocked by criticism of his Nazi-themed tattoo and by sexually explicit text messages with women who weren’t his wife.
Mr. Platner accused Mr. Hegseth of using the Iran war to sound like a “tough guy.”
“His combat record doesn’t look like the combat record of a lot of people, and I think that bothers him,” said Mr. Platner, who served four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Now he gets to posture. He gets to literally start wars so he can pretend that he’s this big tough guy.”
He also criticized those in Washington who “wrap themself in the flag” while seeking to enrich themselves with power or profit or both. He said the willingness of young Americans to volunteer to place themselves in harm’s way is a national resource that must be jealously guarded.
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Mr. Hegseth was commissioned in 2003 after graduating from Princeton University. He spent about a year guarding detainees as a National Guard platoon leader in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and later volunteered for combat duties in Iraq. He served both in the infantry and as a civil affairs officer.
Mr. Hegseth and the Pentagon repeatedly declined to respond to the comments from the Senate hopeful.
