Graham Platner, the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate who is trying to unseat Maine’s longtime Senator Susan Collins (R), recently re-posted (and then deleted) a social media post from Stew Peters, an anti-LGBTQ+ influencer who once baselessly accused a gay father of raping his own children.

Platner’s team said it erroneously reposted Peters’ message and “immediately” removed it after learning it highlighted a “despicable account,” Jewish Insider reported. The incident follows Platner’s recent appearance on an antisemitic podcaster’s broadcast and the revelation last October that he had a Nazi-themed tattoo that he quickly condemned and reportedly had removed.

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“War with Iran is the only thing republicans and democrats have both given a standing ovation for. Let that sink in,” Peters wrote in a February 26 post shared by Planter. Planter’s repost added, “As always, there’s one thing that brings Republican and Democratic politicians together: sending other people’s children to die in stupid wars in the Middle East.”

Peters’ and Platner’s posts referred to the fact that Democratic congressmembers stood and applauded the president’s comments against Iran during his racist and transphobic State of the Union speech last week. The president condemned Iran as a spreader of “terrorism and death and hate” that has “killed and maimed thousands of American service members and hundreds of thousands and even millions of people,” including Iranian protestors.

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Platner’s repost drew scrutiny because of Peters’ past bigotry. Peters has repeatedly platformed anti-LGBTQ+ politicians on his broadcasts, referred to transgender people as “tra**y freak shows”, and spread misinformation claiming that gay former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is HIV-positive.

The Anti-Defamation League describes Peters as “an antisemitic conspiracy theorist” who “regularly promotes anti-LGBTQ+ and white supremacist beliefs on his show and social media” and “has engaged in Holocaust denial.” 

The Southern Poverty Law Center has called The Stew Peters Show “a central hub for antisemitic and conspiratorial content.” He has repeatedly called for the mass expulsion of Jews from America and promoted concepts linked to white supremacy, QAnon, Pizzagate, and other conspiracy theories.

In late January, Platner appeared for an online interview with Nate Cornacchia, an antisemitic broadcaster. Platner called himself “a longtime fan” of Cornacchia’s YouTube channel, “Valhalla VFT,” and said it was “an absolute pleasure” appearing on his show. Cornacchia has blamed Jewish people for the slaying of MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk as well as for military battles around the globe.

Last October, journalists revealed that Platner had a tattoo on his chest that resembled the Totenkopf, a death’s head symbol used by Nazi military members and German concentration camp guards. Platner has since covered up the tattoo, claiming he drunkenly got the tattoo while in the military and was unaware of its Nazi-connections. He later called its symbolism “deeply offensive to my core beliefs.”

That same month, media outlets noted that Platner’s past social media posts used “homophobic language and rhetoric that mocked or demeaned LGBTQ+ people,” sometimes using gay people as the punchline to jokes.

Platner apologized and said that he no longer uses the hurtful language that appeared frequently in the posts.

“These were words that I used for a long time in ways that I did not take seriously,” he said. “Because of personal relationships that I’ve developed over the years, I do not use [them] now and find [them] to be quite offensive. I stopped using that specific kind of language a while ago … and today I find that stuff abhorrent. And I am sorry that I ever used it.”

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